Day 1: Sonoma

Sunset over our private patio at the Garden Snuggery

We made it up to Sonoma in just over 6 hours from Los Angeles, which isn't bad.  We stayed a couple miles north of downtown Sonoma at the Garden Snuggery, a place I found on VRBO.  So far, between Santa Barbara and now Sonoma, VRBO has not failed us; the Garden Snuggery was cute and cozy, with a lovely patio and adirondack chairs overlooking the hills of Sonoma.  The room was clean and nicely appointed; my only complaint would be that there is only a bathtub and no shower.  I would definitely stay there again for one or two nights, and at $125 a night, it is cheaper than most motels in the Sonoma / Healdsburg area with more character and privacy.  We enjoyed relaxing and watching the sunset when we arrived and eating breakfast and having coffee outside on the patio in the morning.

The outdoor mural of the girl and the fig

For dinner, we went to the Girl and the Fig in downtown Sonoma.  The setting is so lovely; we sat in the outside patio by the firepits and under the twinkling lights.  The food was fairly straightforward and tasty, K. had the steak tartare, sauteed bay scallops, and a trio of ice creams: avocado, port and ?, and raspberry rhubarb.  The bay scallops were good, but I prefer my scallops more seared and close to rare, as opposed to sauteed and fully cooked.  I also prefer large scallops; bay scallops are small, about the size of a nickel.  The avocado ice cream (which sounded weird to me) was actually K's favorite.

 Steak Tartare: I love the deconstructed presentation with the lavender salt and mustard

Scallops

I had the bistro special prix fixe: fried oysters, arctic char,  and the cheese plate, which was a good deal at $32.  The oysters were huge and creamy, although the batter was too thick and cornmeal-y.  I still prefer the fried oysters at Malibu Seafood.  The arctic char was cooked perfectly; the skin was fried so that it was nice and crispy and the fish was still moist and flavorful; I'm not that familiar with arctic char but it reminded me of salmon.  You can never go wrong with cheese, and I liked the fig cake and spiced nuts that went along with the cheese plate.  I wouldn't say any of the dishes was particularly outstanding, but the whole ambiance was just lovely and we had such a nice meal, I would definitely return and also recommend the restaurant to friends.  To top off a perfect evening, our friend Jenny texted us that the Lakers beat the Celtics for the championship!!!

 I loved the little chive blossoms that accompanied the arctic char.  They had a mild oniony taste to them

For our anniversary every year, it has become a fun tradition to open bottles of our wedding wines to celebrate.  We brought in all of our wine to our wedding: we served Morgan 2006 Metallico Chardonnay, Chateau D'aiguilhe 2005 Cotes du Castillon Bordeaux, and Schramsberg 2005 Blanc de Noirs.  Not only were we able to serve wines we actually enjoyed, as opposed to being forced to pick out of a narrow list, we also saved a lot of money and had plenty of bottles leftover to drink on our anniversaries.  We brought a bottle of Schramsburg's 2005 Blanc de Noirs to the Girl and the Fig help kick off our anniversary weekend, which was delicious as usual and went well with all of our food as champagne usually does; to make it even better, the restaurant was nice enough to comp corkage for our anniversary.

The Girl and the Fig

110 West Spain Street

Sonoma, CA  95476

(707) 938-3634

...And We're Back

 Big Sur, CA

We're back in Santa Monica after a wonderful four day trip up north.  We went wine tasting in Sonoma and Healdsburg, went to the US Open at Pebble Beach, and went hiking in Big Sur.  We watched some great golf at a beautiful course, took in a lots of stunning coastal scenery, ate lots of amazing food and drank lots of good wine.  Pictures and reports to follow shortly...

Road Trip!

Bay Cities' Poorboy sandwich with the works (cotto salami, bologna, swiss cheese, mild peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mustard), you know what that means: road trip!! K. and I are headed up north, first stop tonight: Sonoma.

J Crew Styling

Aside from my recent Lululemon addiction (I just bought a pair of their reverse groove shorts and a top last week), I've really liked the clothes and accessories that J. Crew has been putting out lately.  I think a lot of it has to do with the styling of the clothes in the stores and website, which I credit to Jenna Lyons, the Creative Director of J. Crew.  I've loved her sense style ever since I saw her apartment featured in (the now defunct) Domino Magazine: see here for pictures.  I've recently purchased several of their lightweight embellished t-shirts, which are cute, fitted, slightly dressier and a nice change from the plain tank tops and concert tees that I normally wear.  Even better, they have been on sale recently.  This week, I bought one of their schoolboy style fitted blazers on sale, which will serve as a nice cover-up for the slightly chilly Santa Monica evenings.  It's a little fancier than my regular American Apparel hoodies and appropriate for dinner and drinks out on the town.

Golf in the South Bay

 It's a little hard to see, but that's all ocean beyond the green

Sunday afternoon, K. and I headed south to Rancho Palos Verdes to play golf at Los Verdes golf course.  We randomly got paired up with one of K's college friends that he hadn't seen since graduation, so it was fun catching up in addition to playing golf.  Los Verdes is located on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and there were some pretty stunning ocean views, particularly on holes 15 and 16.  Pretty impressive for a public golf course, and it was only $30 including a golf cart during twilight, after 3pm.  Unfortunately, it was mostly overcast from June gloom, so the views weren't as striking as they normally would have been.  We were able to play a full 18 holes starting at 3:24pm.  It was a little crowded and we had to wait on a couple of holes, but we didn't mind since we were with good company.  I was actually pretty happy with how I played; I was able to keep up with the guys for the most part  The course is hilly, but not too challenging; I didn't even lose any balls. 

Reminds me a little of Pebble Beach, where we are going next week!

The only bummer was that I lost my drivers license somewhere on the back nine, so I'm currently blogging from the Santa Monica DMV.  Do not believe the wait times on the website; it said only 29 minutes on the website but I've been waiting almost an hour with quite a bit longer to go.  The annoying lady next to me is filling out a stack of greeting cards that play music when opened; good thing I have headphones.

After golf, we dined at I-naba Restaurant, which is conveniently on the way back to the freeway. I thought it was a pretty good dinner deal, for $20, you get a small salad, choice; of sushi an rolls or marinated tuna bowl, assorted tempura and a hot or cold soba or udon.  I got the marinated tuna bowl and cold soba. They are particularly known for their cold soba and it was indeed delicious; thin, toothsome, chewy, without any graininess. Their tempura us also quite well known, It was perfectly deep fried with light and crispy batter.  It was definitely a good finish to a long afternoon of golf.

Los Verdes Golf Course
7000 West Los Verdes Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA  90275
(310) 377-7370

I-naba Restaurant
20920 Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance, CA  90503
(310) 371-6675

Umami Again

My cousin was in town on Saturday so we took them to Umami at Fred Segal for a Saturday lunch outside in the sun.  Since we were a larger group, we had the opportunity to try many menu items that we didn't have last time (food on the left, beer on the right).

 Most of the newcomers ordered the Umami Burger; everyone really enjoyed the different and diverse flavors of the burger:

I ordered the special turkey burger with bacon, beer cheddar cheese and avocados and my cousin ordered the manly burger, a beef patty with beer cheddar cheese, bacon lardons, and crispy sea salt onion strings.  My turkey burger was a mistake; I knew I should have stuck with real burgers at a burger place.  The patty was dry and not very flavorful and I thought they were a bit stingy with the cheese.  Manly on the left, turkey on the right:

We also tried a bunch of sides (from top: onion rings, french fries, cheesy tater tots and sweet potato fries).  I liked the light crispiness of the batter of the onion rings, but they were a little flavorless.  I liked the cheesy tater tots with the gooey cheesy center. 

A Saturday afternoon under the sun with burgers isn't complete without lots of beer.  We had the Northcoast Pranqster (again), Hitachino White Ale, Unibroue's Trois Pistoles, and a blueberry sparkling sake.  I liked the Trois Pistoles a lot, it was dark, but not too heavy with lots of flavor.  The Hitachino white was a little too light to stand up to the burger (and relative to the other beers).  The blueberry sparkling sake was prettier than it tasted; just a little too sweet.

 

Umami Burger at Fred Segal

500 Broadway

Santa Monica, CA  90401

(310) 451-1300

Floyd After

Not sure if Floyd likes his haircut; he looks like a lost little lamb

Yes, that is the same dog; the ears are the only clue.  We gave Floyd his first in-home haircut yesterday.  Armed with almost $200 worth of equipment from Jeffers and Amazon, we were ready to give it our best shot.  We figured since grooming around here costs ~$65+, the equipment pays for itself pretty quickly, plus we might be more encouraged to do it on a regular basis to prevent him from becoming a shaggy mess in the first place. We bought the Andis AGC Super 2 speed clippers, 2 Andis 7FC blades, a dremel for their nails, curved shears from Fromm, and assorted clipper accessories.  I highly recommend Jeffers, based out of Alabama, for pet supplies; they have great prices on all sorts of equipment.  Floyd was pretty matted, plus it's getting warm outside, so we gave him a summer cut where we pretty much shaved him down completely.  Our new friend Sue, who was a former dog groomer, was kind enough to advise us on all the right equipment to buy and also come over and show us how to do it.  It took over an hour because of the sheer volume of hair and also because of all the mats, which are tricky, but Floyd was quite patient through it all and very well-behaved.  We'll probably continue to cut his body to this length on a monthly basis, but leave more hair around his face, so he doesn't look so peculiar.  His ears look huge on his tiny body.  Floyd mid-cut:

Takes many hands to do this

Almost ready for his close up

 Otis is thinking, "who is this dog next to me, and what did you do with Floyd?"