Dallas and Houston - Sept 2012

Keith and Graham at Central 214

This weekend in Dallas was a whirl wind quick trip to go to Keith's 25th high school reunion. While there, we decided to cash in on Graham's Christmas gift to us which was dinner at his restaurant and a night at the hotel where the restaurant is located.

Accommodation:
Hotel Palomar - A Kimpton hotel where Graham's restaurant is located. The hotel is very nice with modern decor. We stayed here one night.

Jean and Dick's Chalet - We stayed at Keith's parents house on the Sat night. Can't beat the rate and the service!

Marriott - Keith crashed in Steve's hotel room in Houston - also a good value!

Activities:
We arrived on Fri night just in time to quickly change clothes and head to Graham's restaurant, Central 214, for dinner. Keith had been to the restaurant once but this was the first time for Shawna. We had invited Keith's mother and sister to join us. Graham was able to spend a little time with us at the table. He sent out several dishes for us to try which were all very tasty. We definitely did not leave hungry. After dinner, we crashed in our plush hotel room.

Graham at Central 214

On Sat, we woke early for a day packed with activity. We first stopped by Rebecca's house for breakfast where we had yogurt and bagels. We finally met Thad, Rebecca's husband, and Tucker, her 5 month old baby who is adorable. We also saw Rebecca's sister Jenn for a few minutes as she was babysitting for a few hours that day.  After breakfast, we headed to White Rock Lake where we ran (and partly walked) 9 miles.  It was overcast but the temp was perfect for running. We had hoped that we at least worked off some of our dinner from the prior night!

Rebecca, Keith and Tucker

Sweaty from our run, we then went to Peter's house to see their new pool and to hang out with the kids. We had a light snack for lunch and then hopped into the chilly (it was about 65 degrees outside, 82 degrees in the water) pool for a swim. Keith got more exercise as he battled swimming and diving competitions with Jordan and performed various tricks with her on his shoulders.

We visited with Margaret, Damon and the kids for about an hour and then went to Keith's parents house to take a quick shower before returning to Peter's where we also met up with Khris and his wife Angie.  We all carpooled together to the reunion.  Since we knew the reunion would only have a few snacks, we went to dinner before hand at a great restaurant on Magnolia in Fort Worth.  The reunion was located in the old Texas and Pacific building in downtown Forth Worth which has a tavern with a large outdoor space.  Keith was surprised that he remembered more people than he thought he would and enjoyed catching up with Clark, Chris, Laura, Julie, and Josh.

Keith's 25th High School Reunion

It was great people watching!!  It was funny to see that everyone still hung out in their high school groups: the jocks, the artsy crowd, the nerdy crowd and yes, even the trashy crowd. There were a few women there that based on their attire appeared to be escorts - we guessed that the men they were with still felt they had to make a good impression with their classmates!  Some of the women looked like they belonged on the show GCB.  And some of the people still looked like they were stuck in the 80's.

Shawna, Keith, Khris, Angie

We woke up too early on Sunday when Margaret's kids decided to knock on the door at 6am! They had slept there as Jean had babysat them while Margaret and Damon went out the night before.  We got up around 7 and had a quick breakfast before heading to the airport.  Shawna flew back to Denver while Keith flew to Houston to spend the afternoon/evening with Steve who was in town on business for a few days.

Keith's trip to Houston was quite quick as well - less than 24 hours.  Steve picked him up at the airport and they went back to the hotel before heading to grab a sandwich for lunch and then to the Arboretum for a walk and finally over to Memorial Park for another walk.  Following that was a stop by REI for Steve to get some gifts, then back to Memorial for a run, to the hotel for a shower and then out for dinner....then bed!  On Monday, Keith was up at 4:45am to get a cab to the airport for the flight back to Denver. 

Restaurants:
Central 214 - Graham's restaurant located in Hotel Palomar in Dallas. We had an amazing meal including, octopus, kale salad, arugula salad, zucchini, potatoes, trout, pork chops and a sampler tray of desserts (green tomato pie, creme brûlée, lemon cake and chocolate cake).

Yucatan Taco Stand - A great Mex/Spanish/Cuban place. We shared a few apps (chips with salsa and guacamole, yuca fries and fried plantains) and then had fish tacos and tequila lime chicken salad for dinner.

Rice Epicurean - Keith and Steve grabbed sandwiches at this grocery store.  Very limited options but fairly good. 

Taste of Texas - This steakhouse was recommended by the hotel - about 10 miles from the hotel.  Keith had the 16oz Ribeye with garlic sauce.

San Fran - Sept 2012

Farm Dinner

After our Napa weekend for Keith's dad's 70th birthday, we decided to work out of Rakesh and Simran's house for the week so we could join then for another farm dinner the following weekend. 

Accommodation:
Chez Mehta-Singh - great accommodation, excellent service, and worth it even at 10 times the price!

Activities:
The plan to work out of their house for a week did not quite work out: Keith had to do a trip to San Diego and Shawna had to head to Hartford for a meeting.  So we left Chez Mehta-Singh early on Tuesday morning.  Keith dropped Shawna at the airport and headed down to San Jose, flew to San Diego, and returned on the Wednesday night, with Shawna arriving late on Thursday.  Keith worked from the house on Thurs, taking conference calls and getting caught up - until 2pm.  It was at that time that he was on a call, walked on to the front porch, and closed the door behind him - and was locked out!  He was in shorts and a fleece, with no shoes, and his cell phone died as he was on the call.  So...he was barefoot and homeless for 3 hours - lying on the grass and causing two of Rak and Simran's neighbors to text them saying there was some stranger outside their house!  At one point, Rak sent an email saying that a neighbor had contacted him to say that there was a man sitting on their front porch rubbing his feet.  Simran got a text from another neighbor saying that there was a man on their lawn who didn't look dangerous but was odd!  Later that evening, Keith met up with his parents for dinner as they had stayed in Sebastapol and San Fran a couple of days after the Napa weekend before returning home.

Shawna, Ria and Keith with Donuts

Dancing with the Stars??

On Friday, we worked from the house until 1pm, with Sim working in the basement.  The rest of the day was jammed as we ate our way around the city: we went out for lunch, picked up Ria from school, had donuts and ice cream, then met Rak, Dave and his wife, and another Rakesh for beer and then had dinner.  After dinner, we all adjourned to the house to put Ria to bed and then drank more wine and partied to DJ Mehta's dance mix.  The dancing was hilarious with attempts at 'break dancing' and lots of butt wiggling!  Somewhere in there, a pizza was ordered - totally unnecessary but still fantastic. 

Shawna, Keith, Dave and Rakesh (which one is Rakesh?)

We had planned a light breakfast on Saturday so as not to be full for the farm dinner, but Rak thought that was a terrible idea so we headed out for breakfast, dropped Ria at basketball, and then came back to the house for an hour run around the Presidio.  Later that afternoon, seven of us piled in the car and headed out to the Della Fattoria farm dinner at Weber Ranch, which was at the same place as last year.  There was a group of 10 of us: in addition to Rak/Sim and us, there was New Rakesh, Jill, Anne-Caroline, Rachel, Alison, and Kara.  The setting was beautiful with tables outside decorated with colorful flowers.  The dinner lasted from 3-7pm, so we adjourned back to the house for another evening of dancing, indoor "rock climbing", and other goofiness.  And of course, it would not be a farm dinner without us drinking lots of wine (9 bottles in all) and stealing a gourd or two for the road!

Jill, Simran, Keith, New Rakesh and Rakesh

Before Picture...

...After Picture

On Sunday, we got up a bit late and headed to lunch and then had a slice of pie.  We then went over to see a house for sale which was really nice.  The afternoon saw us with a cheese tray and wine on the porch courtesy of Ria before we had to head to the airport to fly home. 

Restaurants:
Amber India - Per Sim's recommendation Keith went here with his parents.  This is an upscale Indian place (meaning no Christmas lights!) and the lamb vindaloo was announced by Keith's dad as the best he had ever had. 

Namu Gagi - A Korean place where we had lunch - yummo fries (so good we ordered two).

Dynamo Donut - Ria was insistent that she would take us for donuts - as Sim said, it was really a pretext for Ria to get a donut herself!  By the time we got to the stand there were only 4 flavors left - we tried the Cornmeal Rosemary Cherry and the Coconut. 

Smitten Ice Cream - As if donuts were not enough, we went here immediately after donuts and before beers.  This place is really interesting because every scoop is made to order - using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ingredients.  We shared a single scoop with Ria.  Very creamy!

Hayes Valley Biergarten - Great beer garden - all outdoors with a heap of picnic tables and a walk-up bar. 

Arlequin - Had dinner here - a fantastic Lamb Burger and wine purchased from the adjacent shop. 

Out the Door - We had brunch at this Vietnamese restaurant.  We shared several dishes: steamed chicken bun, daikon rice cakes, and fried chicken banh mi.   The perfect cure for a hangover!

Webber Ranch Farm Dinner - The food was similar to last year - heaps of appetizers (cheese, roasted peppers and figs, homemade bread, corn cakes), bruschetta, salad, mixed grill (steak and chicken), rosemary potato gratin and a galette for dessert.

La Taqueria - A total dive but great tacos - on Zagat the place gets a 25 for food and a 9 for decor.  We had chicken and pork tacos with some chips. 

Mission Pie - Shared slices of Walnut Pie and Banana Creme Pie.  Fresh and tasty!

Menu for Farm Dinner

For more photos of this trip:

Napa - Aug 2012

The Dodds Family

For Keith's Dad's 70th birthday, we gave him the gift of a family weekend in Napa and dinner at the French Laundry.  The gift was given in December (at Christmas), was planned for March but rescheduled to Labor Day weekend with the birth of Baby Boone (Dad's birthday was in April).  He really dragged out this birthday celebration! 

Accommodation
We rented a house in Napa - 435 Montecito - from Homeaway.  The house was just off the Silverado Trail so a pretty good location - though we spent most of our time commuting to Yountville. The house had five bedrooms and three baths with OK decor. The house was clean, spacious and functional in a quiet neighborhood.

Activities
We flew out from Denver to Oakland later on the Thursday evening, renting a car and arriving at the house at about midnight. Keith's family had arrived earlier that day so we just headed to our assigned bedroom in the basement and fell asleep.

The Limo Tour of Wineries

Paraduxx Winery

We were the first people up on Friday morning and went out for a walk to get in front of the weekend calories.  Shawna mapped the walk so we would stop by one of the local Starbucks, which we arrived at 45 minutes into the walk.  As we were sitting on the patio nursing our coffees, Keith's parents arrived to get their own round of coffee.  We continued the walk and got back to the house in time to get showered for the limo picking us up.  Hector, the driver, did a great job shuttling us around to a variety of vineyards: Paraduxx, Clif Lede, V Sattui, Heitz, Opus, and Port Works. We loved the ambiance at Paraduxx - we had a whole table to ourselves and a great host named Josh - it was a great tasting.  We liked the wines at Paraduxx and Clif Lede and bought some to ship home and bring to Rak and Sim.  Lunch was the traditional picnic at V Sattui - we got a few cheeses, meats, and french bread and grabbed a table outside.  We finished the day at 4pm and immediately showered and headed out to dinner. 

Lunch at V Sattui

View on Hike - Stebbins Cold Canyon

On Saturday, we hiked Stebbins Cold Canyon along Lake Berryessa - about a one hour drive from the house.  It was a tough but beautiful hike with great views of the lake from the top.  We unfortunately did not bring enough water but no one passed out. The hike was 5 miles long and about 1800 ft in elevation gain, taking 3 hours and 20 minutes. We returned home in time to shower and nap before heading out to the big dinner of the trip.  Prior to walking in to the Laundry, we wandered around the gardens and farm across the road where many of their fruits and vegetables are grown.

Dodds Family on the Hike

We had planned Sunday morning to be leisurely which was a great idea.  We went for walk and then met up for lunch with the family in Yountville. We then did an afternoon bike tour with Napa Valley Bike Tours, stopping for wine tasting at Clos du Val (where the guy who poured our tasting was rude), Monticello (syrah was good) and Silenus - this was a really cool tasting room where it is an aggregation of 12 different vintages in one place.  We went to an early dinner and called it a night.

Ready for the Bike Tour

On Monday, Graham and Margaret headed to the airport at 9:00am and we left shortly after with Keith's parents.  The first stop was the Sonoma Market to grab some cheese, then we drove to Jim and Maryann's house to see them for the day.  After saying our hellos, we quickly made sandwiches for lunch and the six of us headed to Bodega Head at Bodega Bay for a hike.  The last time Keith was in Bodega Bay, he was with his friend Peter in 1989 - a very different experience this time!  The coast was much colder with fog all over - amazing what a difference a few miles makes.  We hiked out to the beach, where Jim and Maryann produced a couple of bottles of wine to accompany the lunch.  We hiked back to the car and then headed back to the house, where we went for a walk around the vineyard and then had some wine on the deck before having rack of lamb for dinner.  We left the house just after 7pm and made it into San Francisco to Rak and Sim's house at a reasonable hour.

Bodega Head

Restaurants
Bouchon - The first of our Thomas Keller meals.  We started with Lobster Salad and Lamb Sausage and shared the Pork Belly with Polenta for an entree.  The restaurant was smaller than we expected.  Great ambiance and food.

Bouchon

Menu at French Laundry

French Laundry - Ah, the main event of the weekend! This is generally considered impossible to get into, but we were able to reserve the private dining room 9 months ahead of time.  The dining format is a tasting menu where we were able to give our dietary restrictions.  While we had many courses, we never felt stuffed - the dinner was outstanding!  Our meal included Oysters and Pearls, Salad of Summer Melon, Sauteed Fillet of Mediterranean Lubina, Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Mitts, Salmon Creek Farms Pork Belly, Marcho Farm Nature-Fed Veal, Vendeen Bichonne, Plum-Ginger Soda, and Chocolate Pudding Pie.  We requested a wine pairing at a particular price point, so we enjoyed Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs d'Ay Grand Cru MV, Spreitzer Reisling Oestricher Lenchen Kabinett Rheingau 2012, Pazo de Senorans Albarino Rias Baixas 2011, Walter Hansel Chardonnay Estate Russian River Valley 2009, Radio-Coteau Pinot Noir Alberigi Vineyard Russian River Valley 2010, Araujo Meritage Altagracia Napa Valley 2009, Joseph Sabon Chateauneuf-du-Pape Clos du Mont-Olivet Rhone Valle 2009, and Smith-Woodhouse Late-Bottled Vintage Oporto 2000. 

Bouchon Bakery - The rest of the family waited in line for 45 minutes for lunch and we arrived just in time for them to get the food.  Each of us had a tomato, brie and basil baguette. 

Press - This was a game-day call - we had originally planned to go to La Toque but Graham had met the owners at Press when they visited his restaurant a few days prior so we we changed plans.  The dinner was a gorge fest. The owners presented us a bottle of champagne and some apps when we showed up.  We then had heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and also the bacon sampler which was really just on the bar menu but they allowed in the restaurant.  The bacon dish was literally that - 8 different slices of bacon - heaven!  For our main course we shared walu fish and did the side dishes family style: Truffle Mac, French Fries, Mushrooms, and Corn.  We also shared desserts of strawberry shortcake, cheesecake and a ginormous slice of chocolate cake.  In addition to the champagne, we had a couple of amazing bottles of Kongsgaard, which is one of our favorite chardonnays.

Shawna and Keith @ French Laundry

For more photos of this trip: