Napa, Gel Seats,No appointment and Baby Stones

This past December I flew back to California to stay with Joanne and her family to celebrate Christmas and obviously spend time with Joanne. Upon arriving at California I was smack with some bitter cold, not like Boston but not what I expected from Cali.On our first day Joanne and I went out and did some window shopping , hoping to find a Christmas gift for her mom.Walking down the downtown San Fran area was beginning to become nostalgic and all the sites were beginning to become more familiar as we continued to this pier area where they have some sort of "Hay Market" of various goods; goods that were visually beautiful, full of scent that were pleasantly overwhelming. delicious hmm smell so good you could taste it. We ended up buying some olive oil which can only be describe with a series of moans and groans that come from having taste the orange blossom olive oil.
Just the thought of it now makes me want to go and order some online. Anyway, we got some more stuff to help prepare for Christmas dinner at the Cheungs place. Upon getting to Cupetino I was greeted with more California cold weather man was it cole and trust me I can easily go into some rant about it. But I won't. Joanne's mom made some Hot Pot or Shabu Shabu, with some fish balls, slices of pork, beef, shitake mushrooms and (gulp) frog. Yes I was offered frog on Christmas and I was not ready to take a bite of Kermit the frog. I could recall images of myself as a kid eating animal crackers, enjoying the idea of me eating a horse or a zebra a giraffe and the whole concept of me eating these animals was fun and enjoyable. But somehow I couldn't get myself to take a bite out of Kermit's leg, I couldn't get myself to ear Rash,Pimple and Zits(the Battletoads),




Anyway I was survived and was forgiven but overall dinner was great I truly enjoy Hot Pot, enough for me to have bough my own Hot Pot about a year ago. Later on that night Joanne and I went over to her friends house and I got to meet literally the Get-Along Gang, her friends are so nice to each other I mean wow that was awesome. We played a game and I was totally hooked.




The next day Joanne and I headed off to Napa and arrived a bit late in the morning or early afternoon. We settled into the hotel and went of to the bicycle rentals. If you never ridden a bike before then for starters you are missing out.
We rode down the road riding by some beautiful scenery which was breathtaking. Its been a while that I have ridden a bike and its been a lot longer for Joanne. We rode past a handful of vineyards. We got to one place that looked beautiful both outside and in. But as we walked in it was offensively quiet. We tiptoed over to the wine server and asked for our wine taste. The light set pregnant lady seemed to have been bothered by our request. her look of snob was abrasive. Maybe because Joanne and I aren't Wine connoisseurs, what can I say we like what like who cares if we aren't connoisseurs. Well we left with a foul flavor in our
mouth and set off to another winery which carried dessert wine. This place was a lot better, and surprised us with some great tasting wine. We ended up buying a bottle and where off again to ride into the sunset, but that wasn't after we pedalled harder and harder as we tried to make the 10 miles back to the rental place. We got to one place where an older couple came out with their trucks to inform us that tasting was by appointment only. Snobby and didn't match their attire.
another place we went to the next day in car was beautiful, but their wines where to acidic, but I enjoyed poking fun with Joanne at this family who brought in their 8 year old to Napa. Who brings an 8 year old let alone two 8 year old to a winery.
As we continued back to Joannes place the next day, we enjoyed walking around SF and visited a couple of places.
My new found love Pancho Villa Taqueria
We also went to some intriguing chocolate bread. Oh WOW IT WAS SO GOOD, soft slightly hard on some edges and chocolaty to the end IN the end I ended up with a great trip to the Emergency Room and found out I had Kidney Stones. PRICELESS.
I got a filter 3 bootles of pills and a little container to put the stones in....which I forgot to do. Sadly I had to fly back so earlybut I can't wait for February.