Friendsgiving

We decided to go up to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Nothing against our families, we just decided to take advantage of having a long weekend (that we didn't have to use vacation time on) and head up to the city.

We stayed at my favorite hotel in the city - the Serrano. The weekend included spending Thanksgiving with friends, trying to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, viewing the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the De Young Museum and wining our way through Napa.

The trip got off to an auspicious start - I spent the majority of Wednesday with one of the worst migraines I've had in years (sending me home sick from work a scant few hours after arriving) and convinced I wasn't going to be able to stand the flight. Luckily, some sensory deprivation in the form of a completely dark room, cold compress on my head and hours and hours of sleep before having to catch our evening flight helped a little.

Luckily, Thursday the migraine had subsided to simply an irritating headache and we were able to spend Thanksgiving with friends. Everyone brought a dish. Sean cooked the turkey with a great Giada recipe that involved stuffing the turkey with wedges of oranges, lemons, onions and herbs and slathering it with enough butter to make Paula Dean blush. I made stuffing with andouille sausage, mushrooms, onions and celery. And his friend K. made the most amazing whipped sweet potatoes with a pecan/brown sugar crumble topping. I almost cried when I ate them they were so good.

Here's Sean devouring the turkey...
While we waited for the turkey to cook, we played a bit of Rock Band. And we played it after we ate the turkey, too. -
Our original plan on Friday was to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, but when we got there the line to get in was 2 hours long. I had no intention of standing in line for 2 hours - that's insanity. The museum was offering to refund tickets given that the line was so ridiculous. It was super disappointing - aside from Napa that was the one thing I was really looking forward to. If you visit the website you'll see why - it's a museum, aquarium, architectural wonder all wrapped into one. Luckily, the De Young Museum was right across the park, so we walked through the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit where Sean surprised me with his in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the man and his contribution to the fashion world. Here's a view of the city from the observation deck in the museum.
The rest of Friday evening was spent discovering bars in San Francisco, eating at Shalimar (home of some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten) and then crashing in the hotel.



Luckily, I had Napa to look forward to. After getting off to an early start - I misread the Google Maps directions and thought it was a 2 hour drive (as opposed to the 1 hour drive) to Napa we made it to the first winery on our tour, Nickel & Nickel. I won't bore you with the details, so here's the quick recap: they produce single-vineyard, single-varietal wines. This was some of THE best wine I've had.

This barn was originally built in New England about 200 years ago. The owner of Nickel & Nickel decided he wanted a barn on his property, so he bought it, dismantled it, then re-built it exactly as is in Napa. Without any nails. (Save for the mandatory earthquake structural safeguards.)

This is a view of a part of their vineyard - currently waiting to be re-planted.
Next up was Chappellet. The drive up to the main building was beautiful - we drove through their vines and had a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Makes me want to pack up and stomp grapes for a living.