Day 61: Happy One-Year!!!

The plan was to celebrate our one-year anniversary with a romantic hot-air balloon ride, to parallel with skydiving together on Day 60 of 60 Things in 60 Days... only this time, we weren't going to be doing any jumping.

We say, "The Plan" only because an arson struck and lit the Clayton Fire the day before we were set to take off. We only got to step foot in the balloon for 10ish minutes before setting back down so that fire crews could control the airspace. Well... sugar. 


We weren't going to let one a-hole ruin our one-year. So we powered our way back the hour van ride to our car so we could power through another hour back to our hotel. We took the advice of some facebook friends who recommended Oxbow Market as a local point of interest.

We were not disappointed; this place was so cool. It was very reminiscent of Chelsea Market in New York with a multitude of smaller shops all existing in a shared space. We checked out a spice market, a soap shop, and a store that would let you buy your meat and then watch as they cooked it for you. 







We went to Kitchen Door for a spot to take a load off and enjoy something delicious. Looking around us, we saw most people enjoying a variety of flatbreads. We went with a stuffed pancake for myself and some Korean short ribs for Ellaine. They were both so good. Highly recommend checking out Oxbow for anyone coming to the area.

We rounded out our one-year with a few more wineries, including Stags' Leap, where we bought two bottles of their Cabernet Sauvignon, and Mumm Napa, who is known for their Champagne (or sparkling wine since we're not in France). After some delicious wine, we enjoyed a great dinner at The Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch. Overall, this has been an amazing 61 days. Challenging and tiring, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing wife and such a wonderful best friend.

Check out our summary post for our take aways.

Day 60: Wine Cave

At the recommendation of our friends, Chanty and Jimmy, we booked a wine cave tour with Del Dotto Vineyards!


Good gosh this place was neat. They took us back among a few hundred barrels and helped to educate us on the process of how they source their barrels and what wood they use when placing it. One thing we learned is that each barrel can go for anywhere between $400 - $1600. (We are now considering planting a few oak trees. Give us 30 some years and we should be pretty well off.)

We got to try different varietals and our guide just kept trying to gauge what wines we liked the most. Ellaine and I clearly have good taste as my favorite clocked in at a svelte $175 per bottle while Ellaine's was $205. We have been to some wineries with their top ends being delicious, but the lower ones lacking. Not so much here, despite being advised to pour out our excess wine after every tasting, we only poured it out once as everything was so good.

Of great fascination to me (and not so much to Ellaine), was the mold and slime growing on the inside of the cave walls. I have heard about this before, especially with cheese caves, but I had never actually seen for myself what this actually was. Literally every inch of the walls was covered with a slime called Baudoinia compniacensis. It only grows in areas with significant alcohol vapor for multiple years. I probably spent more time staring at the walls and all the colors of the slime than I did at the tour guide.  


The penultimate part of the whole tour was after they brought us out of the caves and served us some cured meats. Turns out, there were a few individuals from another Napa winery in the group with us. Each of the wineries seems to have a friendly rivalry with each other, so Del Dotto decided to bring out their A-Game to impress these guys. They went and shared a glass of their Beast Wine from a cask that had already been sold out. Great googily, this was something else. 

I can't take any credit for this one, it's all on Ellaine. Thank you to my wonderful wife for arranging such an awesome venue for us to visit.

Day 59: Union Square

After arriving at SFO late Thursday/early Friday, we made plans to stay at an airport hotel to get some rest. We woke up in the morning, grabbed a shuttle to car rental by the airport, and headed into Union Square to meet up with my cousin, Venus, for lunch!

Although we've both been to San Francisco before, neither of us had ever been to Union Square.. and I'm sad we couldn't spend more time there shopping! We were, however, so happy to catch up with my cousin, who works in the heart of Union Square!

We hadn't seen Venus since she and her family flew out for our wedding one year ago this past weekend. She so kindly treated us to lunch at Aquitaine, a cute wine bar in Union Square. It was so great to have some time to catch up with her, and make plans to see each other again when she flies out to NJ for a wedding in September. We look forward to catching up with her parents next Monday!

Day 58: Leaving on a Jet Plane...

And we're off!

I took an early leave from work and Cole worked locally on Thursday, so we wouldn't chance missing our flight to Napa. Even though we'll be landing around midnight, and staying at a nearby airport hotel, we wanted to get dressed up to start our trip off on the right foot.

Bradley-> Detroit-> SFO, here we come!!!

Day 57: Packing...

For Napa!

We are so incredibly excited! The weather looks great, and we cannot wait to celebrate one year of marriage at the River Terrace Inn. I've packed dresses and shorts for sunny, 90 degree weather, and Cole's got his shorts and sunscreen.

It'll be our first time ever in Napa, and we've got lots of places to visit, thanks to recommendations from friends and family! Stay tuned for updates on our weekend getaway!

Day 56: Things We're Grateful For

Over the course of the past 56 days, Cole and I have found so much to be grateful for... so much so, that we decided to independently come up with a list of things throughout the day and share our lists at the end of the night.

With so much of our focus on the negative, we wanted to take the time to remind ourselves just how lucky we are. It's funny, because a lot of the things we were grateful for were the same:
-each other
-our families
-our friends
-Mini
-our careers
-our home

In spite of everything that has happened since late April, we still have reason to be grateful and appreciative of everyone and everything around us. We truly are lucky, and appreciate the love and encouragement we've received from everyone, Mini included.

Day 55: Late-Night Stroll

To catch Pokemon at Fernridge Park! OK, so about Cole and I nerding out...

When we flew out to Denver for Grant and Megan's wedding, Cole and Brett played Pokemon Go everywhere: Rio Grande, Streets at South Glenn, Bad Daddy's, Alpine Sliding... you name it. And I didn't hesitate to make fun of them, or the dozens of people playing around us at any given point in time.

Call me a hypocrite. Cole, unbeknownst to me, downloaded the app on my phone. When I found it, I opened it up and played around a little bit... and I was hooked. Surprisingly, I've used the game to encourage myself to get out and walk, which bodes well for us since neither of us ever used our free gym pass.

So, late Monday night, Cole and I took Mini for a walk over to the park, since we could spin the "spinning wheel" to earn more balls and take over a gym while there. I was able to replenish my ball count and catch enough Eevees to evolve into a Flareon.

p.s. this is a judgment-free zone.

Day 54: Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Cole and I both grew up reading (and loving) all the Dr. Seuss books, and have every intention of passing our love for these books on to our kiddos someday.

Not too long after learning that we were pregnant, Cole and I began thinking of ideas for the nursery. We (well, Cole) decided pre-pregnancy that we would not find out our baby's sex until the delivery. So, we tried to think of gender neutral themes together, and picked Dr. Seuss. I pinned nursery ideas based on Oh, the Places You'll Go, and Cole was excited to project Truffula Trees from The Lorax all over the walls.


Yesterday, Cole and I drove 40 minutes up to Springfield, MA, home of the Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden. Though we've both traveled to the area several times before, neither of us had ever been there. The garden was created by Dr. Seuss's stepdaughter, Sculptor Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, and boasts over 30 bronze sculptures of Dr. Seuss story characters (including the Lorax, the Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, and Horton), and one of Dr. Seuss himself. 

The most touching, though, is a sculpture of the book "Oh, the Places You'll Go". We recalled the story of a man who gifted his daughter a copy of this book, signed by each of her teachers and mentors over the last 13 years... an idea that we want to steal for our children someday. Together, Cole and I stood reading every word. We wrapped our arms around each other as we read: "And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted, But mostly they're darked." We reflected on the slump that we had been in following our loss, and the un-slumping that we've done together over the past 54 days. There are hard days, still, and this was one of them.

Then Dr. Seuss reminded us: "But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though the enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are."

We still look forward to reading Dr. Seuss to our kids. And we hope that it is as inspiring to them as it was, and still is, to us: "You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. Get on your way!"

Day 53: First Gold!!

Four years ago, one of our earlier dates was sitting together and watching the spectacular show that was the Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics. We both remember that night fondly and talk about it from time to time. We both were fans of the Olympics, but this date in particular has amped up our passion for the world showing.

So, we wanted to try to get even more out of the event and wanted to watch events that we have never watched before. We knew that this was on our list from when we first started planning our list of firsts, but until today, we weren't entirely sure what event would be the new thing.

After watching the Opening Ceremony the night before in Philly with the Eadie family, we checked the list to see what was on the docket for Day 1. We found that the very first event that awarded a medal for the games was the Women's 10m Air Rifle event. It was so new to us that when I told Ellaine there was a shooting event, she assumed that it was archery.

So we sat and watched as contestants suited up in ridiculously stiff outfits (to help them stand in a set position) and lined up with their target 10m down range from them. The guns did not use powder, but propelled each shot with compressed air. The targets aimed at have a dot that is the size of lead in a mechanical pencil with scoring awarded based on how close to the dot each pellet hits.

Out of the gate, Virginia Thrasher (who has a super 'Murican name) hit a perfect bull's eye! She didn't have the lead the whole time, but started to separate herself from the rest of the pack and eventually triumphed. So our new sport happened to be the first American Gold medal won of the games and the first gold won by any country!

While it's a little ironic that our first Gold came in shooting, I can't help but feel super proud to be an American! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Day 52: Eye of the Tiger

Since we got into the city late, we decided to head back down after my visit to explore a little more. We found ourselves a nice restaurant where we got to sit out on the patio and enjoy the sun with some happy hour beverages. The plan was to get a picture with the LOVE sign that exemplifies the city of Brotherly Love. Until we got there and figured this out:


wah-wah

So, what did we do instead? We thought about it and finally came up with some more Philly cultural iconography. Liberty Bell, maybe? Nah, I'd already done that. Independence Hall, perhaps?  Not today. No, we went to see the famous Rocky Steps (aka Philadelphia Museum of Art steps) to get a picture with the Rocky statue and run the steps. They even had the temporary "AMOR" sculpture by Robert Indiana still standing at the top of the steps.

There were lots of tourists who had the same idea.  We had to wait in line to get our picture, and enjoyed what may have been the best view of the Philly skyline we had ever seen. Philly is a neat city that Ellaine got to explore for the first time ever, and we will definitely be visiting again in the near future.

Day 51: Philly Cheesesteaks

I was fortunate to get myself a last second meeting arranged in Northern New Jersey for the end of the week. As it is less than an hour from the account down to Philadelphia, we decided to make an event out of it.  

Over the years, Ellaine and I have driven down to North Carolina and Washington DC (twice) which has taken us right by Philadelphia. Literally, we could see the skyline and though we kept talking about dipping into the city for a cheesesteak, we never actually did.

That was until Thursday night. We had been steered to Jim's as a better cheesesteak than Pat's or Geno's, but we had to establish a baseline for what was the "best". We decided to try out Pat's for the first time, and were super excited about the meal. We hadn't eaten since lunch and it was a very long drive down, so we didn't sit down until at least 9.

The sandwiches we got weren't great, but they were at least filling. The meat was cut pretty thick and they somehow managed to serve a sandwich that was both dripping grease while being incredibly dry.  

So we won't exactly chalk this one up as a great success, but I did enjoy the ride on down and loved that I got to explore another new city with my best friend. We'll update you tomorrow for some more fun around the city. 

 

Day 50: First Tux

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to keep it fancy. Since I was a wee one, I have been pretty comfortable in a formal get up. In 6th grade (roughly), I even let myself get talked into taking a cotillion class (mostly so that I could dance with pretty girls in fancy dresses).

When Ellaine and I first met, she quickly picked up on my aspiring daperness, but also recognized that, without proper guidance, I would never actually be a fancy pants. So she dressed me up and picked up three suit jackets with a full suit so that I could wear them to our myriad of weddings and professionally. She took it a step further a few months later and bought me my first bow tie. I did not even know how to tie one, but soon enough I learned and it has since become a signature of mine.

So when we got an invitation to the Silvano-Leva wedding that said it was "Black Tie Optional", we saw an opportunity. The only tuxedo I have ever worn was for my senior prom. As I'm no longer expecting to grow, coupled with the fact that I'm a little more forgiving to my clothing now, we went shopping for a deal. We found that tux rentals go from $120 - $190 depending on the outfit, shoes, and how modern it is. So when we spotted a Jos A Bank special for less than 2x this, it was a done deal. I don't know when I will wear the outfit again, but I have one on the books and will keep my eyes peeled for the next affair.

I am grateful that Ellaine could hunt out such a deal for us, and to Jos A Bank (the same group that helped us out with the wedding suits) for being so easy to work with.  Their advice helped me to pull the whole outfit together and I am happy to say that I am officially a proud owner of my very own tuxedo.

Day 49: Dinner Reservations...

In Napa!

With our first-ever trip to Napa Valley just a week away, we spent Tuesday making dinner reservations for the nights we will be there. Being the (borderline) Type A planner that I am, I wanted to make sure that we made arrangements in advance, because I knew that all the great restaurants in the area would fill quickly. Lucky for Cole, I was staunch on doing our research (personal recommendations, TripAdvisor, Yelp) and booking our dinners; even with booking 10 days out, we were left with either early or late dinners each night. Regardless, we know that these dinners will be phenomenal! 

We've got a few ideas and recommendations for lunch (and wineries to visit), and welcome any additional input you may have!

 

Day 48: NYT Crossword Puzzle

A few weeks ago, Cole and I attempted to complete the Saturday edition of the NYT crossword puzzle as our first; we failed miserably.

One of my favorite things about my relationship with Cole is our love of nerding out together: we watch Jeopardy three nights a week (and are competitive with each other), download NPR podcasts for road trips, take long walks catching Pokemon together, and  watch Brain Games on Netflix. Something the both of us have always wanted to do, is (finish) a NYT crossword puzzle.

A few weeks ago, Cole and I picked up the Saturday edition of the NYT, walked to The Center with Mini, and sat down to do the crossword puzzle. For some reason, we thought that the Saturday puzzle was the easiest... but we quickly learned that that was not the case. We promised ourselves that we wouldn't use our phones to look up any answers, but said we could use our "phone a friend" for help. Well, after an hour, we came up with six answers: two were right, two were WRONG, and two were "phone a friend" answers (thank you Annette and Uncle Larry). We then learned that Saturdays were considered the most difficult day to do the puzzle, and that Mondays were considered the easiest. Exasperated, we gave up.

So, this past Monday, Cole and I picked up another NYT and sat down in our living room to complete the puzzle. Incredibly, we did not need any help with this one. It took us about 1.5 hours to do, but WE DID IT... on our own... as a team. Feeling a great sense of accomplishment, Cole asked if we could make this a monthly tradition; I agreed that this would be a fun activity for us to do. Moving forward, our google calendars now have the event "NYT Crossword" for the first Monday of every month.

Day 47: Bananas Foster

It's been said that the potassium in bananas helps to alleviate muscle soreness. After Saturday's five hour hike, Cole and I are all sorts of sore... but I'm not a huge fan of bananas.

I am, however, a fan of desserts. So, Cole looked up a way to get some bananas in me by making Bananas Foster, a dessert made with bananas and vanilla ice cream, with a topping made up of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and rum. Cole's favorite part? The butter, brown sugar and bananas are cooked, then the rum is added and ignited. I'm not sure how immediate the effects of the bananas are supposed to be, but I was still sore after eating my dessert. The Bananas Foster was delicious, though, and a sweet treat after a physically draining hike the day before.