Browse Category: outings

Visitors from Hawaii

Last week, Yoon and Kurt were in town.  On Thursday (8/16), we had a mini BBQ and enjoyed hanging out with them in our Club Room.

We ate some tasty rib eye sammiches, drank wine and martinis, and watched TV!  I always forget there’s a TV with free cable down there!

On Saturday (8/18), we drove up to Napa and took them wine tasting.  We started at Duckhorn and it was my first real day in wine country since being pregnant last year.

Jes even decided on his own to be our DD for the day and didn’t get a tasting for himself.  Gosh, how nice.

He just hung out with the baby and luckily for us Kumquat was on her best behavior.

It was also Yoon’s first trip back to Napa in many many years.

For lunch, we went to Farmstead.  My favorite dish of the meal was the grilled peach salad.  We had a delicious meal and Kumquat slept through the whole thing!

The next stop was Bremmer, which is way up in Howell Mountain.  It’s a smaller winery that doesn’t distribute to stores and we got a picnic table to ourselves.  Kumquat got to have a bottle of milk while we all tasted whites and reds.  It was a warm day and it was nice to be outside.

Dinner and a Movie

On Tuesday, Jes and I had our first date night.  We never really went to see the movies before Kumquat was born but my mom is home to watch Kumquat and watching a movie is one of those things that you can’t really do with a 3-month-old.  For dinner, we went to Urban Tavern.  We shared French Onion Soup, Arugula Salad, Pretzel and Sausage, and Meatloaf Sliders.  All were pretty good but the big glass of wine that I had with it was even better!

We then walked to Metreon and watch The Dark Knight Rises.  Since dinner was mostly small plates, we got an order of nachos that came with two containers of jalapeno peppers.  Yum.  Paired with an Icee it was perfect for such a fun movie.

I had a great time and it was nice to go out as just the two of us again but when we got out of the movie it was nearly 11 pm and I was missing my baby girl.  I even said it aloud to Jes, which confused him a bit.  It seemed that I had a mini moment of panic and actually insisted that we take a cab home instead of walking.  I don’t know what had come over me.  Was it the fatigue catching up to me?  Was it hormones?  Maybe I’m just not aware of all the different emotions that come with this rollercoaster called Motherhood.  I guess I’ll just chalk it up to the stress of my first week back at work.

Birthday Outing

For the second year in a row, we celebrated Nicole and Stephanie’s birthdays at House of Curries on Thursday evening.

This time we had a few more people around the table including Kumquat, who was only a bundle of cells this time last year. As Patty was saying last night, we’ve come full-circle.

They all went out for a 4-mile run beforehand and Kumquat and I met up with them once they finished.  Oh, I hope I can be back to their running level soon.

The food was delicious and I got a taste of all my favorite dishes.  We also stopped for ice cream at Ici afterward.  The burnt caramel flavor was so yummy.

It was so much fun hanging out with the gang again and they couldn’t stop telling me how excited they were to have me back at work on Monday.  *sigh*  As much as I’m dreading the end of my maternity leave, I’m glad that I have such a great group of people to welcome me back.

Afternoon with Reese

Little Reese is becoming such a big girl.  She’s been talking so much lately and knows me and Kumquat by name now.  It’s so sweet how she will hang around Kumquat and say “Baby Janie” over and over again.  Yesterday, we hung out together for a bit and Reese has now become our baby interpreter.  When Kumquat started to cry, she said “Baby Janie baba”, which means, “Kumquat needs her pacifier” and it worked!  Boy, I wish I could just keep her in my little pocket to help me figure out what my baby needs sometimes.

Food & Wine Sunday

On Friday afternoon, Jes and I had our own little HH at Paragon since the sun was out.  I had brought two issues of F&W magazine and Jes found a recipe that was paired with a wine from Howell Mountain.  In the past, he has enjoyed wines from that region of Napa County and was intrigued.  So, we looked up the winery and found that they had a tasting room in Downtown Napa.  Sweet.  I called and booked an appointment for Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday, I was trying to figure out where we could eat either before or after the tasting.  I happened to be flipping through the magazine that Jes was reading on Friday and there was a featured article on an Italian restaurant called Oenotri and the two chefs.  It looked familiar and remembered seeing it on Open Table.  Ha!  Reservation made!

So, on Sunday we packed up the kid and her stuff and headed up to Napa by noon.  We stopped at Genova Delicatessen and shared one of my favorite sandwiches – the #4 on a seeded roll.  Yum.

The Robert Craig Winery tasting room was found in an industrial park and it was just down the path from the Westin that we usual stay when we go overnight.  The host at the bar, Jeff, was really cool and we got some 1:1 time with him since it was by appointment only.  He gave seconds on anything we wanted and we spent extra time there getting a lesson on Downtown Napa, the ins and outs of the food/wine industry, and the winery itself.

Kumquat was pretty well-behaved and even spent some time at the bar with us.  By the end we got a good buzz while she also took a nap.

Afterward, we took a walk down to Oxbow Public Market where they have a bunch of shops and restaurants including Kara’s Cupcakes, Ritual Coffee Roasters, Three Twins Ice Cream and even a Hog Island!  We got some ice cream and coffee and sat outside reading while Kumquat finished her nap.

Dinner was nice.  We sat in their outdoor patio and they were very nice about making space for Kumquat.  We tried our best to keep her happy but at one point she was so antsy, hungry, and tired all at the same time that she did make a little noise.  Luckily, I was able to quickly feed her, change her, and rock her to sleep in between courses.  Fortunately for us, she wasn’t enough of a pest for the other patrons to give us dirty looks.  Phew.

Here are some of the dishes we enjoyed:

House-made Charcuterie Platter

Margherita Pizza

Stone Fruit Salad and Swordfish Crudo

Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil along with some Fried Kale Chips (reminded me of nori paper)

It was a good first mini-trip back to Napa but definitely a different experience now with Kumquat tagging along.  We also stayed in Downtown Napa the whole time and didn’t really get to see any sweeping views or grapes on the vine so we’ll definitely have to be back for more soon.

80 degrees

We had a warm and sunny day in SF today so we decided to take a walk around Union Square. I was actually in shorts, a tank, and slippers today and Kumquat was perfectly happy chewing on her blanket, giraffe, and hand all at the same time.

During her 3pm feeding, we were outside at a cafe when a group of French teenagers approached us.  They said they were on a scavenger hunt and one of the items on the list was to sing to a baby and take a photo.  I allowed it and they sang a cute French lullaby to her.  It was very sweet.  They all wanted to play with her too and she didn’t mind the attention from 10 teenagers hovering over her while she guzzled her milk. I should have taken a video of this moment but I had my hands full and all I could get was this quick snapshot with my phone before they had to scurry away to their next task.

After a few hours in the sun, we went over to the dome area in the Westfield Shopping Center where they just opened another La Boulange.  We had some pastries and cappuccinos and Kumquat sat on our laps to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells.  By the way, the macarons there are not bad!  Had the coconut, pistachio, and caramel – all were pretty tasty.