Califor-ni-a

We vacationed to California this summer for our friends wedding. Jimmy & I flew into San Francisco on Thursday and made the short drive up to Geyserville. First stop... winery, of course. We had a great dinner Thursday night, but remained fairly low key because we knew we had a big weekend ahead of us. Friday entailed a wine tour by bus, which was so fun. We went to 3 wineries and had a great time... not hard to do with yummy wine, good friends and beautiful scenery. Another group rolled into town on Friday so we met up with them at the house we rented before the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was at 2:30 on Saturday, but of course we managed to get to a couple more wineries before the ceremony. The wedding festivities were beautiful - congrats Tom & Maggie! Here are a list of the wineries we went to incase you are ever in the Sonoma area and need recommendations:

Geyser Peak - http://www.geyserpeakwinery.com/
Limerick Lane - http://limericklanewines.com/
Sbragia - http://sbragia.com/
Cellar No. 8 - http://cellarno8.com/
Pedroncelli - http://www.pedroncelli.com/
Bella - http://www.bellawinery.com/ (our favorite!)

After Geyserville, Jimmy & I spent a few days in San Francisco. We hit all the tourist spots... Union Square, China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, Goldent Gate bridge, Alcatraz, etc.

Enjoy the pics!


ahhh... Bella. They had a great setup. Comfty chairs in perfect weather, listening to live music and sipping wine.


The happy couple

Jimmy at Alcatraz

Full House houses :)

Alcatraz in the background and LOTS of sea lions below us... sorry, they didn't make the blog!

Lombard Street

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are about to head out to the Vatican city. Just a typical Thanksgiving morning. :) Not sure what the rest of the day will bring.

We had a good day yesterday and walked ALL over the city it felt like. The Colosseum is really neat; we really enjoyed that. We have seen lots of pretty churces, but haven't stopped by the one you mentioned yet, Rori. Maybe tonight we will eat at Hosteria La Carbonara??

Hopefully we will post some pics of Rome when we get to Anne and Craig's tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving! Miss everyone!

Viva Roma!

Hello! We made it to Rome yesterday afternoon. Our hotel is right by the Spanish steps so last night before dinner we saw that and the Trevi Fountain, which was really pretty at night.

This morning we are going to head over to Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Navona and whatever else we might find. And this afternoon we plan on doing the Colosseum and that area. Looking forward to what we might see. Any recommendations?

Okay, Kellen... I know we took a picture of Mona Lisa even though we weren't supposed to, but we fit right in with all of those Chinese tourists at the Louvre. No one was taking photos of David at the Accademia so we couldn't be that guy. :)

Goodbye Florence, hello Rome!

Duomo, check.


People warned us that it was close quarters climbing up in the Duomo, but whoa.
Really pretty views though on the climb up!

David, check. I'm glad we did this - definitely worth it! He was huge and amazing to see in person.

We're taking the train to Rome this afternoon. So, that's all from Florence.

Taylor, look who we met this morning...

Shelley, is it true?

We ate at this great little Florentine restaurant tonight... Acqua Al 2. Wonderful pasta sampler... tasting of 5 local pastas. Or so they say. Per our concierge, "best steak in Florence". Filet smothered in balsamic. And it was... it was good! Just a cute little local place.


And then we left. And the sign said:

Firenze and SAN DIEGO?! Is it true?! This wonderful small Florentine restaurant is in SAN DIEGO??!??? Shelley, please confirm.

One thing that remains true to Firenze... gelato. Yummo desserto.

Rainy day

I think you all jinxed us by talking about the beautiful weather in our pictures from yesterday... it rained all day today! :) We planned on taking the tour I mentioned yesterday, but...

thanks to our new Russian friend, Uhlig or Olig (its a little fuzzy)...
and complimentary Chianti from the waiter....

...departure time seemed just a little too early this morning. : / We'll probably regret not going, but hey, now we have something to look forward to for next time, right??

So we got a bit of a late start today, but our first stop was Santa Croce. More famous dead people! Very pretty church with lots of history... it was built in 1245!

Here is Michelangelo's tomb:

So Rori, I'm confused about the David. The real one is in the Galleria dell'Accademia, is that right? Is there a copy in one of the piazzas or something? I feel like I've read conflicting info?? Who knows! Tomorrow morning we're going to get up early and climb to the top of the Duomo and maybe we'll squeeze in a viewing of David if we can figure out where the real one is.

Well, almost time for happy hour and hopefully another great Italian meal... and we still need our gelato fix for the day too! I started out with coffee and chocolate and Jimmy had 2 random flavors, but of course they were still delicious. Last night we had vanilla and chocolate at dinner... we didn't get to pick those flavors (we're not that boring), but again, delicious!

Hope all is well at home. I'm sure you're all looking forward to the short week with Thanksgiving. :) Talk soon!

Great views of Florence

Breakfast :)

We saw Florence today from Giardino de Biboli and Piazzale Michelangelo - very pretty!

Tomorrow we decided to take the guided tour, which will take us to Siena, San Gimignano and a couple other cities. Thought it was the thing to do per all of your great recommendations - thank you for those!

Tuesday morning before we leave we plan to go inside the Duomo and climb to the top since we didn't get to do that today. Hopefully we can squeeze in a little more shopping too! ;) We leave for Rome on Tuesday afternoon so should have plenty of time.

Well, its almost time for happy hour. Hope everyone is doing well!