A large tomato at the Duchamp WInery
The seasons have turned to fall. For us, it was time for our sometimes-annual trip to Northern California’s wine country ostensibly to pick up our allotment of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. What started as a trip that (more…)
Cocktails at Cyrus, “Grapes of Wrath” and “Ichabod’s Revenge”
Our nearly yearly trip north to wine country gives us a chance to visit one of our favorite restaurants in Northern California, Cyrus. This fall we dined at the two Michelin starred Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg for a third time. We enjoyed our meal at Cyrus on our (more…)
Nearly thirteen years ago Becky and I stopped by the Peninsula Humane Society to look at the dogs. Becky’s old dog Sam had just passed and though we told ourselves that we weren’t ready for a new dog; we were just looking. None of the dogs seemed right. They (more…)
Preparing pimentos de Padron at home
There was just no denying it. We came back from Spain with a serious hankering for pimentos de Padron. Somewhere, with our nine plates of these little green peppers in Spain, we’d become addicted. No late night shakes and (more…)
The waterside terminal tower of Transbordador Aeri del Port or Barcelona’s Harbor Cable Car
We try to maximize Becky’s travel days by scheduling our return departures for Sundays. For this trip the best we could do with our complex frequent flyer ticket arrangements was a late Saturday departure and an overnight layover in (more…)
The spectrum of macarons at Bubo
Barcelona had become a familiar and comfortable base. The city offers much more to see and do but our visit was rapidly coming to an end. On our last full day, it was time to see the places in (more…)
Lest it has been forgotten, the theme of our trip to Spain was food and wine. On Thursday we headed an hour outside of Barcelona to Girona to visit one of our favorite restaurants in the world, El Celler de Can Roca. This would be our second visit to this (more…)
Inside the nave of Sagrada Familia
Our day started slowly. Late in the morning, the metallic, mechanical sound of our room’s Nespresso coffee machine ejecting spent cartridges filled the room. We were tired and Becky was brewing an excessively large number of shots of coffee. A shower soon followed our (more…)
A statue of El Cid in Burgos
Our stay in Burgos would be short. We rose early and before we left went out into the dewy morning air and explored on foot. We entered the old town as the warm sunlight was just kissing the upper reaches of the cathedral. The streets were clean and empty. (more…)
Bodega Ysios seen in the morning light
Our cell phone’s alarm clock rang early. We were tired from the travel, but forced ourselves up and out into the early morning light. This was the last hours of our short stay in La Rioja and we wanted to make the most of it.
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