After our French Laundry lunch, Chris and I walked around a bunch of wineries. The first stop was Darioush, based off a recommendation a guy gave us when we were having brunch at Blue Ribbon Bakery a while back. He kept emphasizing how great the winery was…when we got there, we thought the place looked a little….over the top:

The winery opened in 1997 and focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay and Viognier:

The winery reminded me of a building the belonged in Las Vegas, and guess who we ran into…the Texas couples that walked out on The French Laundry! We took some pictures on the grassy lawn and by the grapes:

The next winery we visited, Clos du Val, was opened in 1972:

Their tastings were really popular:

We weren’t really in the mood for drinking, so we walked off all the food we just consumed, took some pictures around the estate, and headed to our next winery.

V. Suttui was being decorated for a wedding when we got there and was pretty packed (not only with people from the wedding). It’s one of the more popular wineries because they offer really cheap tasting ($5 for 6 wines or something like that):

They also have an outdoor picnic area (you’re supposed to buy food from the marketplace, but I’m guessing people bring in whatever they want since it’s outdoors). The marketplace sells various cheeses, dips, and sandwiches that pair well with the wine they sell:

I actually bought a wine from V. Sattui the last time I was in Napa. We liked the Rieslings the most (I brought one home last year but didn’t want to bother with it this year).

After our V. Sattui tasting, we drove to another winery, Alpha Omega. The winery was still under construction, but was open an hour past the other wineries in the area so we went in:

We were wined out, but had a great time walking through all of the tasting rooms. After all of the wineries, we headed to Taylor’s Refresher for an awesome dinner - a post will be up later this week!

Hi! It’s Justin. I’m a Long Time Watcher, First Time Poster (LTWFTP). Grace’s computer is acting up, so I’m helping her out by posting an update from Cali. Here’s the latest:

Happy birthday to ME and my brother (yes we were born on the same day!). I just wanted to make some quick announcements:

- I safely arrived in SF last night after a bad flight with Virgin. They advertise outlets for every seat, but fail to mention that half of them don’t work.
- I will be “liveblogging” on my tumblr: www.gracenotesnyc.tumblr.com if you’d like to see updates on what I’m doing throughout my culinary adventure.
- Thank you to everyone that wished me a happy birthday - you guys are the best!

Grace

After flying to Chicago on Monday night, I caught some kind of flu from flying, lack of sleep, or maybe just the weather change. On Monday night, I met up with Brian for dinner at the Ralph Lauren restaurant on Michigan Ave:

After dinner, Brian and I walked back to my hotel (I was staying at the W City Center). The weather was beautiful (although, I was probably complaining about it because it was a little humid and I was starting to feel sick). I missed Chicago (and Brian, OF COURSE):

During the days, we were in the office learning about compliance calibrator and running simulations within SAP. During the evenings, I hung out with John Brady, went out with coworkers, and played WHIRLYBALL, the BEST game EVER. I’d never even heard of the game before going to Chicago, but it’s a combination of basketball, soccer, bumper cars, polo, and lacrosse. Here’s a picture of some coworkers playing:

Me and my partner in crime, Vikkie:

It was such an awesome game to play and they have places to play in NJ, but not NY. They should definitely open one in Chelsea Piers - you drink, drive around in a bumper car, and try to score goals using a whiffle ball. After playing a full night of whirlyball and hitting people intentionally, I woke up with bruises all over my hips/pelvis. All in a day’s work, I suppose :).

On Friday, Chris flew in from New York and I decided to surprise him at the airport. I took the blue line to get to O’hare, then sat at baggage claim while his flight got in so we could take the blue line back to Brian’s. He called me when he got in and asked if he should just buy a one-way el ticket and I was short with him (according to him) because I didn’t want any announcement to come on over the intercom to ruin my surprise. But Chris surprised ME by not checking in his luggage, so I was stupidly waiting for him while he was getting on the el himself. I called him 10 minutes later because I saw other people getting their luggage, but he didn’t pick up because his phone was still off from being on the plane, so after calling him 50 times (no joke) and texting him (everyone knows how much I hate texting since it costs 0.15 cents per text - I know I’m cheap, you don’t have to tell me), he FINALLY picks up when I call his blackberry. I was on the train after him, which ruined the surprise, but we got off together at Irving Park and went to Brian’s place together. I guess it was still somewhat of a surprise…for BOTH of us. Since I was still sick, we stayed in on Friday night, Chris had my leftover Pequot’s Pizza (which was amazing, by the way), and we headed to bed on Brian’s aerobed that he lent us.

On Saturday, we took the bus from Brian’s place to the loop where we started the day with Potbelly’s (the one by the W was CLOSED so luckily we found another one down the street). I had the tuna salad, which brought back memories of Champaign and going to pick up Potbellys on Friday afternoons for lunch before heading back to my apartment for marathons of Law and Order. Chris’ Italian reminded me of the cuban sandwich we had at the Spotted Pig two weekends ago. The peppers really do make the sandwich (even Chris mentioned it). After Potbelly’s, we walked to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, which is in the opening credits of Married…with Children:

There’s scaffolding up because they’re fixing something and it’s still too cold for the water to be running, but it’s quite beautiful when it’s summertime. After Grant Park, we walked to the museum campus to go to the Field Museum:

We went to see the dinosaurs because when Chris was a kid, he was obsessed (and I think he still is). The main attraction is Sue, the tyrannasaurus rex that was discovered a couple of years ago by a palentologist named Sue:

She’s HUGE! Most of the bones are the originals, but the head is not (her skull is too heavy and wouldn’t be able to be supported by her bones anymore). Her head is on the second floor of the museum:

What a freaking large head! And her teeth were all messed up.

Since we were so into the t-rex, we decided to MAKE OUR OWN! In the basement of the Field Museum, you can make these plastic molds (actually, you basically just put in money and it does everything for you). We made a red t-rex (you couldn’t pick the color, only the model) for Chris and I made a pressed penny of Sue:

Going through the dinosaur exhibit was really fun and educational, but afterwards, we walked into the gift shop, which was the highlight of the trip (simply because I could take this picture):

RAWR!

After the dinosaur special exhibit, we went into the underground life-size exhibit, where we SHRUNK to 1/100 of our original size! CRAZY, I KNOW! We were walking among bugs and in the soil (it was CRAZY) and I was able to go into the shell of a bug:

RAWR! (again!)

A picture of a pole-dancing sloth:

(I thought it looked like it was pole-dancing, at least),

And a picture of me and Chris in front of Sue:

We initially asked this girl to take our picture in front of Sue so she half-heartedly did it. After taking it, I looked at it and I noticed that she didn’t even have the dinosaur in the picture…at all. Like, she specifically pointed the camera at an area where you couldn’t actually see the bones.

After walking around the Field Museum for the majority of the afternoon, we headed to Millennium Park to see the Bean (Cloudgate):

And the Pritzker Pavillion:

Afterwards, we went to Jimmy Johns (another favorite sandwich shop that hasn’t migrated to New York, yet), and then headed to John’s place by taking the el. On the ride over, we took pictures of our new dinosaur:

When we got to John’s place, John and Chris met, we drove to Brian’s place, I changed, we picked up Brian, and then we drove to Topo Gigio for dinner, where we were meeting up with a bunch of friends from school. I arranged a small dinner get together since I haven’t seen a lot of people since their senior year (over two years ago) and I wanted to catch up with friends from AKPsi and college. Dinner at Topo Gigio was amazing (the pasta Chris ordered was really good and the sauce was delicious). Pictures from dinner - me and John:

Me and Brian:

Elizabeth, Me, and Brian:

Elizabeth, Adam, Me, and Jack:

Adam, Carolyn, Me, and Matt:

and Me and Chris:

On Sunday, Chris and I met up with Sarim, who took us to Edwardo’s Pizzeria by his place downtown. I haven’t seen Sarim since last year when he came to Champaign for a recruiting event, and before then, since he graduated! The pizza at Edwardo’s was…cheesy. So cheesy, in fact, that we could only eat two pieces before feeling full (we probably shouldn’t have ordered mozzarella sticks to begin with). A picture of me and my Sarimmypoo:

After lunch, Chris and I headed to Michigan Ave, walked around the magnificent mile, and then headed back to Brian’s place to head back to New York. After a nice flight (we had an entire row to ourselves!) we took a cab back to Chris’ and got into an accident on our way back! A brand new lexus hit the cab on the left side when it was trying to switch lanes. It took another 30 minutes to get the other cars information, but after that, we headed back to Chris’ apartment and retired for the night.

I’m really glad I had the opportunity to visit Chicago and all of my friends from college. In some ways, it makes me appreciate New York a lot more. I’m glad I have my UIUC friends in Chicago because they’re such a huge part of my life still. Also, I’m glad to be back in New York (even though it’s SO incredibly dirty) and I can’t wait for the summer! My next trip will most likely be for my birthday - since Chris and I have birthday’s a day apart (May 29th and May 30th) we’re going to try to arrange a trip together (since we have Memorial Day off, too!).

This Friday = Conan O’brien!

I was going to finish blogging about my recent California trip, but I took so many pictures that I couldn’t decide what to focus on. On Saturday, we went to San Francisco instead of Hearst Castle (we didn’t up going at all) and randomly were in town for the Chinese New Year parade. The parade is supposed to be one of the top 10 parades in the US, and it was definitely a wild show. There were a ton of people watching (lots of people pushing through the streets) and one guy even blew his noise maker in my freaking EAR while I was walking down the street! Rude. On Sunday, we drove to Monterey and did the 7-mile drive along the Pacific Ocean (the 7-mile drive ends at Pebble Beach). It was a really scenic drive and very beautiful. We also went to In-N-Out for burgers and fries, which made my trip complete. The weather in California was so beautiful - very warm, breezy, and just sunny enough so you weren’t hot. Coming back to New York was definitely a shocker - I was wearing my sweatpants, a sweater, and a light jacket and almost froze my butt off going from the airport to my apartment. I guess winter isn’t over in New York, yet!

One of the many things I’ve wanted to do since moving to New York is going to see a live taping of a show. Luckily, Chris was able to get us tickets to The Daily Show with John Stewart (I’d never seen the show before…seriously). We got to the show around 3:30 and weren’t allowed into the building until 5:30 (it was FREEEEZING, by the way). People were complaining and just started leaving because it was so cold!! We braved the cold weather and once we were let in the studio, forgot how our toes almost froze off. The taping was really funny - there was a segment about daylight savings time (since it happened earlier this year) and Flava Flav did a cameo appearance (not on the show, but there was a taping of his segment). The studio:

After the Daily Show, we headed to The Place, a restaurant in the west village, for dinner and then Magnolia’s for cupcakes. Friday was my last day at my client (for the time being).

On Saturday, we decided to go skiing in Tuxedo, NY, since there’s a deal going on (free skiing until the end of the season). It’s unseasonably warm right now (or maybe not) but anyway, here’s the obligatory picture of Chris driving (with my mink earmuffs this time):

The drive to Tuxedo wasn’t long (and actually, it’s the same route to get to the outlet mall that we went to a couple weekends ago!). When we first arrived at the ski lodge, there was a sign saying that they didn’t have any ski rentals due to the popularity of the promotion. WTF! Luckily it must’ve been an old sign because there were a ton of ski’s/boots inside. It was Chris’ first time skiing, but he was a quick learner (or maybe I’m an awesome teacher) and we really enjoyed ourselves. Surprisingly, there weren’t that many people (we got there around 6), but I thought it would be packed since it’s FREE. A picture of me and Chris:

When we got back into the city on Saturday night, we went out for pizza at John’s Pizzeria (on Bleeker) and it’s definitely one of the best pizza’s I’ve EVER had. It’s very similar to Patsy’s (thin crust), but the crust is very chewy. And SO delicious!

On Sunday, we headed to the City Bakery for brunch (they’re known for their caramelized french toast and hot chocolate). In my opinion, the french toast was really good and the hot chocolate was really thick (Chris compared it to drinking a melted chocolate bar). Afterwards, we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a shopping cart for me and then Pinkberry for fro-yo (they have mochi in the Chelsea location!). We went back to Chris’ so he could put together my new shopping cart:

After setting up my shopping cart, I headed to Ikea with Leo and picked up a new desk/drawers, a mosquito net (impulse buy, I know), and a new lamp. I also picked up a rug for Chris, which I carried back all by myself:

Okay, so I’ve never purchased anything from Ikea before, but seriously, there is SO much to put together! When I was walking through the “showroom,” I was so excited because everything was put together and looked so nice…but when I got the packages back, I was like, uhh, everything is just in freaking pieces! Thankfully, Leo helped me put everything together since he already had the desk. Leo’s awesome - even though he had work the next morning, he stayed until 1AM to help me put everything together and move it to the right place

In two weeks, I’m going to Chicago and staying the weekend to hang out with all of my UIUC friends. I’m SO incredibly excited - and the best part is - Chris is coming, too! I’ll be sure to take millions of pictures (no exaggeration) and post them here/flickr. Let me know if you want to get dinner on Saturday night - I’m making reservations next week!

I’m taking a break from writing about New York City because I’m in California! My mom and I came to visit my brother for the weekend and it is SO beautiful and clean here (while we were driving today, my mom asked how anyone could ever want to live in New York over California. WAIT - I LIVE IN NEW YORK!).

Today was seriously so sunny and beautiful out (what a change from NYC) and we drove to Napa Valley to visit the wineries and walk around. The drive wasn’t too bad (around 1.5 hours?) and very beautiful:

The flowers are mustard flowers (I think) and there’s even a mustard festival going on soon. The first town we visited was Yountville, which had beautiful art galleries, cute shops, and little tea shops filled with pastries:

Initially, we were going to have lunch at a little restaurant called Mustard Grill that we read about online, but since the wait was so long, we decided to try our luck elsewhere. HOWEVER, we did get a funny picture by the front fountain:

We didn’t even have anything to drink yet!!

Since we couldn’t have lunch at Mustard Grill, we drove around and asked for recommendations and found a cute restaurant called Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena:

I had the hearty meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes (which was AWESOME), my mom had the ahi tuna salad, and my brother had some kind of free range chicken with guacamole and veggies. My brother and I waiting for our food:

After lunch, we headed to our first wine tasting, which was the Beringer wineries. We tried six wines (three reds and three whites), which were good, but not great. My mom actually had a sip of one of the wines we were sampling and said that it tasted like one of the ingredients from the glue she used to make when she was a kid (I’m not quite sure why she was making glue as a kid, either). After Beringer Wineries, we headed to another winery down the road called V. Sattui. Their wines are ONLY sold in Napa and offer sampling as well - I really liked their Johannesberg Reisling and bought a bottle to take back to New York. A picture of the three of us sampling their Muscat wine (a dessert wine that was a little too sweet for us):

During the wine tasting, my mom somehow got a little tipsy and on our way to the next winery, look at the picture she took with me:

She ruined my picture!!!! (but in a funny way, so it’s okay)

The last winery we went to, The Robert Mondavi Winery, which was by far the most beautiful winery we visited (although, the Beringer Winery was amazing):

I can definitely imagine wedding in the winery area (actually, I’ve heard weddings in Napa Valley are really popular since it’s so beautiful and scenic there). AND, while walking around, we actually ran into a couple that got engaged! The winery is really a feast for the eyes - even though the trees were all really short and stubby, the area was still so beautiful and there was so much open space (and GRASS). A picture of me and my mom by the wine presses they used to use:

Finally, what blog entry would be complete without a funny picture from the day:

We left Napa around 6, got back to David’s area around 7:30 or so, went to a chinese restaurant my brother likes in Milpitas, and then headed back to David’s apartment. Tomorrow, we’re going to drive to the Hearst Castle (I think) and driving along Highway 1 (it’s supposed to be very scenic). I’m charging my camera battery tonight, so it’ll be ready for lots of pictures tomorrow!