Date Night!

At the end of a very long week, we could not wait to go out for date night Friday night. We went out for dinner here and really enjoyed it -- it's a hipster place where the wine list is on an iPad. Fancy. I had some lovely spicy red wine and then we walked over (I floated, given the wine) to the movie theater to see the first show of Senna. It was basically Pete's dream come true to finally see the film, and we both LOVED it. It was fantastic. Afterwards the director was there and took questions from the audience (including one from Pete!) and then signed posters for us. It was awesome. The shot of us here is taken right before the movie started; we're taking ourselves very seriously. We are uber hip (for 5 minutes or so).

Lucia stayed at our daycare provider's house overnight and did great playing with their almost 3-year-old Benjamin. Fun times!

U2 Concert

Last Christmas Heather bought me (us) two tickets to go see U2 at the Oakland Coliseum, (now officially called Overstock.com Coliseum, which is ironic because it never sells out). Lenny Kravitz was opening band and he was already rocking hard by the time we got there. On the outfield there was a giant circle stage with a circular 360 walkway around it, a couple of bridges and to top it off a 167ft spider structure on top of that with a giant 360 degree monitor:

Our seats were in the nosebleeds, but directly center of the stage so the view was amazing. Heres a video of when the band enters the stage:

Pretty amazing. The most magical moment was when Bono was talking about what a man would see from 200 miles up, no borders, cities blending into ribbons of light.. He then cues to this man, which is Mark Kelly Giffords which says Hello Oakland! Floating in The International Space Station he introduces the next song: A Beautiful Day. This wasn't the only city given the outer space treatment, you can see a link of Giffords intro video here.

We had a great time at the concert, however on our way home we got trapped in the crowd trying to get on the BART which is conveniently located just a short walk away from the stadium but when thousands try to cross a walk bridge it can get pretty tight. We made it though and could have slept 5 hours more this morning.

Trainspotting

Lucia got to spend a whole day with Eddie and had a dream date. Here we are at the Atherton station waiting for passing trains, giving out hugs and laying pennies on the tracks.

Nice weekend

We had a great weekend get away / honeymoon to Carmel and Big Sur. We drove down with the top down and loved every minute of it. I have been to Big Sur several times and was excited to show the sights to Heather.

We headed west up the sinuous mountain road and stayed on HWY 1 all the way to Monterey where we stopped for cookies, then we followed the coast to Carmel which was at its loveliest. Searching Yelp we found a great italian restaurant and had a very memorable dinner before we headed to the ranch.

The Carmel Valley Ranch was a pretty swanky place beautifully located on a golf course. The Suite was so large I wish we had more friends with us to share, but the next morning we headed down the coast to Big Sur all the way to Julia Pfeifer State Park. Here we could have stayed longer, but time was running out and we had to get home.

Weekend Review

Ok here's the review for the last hurrah trip, pictures are two posts below.

Jewelry store: bad news: they don't have the "bargain bin" in the back anymore. The clerk told me I could wait until their big sale next month, but we all know September is likely to be a busy month for me, so no thanks. While the necklaces were stunning, especially this one, I have a lot of necklaces that frankly, don't get enough rotation as-is. Meanwhile, I have about four pairs of earrings that I rotate. So new earrings were in the works. I settled on these; I figure I can wear them to work and for everyday without LG grabbing them. It's a wee discouraging to see that they were 20% more in the store than the website. Ouch.

Next: the Scharffenberger chocolate factory tour. We arrived and were famished, which is dangerous in a place like that. We immediately bought two small semisweet bars and eyed the items we'd be purchasing after the tour. We gobbled up our chocolate, and I had brought almonds to balance out my blood sugar. The tour was actually like a little class; we learned about how they roast cacao beans, and all the various processes they go through. And we got to taste chocolate. The chocolatier is only about 10 years old; despite the name sounding ancient. The actual tour was only about 5-10 minutes, but interesting nonetheless. At the store afterwards, we bought LOTS of chocolate and even THIS for LG.

Next: dinner at Chez Panisse cafe. I say the cafe, because the restaurant is super fancy and has one menu each night. The cafe is well, a cafe. We arrived at 6 for our 7:30 reservation and asked if there's any way they could seat us early (again, famished). Of course they said no problem, and we were seated within a few minutes. Upon looking at the menu, I wanted the quail, but felt torn since the only other time I've been to there, I had quail. So I ordered butter lettuces with baked goat cheese for my appetizer (which was so divine I almost licked the plate) and braised short ribs with sweet polenta and some kind of weird beans. Pete ordered a pizzetta with nettles and pecorino cheese. We had to ask what nettles were, and we didn't feel too embarrassed about it -- apparently they're cousins of spinach. Our appetizers came and Pete ordered the most fantastic wine EVER -- I had a bit. Our dinners came and Pete ordered a handmade pasta with chicken and morel mushroom ragu. It looked different than I thought it would; with clumps of chicken and mushrooms here and there as opposed to a creamy sauce. But he said it was really good. Mine was really good, although the ribs were a wee fatty.

The restaurant itself is very homey feeling; Pete said it smelled like his grandmother's house at Christmas. It's very warm and inviting. It was a special night and we held hands and just enjoyed each other. Fun!