Living the Wildlife

I thought y'all might have needed time to recover from Chris's blog, so last week I skipped the update. Hopefully, you're ready for more now. Rest assured... I'll be taking the reigns from here on out.

So, there are a couple weekends worth of stories to share. Weekend before last was pretty fantastic. We went to the the Ski and Snowboard Festival on Saturday. It was full of vendors, resorts, exhibits and free wine and  beer. Who can say no to that?! Plus, we got free and discounted lift tickets, hotel stays, etc. When we left, we thought it would be a great idea to check out one of the local casinos. San Jose has 2 casinos that existed before any gambling laws, so they've been able to stick around. While I will definitely chalk it up as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I'm not sure we'll be going back any time soon. S-K-E-T-C-H-Y. The other descriptors I would use are mostly inappropriate, so we'll leave it at that. Sunday was for football and chores. See... our life isn't all glamour, people.

This past weekend was awesome! Friday night I walked around Los Gatos and did a little shopping. The holidays are arriving in full force, and it's so beautiful here. I'll post pics of the town soon. It definitely put me in the spirit. (Except that one store, which I'll leave nameless to protect its identity, was passing out drinks to everyone who was shopping.... except me! I couldn't get a Schnaup's shot if my life depended on it. Chris insists it's because I look like an 18 year old, which I hate to hear. Bah humbug.) The weather has been back and forth between perfect autumn days and rain. Luckily, Saturday was one of the perfect sort because we had outdoor plans! We woke up early to head to Monterey Bay. We were going WHALE WATCHING! We had coffee on the Fisherman's Wharf and then went on a three hour boat ride. We saw dolphins and humpback whales and met a little boy that was more entertaining than either of the previous. The captain made the mistake of saying the whales were three miles away at one point, so he kept shouting, "Has it been three miles yet?!" That was all before he told us that he used to know how to "speak whale". Unfortunate when people forget their native tongue as they get older, right? He also spotted Spongebob, Dora and Nemo among the other wildlife. Good eyes!

Sunday we went to our favorite bar for bloody marys and football. I mean, there are limited options when football starts at 10 a.m. and you don't get the game at home. Tough decision? I think not. Afterward, we did a little shopping in town until we got the idea to go wine tasting. The pictures below don't do the views justice, but we tried! We went to two new wineries up in the mountains. They are only about 4 miles away, but the winding roads make it seem like 30. We bought a case of wine at the first stop, so we're stocked up for a while now. I rationalized that we "needed" to buy it because it was on sale and it would save us money on our grocery bill. Hmmm... I'm rather surprised I got Chris to agree to that logic, because I'm still not sure I really do. Hopefully he doesn't read this. Odds are in my favor. So, you're all invited over for a glass (or two) of wine. We have plenty. :)

This is a short week, and we're super excited about Thanksgiving. Our friends graciously offered to host us, and now the group has grown to 11 people total. It should be a fun day of food, friends and football at the Bastards' Thanksgiving Celebration. I plan to cook a schmorgesborg, so it will be a busy kitchen Wednesday and Thursday. Big plans on the books for next weekend, but no one likes a spoiler, so mum's the word for now. Next time!

 This is from the top of the mountain. Fog filling in the valleys.

 Entrance to our favorite winery!

 Fisherman's Warf

Whale spout!

WAAAASSSSAAAAKKKKEEEE!!!!!!

  Steph has been hounding and hounding me to write the blog this time. I'm definitely not a writer; that is Steph's job. You guys that know, she is very persistant(annoying)j/k.  I don't have the great and witty words that she has, but I will give it a shot.
 Steph and I had a delicious dinner Thursday with Michael, Michelle, Tom and Betty in San Francisco at Paliminos.  It was great to see some familiar faces. Hope y'all had fun! After dinner, we stayed with our friend in San Francisco, which was nice for me because I've been commuting to the city for work the last few months.  The whole time we were there, we were thinking that we need to move to the city ,so we'll see!

Friday night we had dinner at a new restaurant in Los Gatos. They had Irish nachos which we were excited about, but they could not compare to J. Gilligans.  We ended the night at our favorite bar in Los Gatos, Carry Nations, and  Steph spent the the majority of the night trying to be match-maker for one of our friends. Sorry Dude!  Its probably not going to work out.

 Saturday was Sake time at Takara! Takara brewery was very interesting. We watched a video on how sake is made and died laughing at the very dramatic music. Takara had a museum with all the tools the Japanese used. The best part was a flight of sake was only 5 bucks, and a bottle of sake is 8 dollars. We did not know that there were so many different types of sake.We both had a fun time in Berkley. Of course after a tour of Takara, we had to have sushi. Then, we ended our Saturday night at Bocce Ball with a couple we're good friends with.  It's even sweeter that us guys beat the ladies. Check out the pictures.

  Sunday we spent the day in Palo Alto. We visited Ikea to get new bedding stuff and then headed to the nice down town strip. We ate delicious gyros and then we drove around Stanford. The campus was amazing!

This was my first blog and probably my last.  I hope that I kept ya'll interested.

Tasting Room

Sake Museum

Cheers!