Thursday - San Ramon
I'm headed to San Ramon for ACB band convention. The coastal community concert band was one of the 6 bands (out of 300), picked to play for the convention. My conductor is ecstatic needless to say, which means there's a ton of conflict/stress prepping for the concert.
We had a great concert at San Ramon, with 200 to 300 audience that gave a spontaneous standing ovation. I think we are all so stressed up that we just decide to play and have a good time and ignored the bad ju ju .. Works well =)
The drama of the trip: Yours truly has forgotten that this band has switched to black shoes. I took a 6 months sabbatical and completely forgotten the "important stuff". So 30 mins before the concert, i happily took out my white shoes and saw my roommate Suzy's jaw drop! Her first comment : "one of us is in trouble, as i brought black shoes".
Friday - San Francisco
The next day, i took the band bus and went to SF with them for a few hours.We headed to golden gate bridge for a walk, before going to Pier 39 for 3 hours.
Instead of being part of the thousands of tourists at Pier 39, I decide to walk to Chinatown instead to get egg tarts, before heading for pizza at north shore.
http://www.goldenboypizza.com/
This place has very good pizza sold by the slice. It's not thin crust pizza though, but their crust is tasty and soft. I ordered a slice of garlic/clam and a slice of combination pizza.
And sat in the park to eat my lunch, while watching Tony pizza's crew play soccer and riling up a small dog =)
After that, dessert - ice cream from Ghiradelli ice cream store at Ghiradelli square. It's still crowded and still yummy.I saw the Americas Cup boat sail by, while crossing the bay bridge. Pretty cool !
And cute little soft toys at hard rock cafe !
Sat - Napa Valley
First stop: Buchon bakery
tsk tsk.. no drinking on an empty stomach and what better than a french bakery to kick start an American wine tasting!http://bouchonbakery.com/
We ordered a leek and Gorgonzola quiche and it is very good. Custard is nice and smooth, good yet not overpowering flavor of Gorgonzola. Superb balance and execution.
The whole wheat baguette is tasty but might be more than a day old. Works well to mop up the quiche though.
I never leave a french bakery without buying their macaron. I saved it for dessert later, of course. Their macarons are not cheap @$3.95 a piece, although they are twice the size of a typical macaron.
After that ,we stop at Napa Style and packed a sandwich for lunch at the deli inside the store.
2nd stop: Chandon winery
The tasting room is decorated like a modern high end bar which I like, a lot.
3rd stop: Jessup winery
This is a very good winery and arguably the best wines that we tasted for the whole day.
They specialize in white wines, especially chardonnay, to give it a buttery yet oak-y taste that's well balanced.
4th stop : Peju winery
I heard of this place on Yelp and decide to try out a small local winery. The tasting room has stain glass decor, very pretty. And we had a fun bartender that's very entertaining.. Tasting is also at $20 per person, but we find the wine isn't too great. Probably won't go back there.
5th stop: Sattui winery
Came highly recommended by a few friends, especially their deli. So we decide to check it out.
It's like Disneyland on booze..
While the deli is absolutely ooommmppphhh (i want to buy everything on sight), the grounds are super crowded, especially with families and kids. I will definitely plan on another place for picnic lunch next time.
This is lunch, 2 delish sandwiches (one from Sattui Deli and one from Napa Style Deli) with a pasta salad. And the macaron for dessert, all washed down wtih the bottle of Reisling.After that we had an easy afternoon stroll around downtown Napa before heading back to hotel and ordered Indian food for dinner. It's very tasty and a good deal @ 20 bucks total for all the food.
Sun
Driving around visiting Bill's family. Didn't hit traffic but it's a chilly day.. Brrr.. isn't it spring already??
Their plate is bigger than my body and their pork chops are bigger than my face. A week supply of fried food.. all yummy.. but who can eat so much food in one seating??
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