TSM spent the last 25 hours up in the Syracuse area for a wedding. The weather was cold, but sunny. It was a nice escape from DC’s cold and rainy weather. My old GW coach, Rev. Greg Coan officiated at the wedding. It was great to see him and to see some old GW teammates that I hadn’t seen in years.
Now it’s back to cold and rainy DC.

I Try to Make Ravioli, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

So I tried to make ravioli tonight without much success. Next time, I think I’ll take a look at a recipe before I try to do this.

What did I use: 2 parts semolina to 1 part flour, 2 eggs, pork sausage, garlic, basil, olive oil, and a little black truffle. This was a big fail. I might try again with a real recipe tomorrow.

Jennifer Drives Through a Tree, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

They said a Kia Spectra couldn’t be driven through a redwood, but Jennifer has proven them wrong. We made this stop on Route 1 in California so Jennifer could fulfill a lifetime dream. After driving through a tree, we continued on to our B&B in Trinidad, California.

Bouchon Bakery, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

We picked up the car and drove north on Monday morning. We’re driving a Kia Spectra, which is about the type of car you’d expect it to be: small but reliable. And it has a great air conditioner. We drove to the Marin Headlands and tried to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was covered in fog. We had breakfast in Sausalito, checked out a Frank Lloyd Wright building in Marin County and then drove north to Sonoma County.

We stopped at four Sonoma wineries (might make a separate post on that later). We’re currently staying in Yountville and had dinner last night at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro. It was very, very good. The steak frites is served with enough frites for four people.

Today we checked out Napa wineries. The highlight was the tour at Schramsberg Winery which makes sparkling wines. The tour was excellent and we ended with five sparkling wines, including a champagne recently served at the White House.

We’re still figuring out exactly what we’re doing for dinner tonight, but we plan on staying local.

Japanese Tea Garden, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

We started off Sunday morning with an old-fashioned diner breakfast at Howard’s on 9th street. In California “old-fashioned” still means that your omelette comes with avocado. 

We checked out Golden Gate Park’s arboretum and had tea at the Japanese Tea Garden before hopping in a car to drive to Twin Peaks, one of the highest points in San Francisco with a great view of the city. The afternoon was spent checking out the Presidio and the Museum of Fine Arts, which has an unbelievable outdoor rotunda and columns.

We’ve been really impressed at the quality of the meals in SF. Joe and Wendy took us out to a local Thai restaurant for our last meal in San Francisco and we stuffed ourselves with Tom Ka Gai, satay, and curries. 

Live Uni, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

Last night we went out to dinner with Wendy and Joe to the local sushi place. The highlight of the evening was definitely the live sea urchin and it’s presentation. The urchin is opened up by the chef and then presented at the table on top of the shell. Joe described the taste best by saying that it has a slightly nutty flavor. I’m not sure how to describe the texture except to say that it’s delicate. Great meal!

In-Flight Cookie!, originally uploaded by DC_Jeff.

So we’ve made it to San Francisco!  We got up this morning well before the crack of dawn at 4am and had Ashley drive us to Reagan National at 4:45 (thanks Ashley!).  Check-in was a breeze and we took advantage of the Einstein Bagels stand right outside the security checkpoint. Midwest flight 2391 left the gate on time at 6:10am and after a 2 hour in-flight nap we found ourselves at Kansas City International Airport. I don’t think either one of us has anything good to say about KCI; it doesn’t have any food available within the security zone. 
Our flight left KCI about an hour late because of fog in San Francisco. The flight was on a Boeing 717 and the seats had an amazing amount of legroom. Obviously Midwest is not aware that it’s acceptable to pack in passengers like sardines these days.  Midwest serves fresh baked cookies on their flights (something I wasn’t aware of) and it was torture having to smell them as I waited for the cart to make it all the way back to row 20. 

It’s finally done!!  This project took forever and I’d definitely change a few things if I did this again, but right now I’m just happy that the television is on the wall.

This is a collection of two days when I patched, sanded, and primed the surface.