Return of Amelio!

Amelia came to visit this weekend! Naturally, we headed for wine country.

Mumm Napa was our first, delicious stop.

Next was Silverado, which had this lovely patio.

And amazing views of the valley.

It was also a pretty cool building.

So much wine.

Amelia accidentally sprayed her new lip gloss all over her rental car. Ah, the price of beauty.

Tasting at Trefethen

We stopped for a little photo opp in the vines so Amelia could send a pic to her grandma.

so sunny

The chardonnay was my fave.

On Sunday, we tried to go to Muir woods, but it was toooooo crowded. So we went to the beach! (Also, I got these new sunglasses!)

These girls were dragging a big piece of seaweed around the beach. It was gross, but interesting.

basking in the ocean's glory

I used the timer on my camera for this one. Senior pic!

The mountains were pretty on our drive home, too.

Then we bid adieu. Until next year!

Chez Panisse

 For our grand finale with Nick and Nicole, we went to Chez Panisse. 

 Tak lookin' suave

 Here we are waiting to go inside. As a super special bonus, Nick brought his brother Kale, who used to work at Chez Panisee and is an all-around cool dude. He's still friends with the folks who work there, so they really hooked it up for us.

Eggplant menu

Yum

 Nick's dad got him a case of this port from his (and my!) birth year. Fance.

After dinner, our waiter took us on a behind-the-scenes tour! So cool! Here we are in the meat locker.

Big time mixer

 Here's the kitchen, and some peaches that were turned into the sherbet!

Another view + beans!

 Cheers!

We sat in our usual (haha) seats right by the oven. It was amazing, as always.

Sonoma day

Nick and Nicole came to visit and we went to Sonoma! We started the day off at Domaine Carneros.

I took this artistic picture of Tak's sparkling wine.

And this one of Tak.

Sad panda faces (because apparently Nick doesn't smile for photos)

Next we went to Gundlach Bundschu.

And Bartholomew Park

We got to use these special port sippy cups at Imagery Estate!

We also checked out their Parthenon-themed art collection.

B.R. Cohn is owned by the Doobie Brother's Manager! Plus they have olive oil samples.

They also had this wizard.

Finally, we ended our day with a pinot tasting at Nicholson Ranch. Quite a day.

peach pickin'

Eric took me and Tak peach picking in Brentwood!

It was a gorgeous day.

Getting the good ones up top.

Eric is a peach picking expert, so he showed us the way.

We had to take two wagons to hold them all!

Peaches!

After we weighed them in (120 lbs total!), we packed them up into boxes.

Some of the boxes were specially made by Hidefumi.

So many peaches.

We had to protect them from the sun on the way home.

Then we had a fabulous dinner with our bountiful harvest. Eric made deeeeelicious tomato mozzarella salad. YUM.