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Bear Necessities of Life

Musings of Teddy Bear Necessity's Household
to Whom It May Concern
スポンサーサイト

一定期間更新がないため広告を表示しています

Posted by スポンサードリンク
- / / - / -
Scaredy Cat
Louie is in trouble. While he was outside on the terrace, somehow the sliding door closed halfway. He must slip by the menacing potted plant to get back inside. What to do, what to do!







Posted by teddydale
4-Legged Musings / 17:07 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
Dog-gone Wineries
The first winery we visited was a small winery called Salvestrin in St. Helena. The Salvestrins has lived in Napa for 3 generations. They have a few dogs, but it seems that JRT "Jack" rules the vineyard. He is free to roam their 26 acres and if you are lucky to encounter him, he is all smiles and wags. He's the cutest thing!



And their wine certainly does not take a backseat to their famed dogs. Though they are relatively new wine makers, their wine is delicate and sophisticated. Their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, in particular, I think, is just superb. Too bad we can't get them shipped to Japan!

Their tasting is by appointment only. Visit their website ↑ for more info.


And then, we went to the Airedale winery. Their real name is Dutch Henry, and they have 4 dogs (2 Airedales and 2 pugs) and 2 cats. Unfortunately, we couldn't meet the dogs as we went on the day that they are off. Sundays and Mondays are their days-off, so if you want to meet the Dutch Henry Airedales "Sadie" and "Buggsy," make sure to go there on weekdays except for Monday!

We were told that they are very calm nice girls. So calm that apparently they lounge around and sometimes do not even move out of the car's way! If it were Teddy, she would've kept herself very busy by prowling the property all day long doing the perimeter patrol and the stop-and-search all the visitors. LOL.

Dutch Henry Winery

The Dutch Henry wine is rather rustic and down-to-earth. Their white or red seems to be generally oaky and heavy. These cowboy-wannabe-guys make simple and sturdy wines, darn it.

Their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon is a particular gem for Airedale lovers



because of its Airedale themed label.



Dutch Henry cowboy-wanna-bes are also Deadheads, so the Airedale label was modeled after Greatful Dead's 1977 album cover "Terrapin Station" by the same artist. The turtles are replaced by Airedales, and the sign "Terrapin Station" now reads "Terrier Station." What a riot!


It gets cold in Napa at night. Although the room is of course heated, we lit a fire in the fireplace anyway.



The fire in hearth has a way of warming your heart, doesn't it?
Posted by teddydale
Traveling / 17:29 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
Napa Valley
This was our 2nd trip to Napa Valley. The last time was one day before 9/11 .. come to think of it. We still remember the twinkling lights of the twin towers we saw from the plane as we flew into JFK on the eve of 9/11/01.

On a lighter note, we rented a convertible for this trip because we never get to drive a fun car like this.

Driving to Napa

The very wine-country like scenery.


Our accommodation was Harvest Inn in St. Helena.

Harvest Inn

Our room had a gigantic working fireplace and overlooked the Whitehall Lane Winery's vineyard. Very wine-country!


The town of St. Helena is very charming.



"Fideaux" is a very famous dog (and cat) boutique ... at least in the dog-gone circle. Naturally, Louie acquired a few more collars. His collection is quickly matching up with that of Teddy .. well, not quite .. at least just yet.

The pic in the lower right hand corner is the restaurant "Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen" in St. Helena. It's a fantastic little restaurant tucked away in a .. well, a backstreet. Its 24 rating for food by Zagat makes them quite main street though.

Although we can't be certain, we think that Russell's cousin's mother had taken us to this restaurant back in 2001. If that is the place, they serve pretty fabulous martini using locally brewed vodka. Their wine selection is terrific, too. Yum!


In fact, Napa is a great town for foodies. The most famous, of course, is Thomas Keller's French Laundry, but so-called "America's hardest restaurant to get a reservation" had defeated us.

Luckily, however, we were able to get squeezed into Bouchon, French Laundry's sister restaurant.



The brasserie serves exquisite seafood. Les Fruits de Mer and grilled bass with toasted almonds were to die for!

The jeans-casual dining at Bouchon is probably nicer than the formal 9 course meal counterpart ... but we still would love to go to French Laundry at least once in our lifetime. Well, someday. Bouchon now has a Las Vegas branch, BTW.


Of course we did some wine tasting, too, although not much. We had 2 days in Napa, and the first day was spent on traveling and also by Russell recovering from preceding nightly hard drinking as a part of the wedding bash.

Last time, we hit famous wineries, so this time we wanted to go a bit more boutiquey. We were wondering what should be our guideline ... and we found the answer in ...

"Winery Dogs of Napa Valley"!



How could we ignore this face? Impossible! ........ continued........
Posted by teddydale
Traveling / 13:16 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
San Francisco
We went to San Francisco.



↑ The view from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

We were excited that the view from our room was the same, albeit from much smaller window ;-).

This was our fifth visit in SF area, but it's been probably 10+-years since we last walked around the city of San Francisco.



The city was ready for Halloween, including the pooches, no doubt.



Hey, what's that?

It's a GPS-guided, story-telling, sightseeing tour car called "GoCar Tours," available in San Francisco, San Diego and Miami. What a great idea!



Le raison de votre voyage was Russell's best friend's wedding in which he was given the role of (one of) the best man,



but we also got to see the Chin relatives and our old friends in SF area thanks to Russell's parents' initiation. Great to see you guys!

Then we were off to Napa Valley ・・・・・>
Posted by teddydale
Traveling / 13:35 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)