We started the month with a weekend trip to Kristi's parents lake house. For those of you from Texas, it's on Lake Kemp, near Seymor, Texas. Not far from Wichita Falls. This is Avery napping while we tried to coax catfish onto the hooks.
Here is Avery awake, accompanying Dad down on the dock. She has her first fishing hat and hopefully won't grow out of it soon.
Kristi is sitting on the dock with Avery, listening to her Grandfather tell stories about the big one that got away.
Well, 3 months into parenthood and we decided that we already needed an adult trip. BUT, not for the reasons that my intro would imply. Kristi had scheduled training in San Francisco. This was the culmination of about 2 years worth of programs and professional development, so fairly important. So even though Kristi had not returned to work, she had planned on attending this course. Well, I did what any devoted spouse would do and headed West. The training was on a Tues and Wed, so we flew to San Fran on the Sunday before.
We spent Sunday and Monday in the Napa Valley, touring wineries, tasting wines, and acting like ordinary high rollers.
Among the wineries that we toured / tasted were the Mondavi, the Vi Suttui, The Rubicon Estate (Coppola), Pine Ridge, Domain Chandon (which is for sparkling wine "champagne"), and Domaine Carneros.
This picture was during the tour of the Mondavi estate. This picture is looking from one side of the Napa Valley to the other. The roses are often planted around the vineyards to provide early detection of disease or infestation.
This is also at the Mondavi winery.
The front of the Mondavi prior to the tour.
This is the main building at the Vi Suttui vineyard. They had a gourmet deli and an outstanding picnic area to eat lunch.
This is at the Rubicon Estate. This is also known as the Coppola winery, owned by the movie director Francis Ford Coppola.
This is the front of the Rubicon Estate.
Rubicon again.
This is the Domaine Carneros winery. It is relatively new, but impressive. We sat under those umbrellas and could see both up the Sonoma and Napa valleys.
Looking back towards Napa.
We drove back into San Fran and stopped at a lookout point above Sausalito. This view was amazing, considering how high you were.
This is the hotel that Kristi's company had us in. The Fairmont. It's a historic hotel in the Knob Hill area of San Fran. Basically it is at the high point of the city.
Our first night in town, I coaxed Kristi into trying an adventurous dinner in China Town. I won't go into the details of the dinner (she didn't care how many Zagat reviews the place had, she was more influenced by the shady pictures on the menu) but this was the road from the hotel to the restaurant. About 6 blocks, all down hill. It is more like a ski slope. Needless to say, we walked to dinner and cabbed it back to the hotel.
Since Kristi was in training on Tues, I hopped the Alcatraz ferry / tour. This is looking from the boat back towards downtown and the Coit Tower.
This is as we arrived at the Alcatraz island and prison. This was a 2 hour self-guided tour. Highly recommend it. Great tour.
This is Kristi and I on the lunch bay cruise. Her company chartered this boat and we drove under the Golden Gate, around Alcatraz and under the Bay bridge (which connects to Oakland and Berkeley).
While she was in training, I walked most of San Franciso. At least I walked everywhere I could without going back uphill. This picture is of Washington Park. There was a group of hippies playing bluegrass, so I stopped to gawk. This was also near the North Beach area (their Little Italy). It was full of cafe's etc. Great place.
A look back downtown from the bay cruise.
This is a view from the top of our hotel, looking downtown towards the financial district. Berkeley is in the background, across the Bay Bridge.
The famous street cars. I got a kick out of how they manuever these street cars at the end of their line. The still manually spin them 180 degrees. Nothing automated.
Kristi did a little shopping in Union Square. There were art exhibits and other interesting characters "loitering" in the park.
That is me, driving the hoopty, down Lombard Street. It is unofficially known as the crookedest street in America. Kristi hopped out to take a picture of me driving the switchbacks.
This is looking from our hotel down towards Union Square. One of the street cars is making it's way uphill.
Kristi's training ended with a dinner at the top of our hotel. These two pictures were of the sunset. This is of the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately they did not have a balcony, so these are taken through the window.
There was a firework show over the Coit Tower. You can also see Alcatraz lit up in the bay.
Back to Dallas. The next weekend we met my college roomate, Todd Henson, and his family for a picnic at Lake Ray Roberts (near Denton). This was Avery sitting in her car seat, in the shade tent, on the beach, at the lake, wearing another floppy hat. I just realized that this is the 2nd floppy hat I've seen. I wasn't told about that acquisition.
Avery hanging out with Dad while watching Texas A&M baseball.
For Mother's Day, myself and two buddies sent our wives to a cooking class with Tre Wilcox. He is a local celebrity chef and was a contestant on the show Top Chef two seasons ago. They had a blast.
Avery is doing "tummy time".
Avery was kicking and rolling around.
I'm not sure I believe the bib, but she sure seems happy all of the time. She seems to beg attention from the camera.
