Hey Stranger!

Wow it's a been a few weeks since I've posted anything. I've been busy and a lot has happened. This one's gonna be a long one so get ready. I promise there will be some more recipes and what not later.
Where to start? I'll try to make it short. During our initial trip to SF in April, Peter was offered a job at the bay area branch of his company. He had been offered the same job while we were in LA and we seriously considered it then but decided to move to NJ instead. When we moved we agreed that we would at least give it a year and if we hated it, then we would think about going back. So when he was offered the job again, we thought it was a sign. It had almost been a year that we have lived in NJ and maybe it was time to go back. Verbal promises and agreements were made and we returned to NJ with the plan to move to CA in July. I quit my job, started packing and looking online for apartments. I booked a flight out so that I could find a place to live and Peter even made a reservation for a moving company before he left for tour. Then spring came and I saw this:


I've never in my life seen such beautiful cherry blossom trees!
I mean, I always love when the cherry blossom trees appear at my parent's house but this was no comparison.
Slowly, things started to fall apart. When we started working the move out on paper, we realized that it might be a little more expensive than we had initially anticipated. Here in Jersey City I am fortunate to be able to walk or ride public transportation everywhere. Depending upon where we found a place in the bay area we would probably have to get two cars since Peter would use his all the time for work. When I say 'Peter would use his all the time for work,' that's an understatement. The NJ branch of Compushare isn't as busy as the CA branch. Peter's lucky, he gets paid big bucks and doesn't have to work that hard, yet. In LA, I saw Peter maybe 1-2 nights a week if that. He traveled so much and drove so much that he was usually only home on the weekends and so tired and fed up from commuting that we didn't do much anyway. It would be the same in SF. You can see where this is going I am sure......Little by little we started to see that maybe we hadn't given NJ enough of a chance yet, and it really wasn't that bad here. I mean, I had a hard time in the beginning, and Peter complained all through winter, but you know what? NJ is sort of growing on me! I love being close to NYC, I love that I don't drive anymore. The pros definitely out weight the cons at this point. I haven't even begun to experience everything that NJ or NYC has to offer, or even the east coast for that matter. Don't get me wrong, CA is the bomb and if we could raise our children comfortably there some day then yeah, maybe we will, but for now NJ is where it's at as far as we're concerned. (K.E.M, you're probably laughing at that, since I know what you said about your move to NJ and how long you stayed)
Okay, so now back business.
Peter ended up going out to SF for work again for 2 weeks and I went with him. I already had a ticket and quit my job so I figured, why not?
The funny thing about this trip was that it was fun, but in a different sort of way. Our hearts didn't ache the way they did when we visited in April. We actually commented a few times that we were kind of glad to not be moving back. Funny, right?
We did have a good time, ate lots of burritos, avocados and blueberries. I never understood what Peter meant when he said "we don't get avocados on the east coast." I get it now. There are avocados, but they're not the same. Same with the blueberries.
We did of course eat at our fave Mexican restaurant Puerto Alegre. It's only fun when Gary, Dwain and Addison come along. After several pitchers of margaritas and a lot of yummy nachos and what not Addison was still hungry, but we had to go home.

I don't know those people behind me.
Gary told me to hurry it up but I could only walk to so fast.

I had to stop and look at this crazy house. It's typical for SF but it's still crazy. It was had painted on stones and a buddha out front with a pot leaf on it's forehead.

I love the street cars on Market street.

We thought that this was a very appropriate sign in the Castro.

On the way home Peter
and I discussed the differences between the subway and the BART. There are many.

We decided to hit NAPA this time. I really miss it there. There's just so much to see and do (and drink!). We actually went to an area that I hadn't been to before, Healdsburg. It's more on the Sonoma side of things.

Ridge winery is located there.
They make some of the best wines. There are two Ridges, one in Healdsburg and one in Santa Cruz, CA. Both wineries work from a single vineyard. Their wines are all blends and are so good!The winery was small and the lady pouring the wine was real nice.
After that, we visited the Seghesio winery, I didn't take a picture but we bought a nice bottle of wine there and Peter drank the whole thing that night without me!
After that we decided to head over to Calistoga and Napa to see what was going on.
We stopped at Old Faithful, because Peter had never been there.


It's really not as cool as you might expect, but it's something everyone should do. It's a natural spring that erupts about every 40 minutes. They say, that you can tell when an earthquake is coming by they way it spouts.
There was also some goats and two llamas there. Peter made some really good friends that day.



Calistoga is cool, it only has one stop light.

You can stay at some really neat spas and swim in the mineral pools there. I went to a nudist retreat once for a bachelorette party. It was weird and not that much fun, but I took the best yoga class ever there (it was clothed).
We stopped in Yountville to have a snack at Bouchon. I forgot my camera in the car but I can assure you the french fries, cheese plate, wine and french macaroons that we ate were totally retarded amazing!
I forget how dry northern CA gets in the summer.

There's a little greenery but not much.
This should come as no surprise but everyone drives a Prius.

I swear it looked like we were following the same car for two weeks but it's just that everyone drives one!
The night before we went home, we indulged in some Zachary's pizza. It's the most amazing deep dish pizza pie on the planet. It's not even really pizza, it's a pizza pie!!!

I've tried to recreate it home and it is just so damned good it's impossible to get it right. The place has been there for a long time, it's employee owned and there's always a line out the door. I so wish I could eat a pie right now in fact.
Well, now that we're back on the same page I'll be back later!
xoxo