Happy Anniversary

Happy 4th Anniversary to us!!

Wine Country 2011

It has been so  long since an update! Life has been super busy with work and play. I will just talk about the play. In February George had to interview a pathologist for an expert witness for work at Stanford in Palo Alto, CA. So we made a 4 day weekend of it. We had been to San Francisco and Napa before so we decided to stay at a B&B in Sonoma and do a little wine tasting. It was a blast and the weather was perfect, high 70's (in February!). We flew into San Fran Saturday around lunch time and ate a quick lunch in China Town at the Nan King, the house noodles were delicious, I am still craving them. We then drove to Sonoma and checked into the Gables B&B, adorable. The owners were so personable and breakfast was gourmet. They had homemade cookies and tea/hot chocolate everyday!

Sunday morning we ate egg blossoms (like an eggs benedict in filo dough with scallions, parmesan cheese and hollandaise sauce) prepared by our hosts and headed out to the vineyards. We went to Landmark, Chateau St. Jean, Deerfield (wine tasting in the caves), Benziger and Imagery. 

That night we ate at The Girl and the Fig and it was incredible, really all the food out there was so good. I think I gained 10lbs! Monday morning we got up early and headed to Stanford across the Golden Gate Bridge along with everyone else in morning traffic! It actually was kinda fun to be a part of rush hour across the bridge!

George met with the pathologist for about an hour while I drove around and explored Stanford's campus, it was really pretty. They had a Hewlett and a Packard building right across from one another (my dad works for HP). We ate lunch there and then headed back.

We stopped in Sausalito, a coastal town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and had a beer on the water while overlooking San Fran Bay.

We headed back to The Gables via US HWY 1 which is a winding road along the coast, if you ever get a chance you should drive it, we had been before, but it is too gorgeous to miss.

Tuesday morning we had another delicious breakfast and then headed back to B'ham. All in all a great business trip! Our trip to the wine country did inspire us to dig out a 1982 Sterling Cab that we had bought about 5 years ago when we visited Napa. We were the only people in the Reserve tasting room besides the winemaker and some really drunk guy who was interviewing him. After the interview the winemaker came and sat with us and started popping corks of his favorite wines, I think he felt bad about the interview guy. Anyways, this was one of his favorites and I remember it being delicious. So we splurged and bought it.  After 5 years of saying we should save it for a special occasion we get back from the wine country and decide to open it for Valentines Day dinner at home. Well, the damn thing was 'corked', this means the cork was rotted and moldy and tasted pretty bad. How sad!! Oh well, our basement isn't good enough, we need a wine cooler....hint, hint. Here is the bottle.

It didn't ruin our Valentine's meal, we just popped open some $10 standby and enjoyed our surf and turf!

Beaver Creek 2011

George and I went to Beaver Creek, Colorado the first week in January. I had a radiology conference so work picked up part of the tab which is always welcomed! This was my first time to ski in 10 years so I was a little nervous, but it went well. Patrick, one of my fellow residents, also went and has a friend who has a house out there so we stayed with them Saturday through Tuesday night. The house was awesome and there was about 14 people there and they were a fun group. We skied during the day and made big dinners at night. We also played a hilarious game of hide and seek and sardines in a 3 story house with the lights out and a touch of alcohol! The first picture is of Patrick performing a taste test between 2 glasses of melted ice. He believes that store bought ice is better than the refrigerator ice and that he can tell the difference. To correct for the fact that they are different shapes and you would be able to feel that, they melted the ice in the microwave and blindfolded him. He was actually able to tell the difference!

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton, where the conference was, Wednesday through Friday night. This was our first stay at the Ritz. I do have to say it was awesome and super fancy. It was ski in and ski out and they kept all your equipment for you and had it set up when you were ready to go. After a long day of skiing we would have a drink or hot chocolate in the great room. They had complimentary hot chocolate and cookies in the afternoons. There was also complimentary use of the spa and they have a Grotto, which is a huge hot tub surrounded by stone walls with a waterfall that George and I got in everyday! They had an outside pool, but it was not warm enough for me!

This last picture is of the bar at Spago, the Wolf Gang Puck restaurant inside the Ritz, it was DELICIOUS!!

Merry Christmas 2010

Here is our tree. I decided to make a Magnolia wreath this year, I think it turned out pretty good!

Christmas Eve Brunch with the Morris's.

We went to Christmas Eve Mass with my family, then to George's cousin Lizzie's house for their annual Christmas Eve party, which I don't have pictures of. We went to Mary's house Christmas morning for brunch with the Hyland crew. My Uncle Bernard was in town. I actually had to moonlight Christmas day, but it didn't start until noon. At least I was able to be at home and not at the hospital. Here is Mary's house, I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of people!

Houston Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Houston. I just love turkey dinner, it really is one of my favorite meals and I am definitely partial to how my mom makes it! Our Thanksgiving day always entails getting up and making the stuffing first thing so we can stuff it in the turkey and put the turkey in the oven. We eat breakfast and then everybody is back in the kitchen and helping cook. The weather was nice, so we actually ate breakfast by the pool.  

I took some random pictures of my parents house.

The redid their master bathroom.

We took a day trip to San Antonio and saw the Alamo and did a boat ride on the river walk. We also drove through Trinity University's campus where George's dad went.

We went to a bar where Theodore Roosevelt enlisted some of the Rough Riders, a group of soldiers in the Spanish-American War.

After dinner, although we were late, we did catch Mass at the oldest continually used cathedral in America, San Fernando Cathedral.