Saturday, August 23, 2008

Day 7 - Anniversary Trip

Back Home to the FamilyOur boys were happy to see us and had a little welcome back card for us.
Our oldest enjoyed his jacket and wanted to keep it on no matter the temperature.

My mother was a little camera shy, but felt more comfortable with my boys around her. Thanks Mom for looking after our boys!


Does our youngest look more like mommy or daddy?

Here are my future photographers!


I'll have to post their shots later.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Day 6 - Anniversary Trip

Back in Houston
Houston is my town. However, get the cash ready for the toll roads. This leg of the trip was to be filled with friends, but we still took a side path to take a quick shoot of my last house in Houston.

My wife and I went several rounds over which restaurant would be great to meet our friends... Papacitos or Papadeauxs's. In the end we decided on Dave & Busters so we could play some games after eating. La was happy to see her good friend Dana.
The laughs were on Phil at this point, but everyone got their turn at being the point of impact.
The ladies (Paula, La and Dana) decided not to go with a pose of "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil), but this one was just as good ;-)



Our first round of competition came from the motorcycle racing.



Phil had his turn (at his expense).


Dana tried cheering up Terry who was doing that great. I think he placed something like 17th. However, there were only 17 riders.
Arthur and I were the only none bike riders and Arthur placed handled the first curve the best of us all.

Dana and Terry decided to show La and me a thing or two about air hockey.
A little less celebrating would have been appreciated ;-)



Terry and I tried our luck at the shoot 'em up games. We didn't know all the concepts of the game, but we had fun.


In the end, we had a great time as we took a self portrait with the camera on timer and placed on the mantle. Viva Houston!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Day 5 - Anniversary Trip

Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley

Napa Valley isn't that far from Sonoma Valley, so we decided to travel over and spend the day. Our first stop was the Robert Mondavi Winery after a fine breakfast at the local Jack in the Box.

Here we had our first tour which was very educational. We were able to taste the berries (grapes) and could tell the difference between the sweeter and somewhat tart. Each row was labeled by the type of wine the grapes were destined to be.













Our tour guide led us to the Carneros Room where she explained the principles of tasting decanting and tasting wines.
Who needs a decanter when a vinturi works even better and per glass?


La has already started making her list of things she wants to add to our kitchen such as this cheese cutting board and Vinturi.


Magellan Navigation


I know I'm not the best at asking for directions. So I became pretty good with a map. However, when we bought our minivan, it came with a navigation system which La and I adore. So we got La a Magellan GPS navigation device which is her "tool". What we like most about it is that it is portable and allows us to travel with it. Look out world!
Since La knows where she wants to go and she has her "tool", I'll take a nap. Wine tasting can be tiring business.

V Sattui Winery in Napa Valley


The V Sattui Winery had a lovely layout and was one of the few major wineries which allowed weddings at their grounds. Is that a chocolate mousse cake in there?







Berringer Vineyards in Napa Valley


Beringer Vineyards was to be our next educational wine tour. I threw in the next image because this was once the leaning oak tree depicted on various Beringer wine labels. It was over a hundred years old at the time it finally fell. Luckily no one was ingured.



Here's our tour guide. He didn't want us to taste the wine alone so each time we tasted, he tasted.






A Castle in Napa Valley


Castello di Amorosa was a very unique winery in that it was built to resemble European castles with a courtyard, towers and wine basement.



We liked most of the wines here and will place a few orders for delivery back home. From our tours we discovered it was bad for wine to sit in a hot car. So we decided not to buy any more than the one bottle we did (before we learned this fact).

This one's for our boys back home who love to see mommy and daddy in the pictures.