Bischoff's in the Bay Area

We are back from Napa and San Francisco! We had such a great time on our much needed vacation and spent time seeing every inch of the city and drinking every sip of wine in the valley. We flew into Oakland to stay with Brian's family for a few days while we toured San Fran. We got some great views of the city and ate at some great restaurants. Here we are at the Golden Gate Bridge! We were too lazy to ride bikes across it, but we were still able to get an amazing picture. Awe...

Here we are waiting in a very long line to ride the famous cable car. We finally got on the 4th one that came by and paid $5.00 each...Brian was not near as impressed as I was, but he rode it anyway. Thanks babe!

On to Napa!! We did not want to come home...being in Napa was just incredible and I know we could spend forever there if we had too. Great food, great wine, and great company. Luckily we brought enough wine back with us to be able to enjoy Napa in Dallas for quite some time.

One of the many beautiful views of the Napa Valley. No matter what angle you stand or which way you look you are surrounded by absolute beauty. If only I could wake up to this everyday.

This was one of the cutest little places to eat. It had such a great deli with all kinds of meats and cheeses. They also sell all kinds of olive oils and vinegars...I loved just looking around. One of my other favorite lunch spots was at the winery V.Sattui. It had the most amazing deli counter with all kinds of sandwich choices as well as prepared pasta salads, potato salads, olives, cheeses, crackers, spreads...the list goes on and on. And their wine wasn't bad either. We knocked out a full bottle during our very first lunch here in Napa. What about dinner you ask? The first night we ate at Market where we had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed some good ole mac and cheese. The next night we went to dinner at Bottega, Michael Chiarello's new restaurant. Where do I begin with this one? AMAZING. We started with bread and a dip consisting of garlic, parmesan, scallions, olive oil, lemon and maybe some other stuff that was delicious. We then moved on to our appetizer of a fried dough ball wrapped in prosciutto and dipped in a sweet wine sauce. Next up, the Rabbit Ragu over pasta followed by Lamb Rib Chops with Figs over polenta. Brian had to roll me back to the hotel. (I am still dreaming of that Rabbit Ragu by the way...it was delightful) And finally, we finished our trip in Napa with dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen where we brought our own wine and got free corkage. Here we had some of the best Oysters I have ever had and definitely one of the best Caesar salad's I have ever had. I just need to make a little more money so next time we can wine and dine ourselves at the French Laundry where it costs only $250 a person and doesn't include wine, just a glass of champagne. I wonder if I would even be able to appreciate and understand the complexity of the 9 courses? I am willing to try...

Me at the winery of Brian's favorite Cabernet, Silver Oak. I don't know why it's me and not him in the picture though...I was in a hurry to get to the wine I guess.

Great view at the top of Sterling. Not award wining wine, but great views.

The new Castle, built by V.Sattui was incredible. The tour was great and extremely interesting. They actually have space to barrel all the wine under the hill in a cave format to keep the wine at a constant 55 degrees year round. The place goes on forever...

Here is Brian in the torture chamber sitting on a chair with 100s of iron spikes that are heated internally from a fire beneath. It looks more like he is on his throne.

Here we are enjoying our final tasting of the week...

We had to stop by the Culinary Art Institute in Napa! I had to see if there were any unique gadgets or gizmos I needed. Didn't find any, but it was still fun. I did learn a lot about the local ingredients and how to better pair my wine with my meal choices at home.