Blogs from United States, North America - page 5601

French Oak, Wine Caves, and a Rapping Wine Server. I've toured 4 amazing wine regions in Australia, traveled through the New Zealand Marlborough region, been on a Sideways tour in Santa Ynez Valley, tasted at some wineries in Temecula, and have even been to a wedding in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. With all of this cork popping, sniffing, pouring, and swirling, the one place I hadn't been to was the famous Napa Valley. My parents, being avid wine connoisseurs themselves, planned a trip up to Napa for 3 days. Needless to say, it didn't require much convincing and I agreed to pick them up at the San Francisco Airport to be their personal wine tasting chauffeur. I booked a very nice hotel called The Meritage Resort, which was right on the sout... read more

Dave woke us up knocking on the door around 6AM in the morning, I helped him out with what he was looking for then went straight back to sleep. Again, this time around 10:15AM, Dave came knocking on the door and woke us up. But this time we had to get up and meet the rest of the group down at Alexis Park. Due to the fires around California the interstates closed so unlucky for us we had to stay an extra night in this amazing city. We quickly walked down to their hotel because we were in a bit of a rush. They had to check out of Alexis Park because Jon only booked that hotel for two nights. For the last night in Las Vegas Jon luckily found another hotel to stay in which ... read more

Yo Yo Yo! The miami leg is complete. its a cool place face. find a cheap flight and get there for a few days at least. in the words of peter kay "booked it, packed it, fucked off!". btw its not that expensive there especially with the exchange rate the way it is. first off we went to the famous "news cafe" for breakfast. gorgeous. thanks for the tip niallo. the first thing that struck us about miami beach was the architecture. they call it "art deco". i call it 60s/70s type gafs. then we threw on a pair of spandex singlets and went rollerblading. you´ve gotta fit in ;) guess who i saw...mickey rourke. he was moving too quick for me to get a picture unfortunately. the second day we got up early for a ... read more

It came to my attention that I never blogged once I returned from my six months abroad. And the return home is a very important part of the process. It was great to return home. I don't think I have ever wanted a big fat juicy hamburger and greasy french fries so bad in my life. And thank goodness for coffee to go and kitchens that contain more than a hot plate. I am also so much more thankful of American grocery stores. I can read the labels and I don't have to pay extra money for a bag to carry my groceries in, and I have options. Imagine that, I can choose between several different brands of cheese, let alone many different types. Things I miss about Prague (or Europe in general)? Public Transportation for ... read more

Dave and I met a few years ago and have always had an attraction to one another but our timing was never right...until, that is, last Fall when we became re-aquainted and found that there was a chemistry between us. We consider our first "date" as Christmas Eve of 2006, when I invited him to come to the Christmas Eve program my kids were in at my church. Later that night, we were standing in my kitchen and I realized there was a lot to this man, and I wanted to get to know him better! Fortunately for me, he was thinking the same thing! In the Summer of 2007 we drove the 13 hours to visit my parents in Pittsburgh, PA. Late Summer had us vacationing in New Hampshire with my children. Being huge baseball ... read more