Stage Restaurant and Amuse Wine Bar

I am not done with my Alaska trip report, but because that will take some time to complete, I thought I'd share my experience at Stage and Amuse in the interim. A couple of my girlfriends and I recently started a tradition that we'd just have a nice dinner together in celebration of the holidays. We dined there on Friday, November 30, and we had a 6 p.m. reservation.

Stage is a restaurant that is located in the Honolulu Design Center, the bright orange furniture store on Kapiolani, between Pensacola and Piikoi. I had read some pretty good reviews of it, and it sounded to me like this was the up-and-coming "it" restaurant in Honolulu, akin to Alan Wong's, Roy's, 3660 on the Rise, and Chef Mavro. So it's no surprise that the chef is Jon Matsubara, formerly of Alan Wong's. Apparently, many other servers and kitchen staff were also former Alan Wong employees.

Before I get to the details of the dinner, I have to talk about the other details of the Honolulu Design Center. First of all, parking there is great! You can enter from either Pensacola or Piikoi, and right now, even though there is a booth and an arm gate, it seems to be unmanned. There are tons of parking stalls in a covered lot that leads you straight to the entrance of the store.

As soon as you walk into the store, there is a coffee bar straight ahead. To the right there are escalators which will lead you to the upper floors (I can't remember if there were 3 or 4 floors, but I think it's 3). Because we had some time before our 6 p.m. reservation, we decided to check out the furniture. What I expected was very different from what it really was. When the store first opened, there were television interviews touting the designer and very expensive furniture at the Design Center. What I saw was fairly reasonably priced, very nice looking, furniture! I can't imagine what they were thinking talking about all their expensive furniture (none of which I saw, by the way -- unless it was in one of the areas we didn't explore)! My guess is that they scared people away, seeing as how we felt almost like we had the entire store to ourselves. Personally, if I were looking for furniture before I walked in there, I wouldn't have even bothered. I would have just assumed it was out of my league. But now that I know they have nice stuff at a decent price, I would go there!

Anyway, enough ranting about their marketing. After we explored quite a bit, we still had time before our reservation, so we decided to check out Amuse, the wine bar. I had read about this place...it's like a self-service wine tasting bar, where they have machines that provide one ounce pours of wine. I thought this was a really cool concept, and I saw it someplace else -- I think it may have been in Napa.

Amuse is located right before the entrance to Stage (I think on the 2nd floor). Interestingly, Stage has it's own bar, and there is also bar seating at Amuse. We approached the bartender and asked him how the wine dispensing machines worked. We each gave him a credit card, which he linked to what I'll call a "wine card," which looks like an ATM or credit card. Basically, you stick your card in the machine, and it keeps track of all of your charges. When you're done, you "close out the tab" and they charge your credit card, or you can pay cash if you'd like.

My friend overheard a couple ordering a cheese plate, so she ordered one for us too. They put it on her wine card. Then, we went around tasting a few wines. The wine bottles are attached to the machines, so you're able to look at the actual bottle and read the label. Above the bottle, there is a digital reading of the cost of a one ounce serving of that particular wine. I think the lowest price may have been about 90 cents. I'm not sure what the highest was, but I'm sure it was over $10.

A lot of them were in the $2-$3 range. During our first round, we weren't quite sure how to use the machine right. I tried using it like the machine at the gas station, putting the card in and sliding it out right away, before pushing the button to dispense the wine -- but, the proper way to do it was to leave the card in the slot, push the button, then pulling the card out after. One of my friends made a boo-boo on her first try and ended up hitting the button twice, resulting in a $10, 2 ounce serving of wine! At least it was a really good wine though!

The three of us each tried about 3 or 4 different wines and nibbled on our cheese platter (brie, cheddar, some kind of white cheese, grapes, apples, and crackers) and a basket of bread (which was really good!) before heading into the restaurant for dinner. On the way in, we noticed a private room to the left right before the entrance, where it looked like they were setting up for a private party.

Being a designer furniture store, the decor in the restaurant was quite eclectic. What I liked about it was that it was kind of fun and whimsical, and not overly stuffy as some restaurants in this price range are. My favorite feature was the different lighting fixtures, particularly the giant Japanese-style lanterns hanging from the ceiling, although the one that was above our table was deflated.

We were also right next to the window facing the street, and also in front of the open kitchen. Some people find open kitchens a turn-off and a distraction, but I like them. Strangely enough, I didn't even really notice any noise coming from the kitchen, even though it was right there. We got to see Chef Matsubara himself, in the middle of all the action.

I loved the service here. We had two people constantly checking on us. The servers were friendly and unpretentious, just how I like them. I felt comfortable here and did not feel as though it was stuffy at all, something that bugs me at other comparably priced restaurants.

The menu at Stage is fairly simple and uncomplicated (although the wine list is a slightly different story!). It seems as though they change their menu often based on seasonal items, and when we were ordering dessert, the server apologized that he couldn't really describe most of the items since many of them were new to the menu that very day.

I ordered a glass of wine, one of my friends went back outside to get that $5/ounce wine at Amuse, and my other friend ordered a vodka collins. We started with two appetizers, the crab cakes and Caesar salad rolls. There are two crab cakes, but our server asked the kitchen to cut them each in half so we could each have one half, and fight for the last remaining half. There were 3 of the Caesar salad rolls (which seemed to be really popular -- we saw a lot of them coming out of the kitchen), which was kind of like Caesar salad wrapped up in clear rice paper (like the summer rolls you see at Bale with the shrimp in them).

I thought the restaurant was very smart about the way they distribute bread. Rather than leaving a bread basket on the table, someone comes around offering several different types of bread. I asked for one type (the same one I was eating outside at Amuse), and the server said, "that's all?" So I also chose a foccacia. He came around at least two more times asking if we wanted to try other breads, but I held back. We noticed that the selection changed throughout the evening, as people who were seated later than us were offered a couple of different options.

For entrees, my vodka collins friend ordered the seared ahi. My expensive wine friend and I both ordered the rib eye with foie gras (duck liver). This entree was $49, I believe the most expensive item on the menu. We were given the option to forego the foie gras, which would have reduced the price to $35, but we both wanted to try it, and I know I did not regret that decision!

The rib eye was served on a bed of roasted Kahuku corn and mushrooms, which was SSSOOOOO good! There was also a side of garlic potato puree, basically pulverized garlic mashed potatoes, also very good, and very garlicky. And the rib eye was cooked to perfection. It had a wonderfully smoky aroma and taste, and it was quite a huge portion. And the foie gras...I don't think I would eat the foie gras by itself, but I would cut small pieces of it to eat with a piece of rib eye, and it was just like butter! (By the way, to all of my animal rights friends, I'm sorry...I know what they do to those poor ducks to make the foie gras -- and I'm sorry to my friends who never knew what they did or what foie gras is, but are probably looking it up right now because I mentioned it.)

I think my friend with the seared ahi ended up finishing most of her food, but the two of us with the rib eye could not finish. We ended up having our leftovers boxes up. However, we still saved a little room for dessert! They had a sampler platter that sounded interesting, so we ordered one to share. Two of us also ordered coffee, which was worth it just for the presentation! We each received our own French press, which was good for about two full cups of coffee. So good! The dessert platter was excellent as well, although I think we all agreed that the creme brulee was the best item on the plate. I believe it was a cinnamon creme brulee. There was also a truffle, an espresso with ice cream in it, and one other item that I can't remember at the moment.

I don't know if there was a mistake or what, but our bill only came up to $200! I swear it should have been at least $250, and I was actually expecting it to be closer to $300, considering there was a glass of wine, a vodka collins, two appetizers, 3 entrees, a dessert, and 2 cups of coffee. For what we got, I thought this was a very good value, and I would not hesitate to return again or to recommend it to others. And I would definitely make time to have a few sips at Amuse first! If Stage is not in your budget, just go to Amuse -- they have some reasonably priced appetizers and simpler meals like sandwiches and burgers.

Flying to Alaska

This year I had the opportunity to travel to Anchorage, Alaska for a conference at the very end of September. Because I was going all that way, I decided that I had to stay at least a few extra days to experience what Alaska has to offer. Now that my experience is over, I have to say that I think EVERYONE should go to Alaska at least once in their lifetime. It was one of the most relaxing and beautiful places that I have ever seen.Before I begin, I'd like to share a little bit about my experience in planning this trip. Although many tourist destinations have travel seasons, Alaska's non-peak season really is a dramatic drop-off from its peak season, which runs from mid-May to mid-September. My two colleagues and I had difficulty finding activities that were operational after September 15th. For example, my colleague was interested in going to Denali National Park, and I thought it'd be fun to ride the train there (remember, Alaska is HUGE -- cities are pretty far away from each other). The train stopped running in mid-September, and a lot of the lodging around Denali also closed for the season. In addition to that, although Denali is open year-round, their shuttle service, which is the only way to get around since you can't drive a car beyond a certain point, stopped running too! So, this proved to be somewhat of a planning barrier. However, the upside is that prices are greatly reduced, sometimes up to 50 percent!

We also had an interesting experience in planning our flights. First of all, at the time, there were no direct flights from Honolulu, other than a charter flight operated by Hawaiian Airlines that is sold by an Alaska-based travel agency. The flight would have only been about 6 hours, but it only departed one day a week. Next, we looked at various flights on different airlines. Strangely, a lot of the flights depart Anchorage at 1 - 3 A.M.!! Yes, in the morning! The best flights we found were on Northwest Airlines (NWA). We departed Honolulu on a red eye to Seattle where we had about a 2 hour layover, and arrived in Anchorage at about 10:30 a.m. We departed Anchorage at about 10 a.m., again with about a 2 hour layover in Seattle, and arrived in Honolulu at about 8:30 p.m. Other flights either arrived or departed Anchorage at weird times, or we would've had a very lengthy layover. Not long after we made our arrangements, it was announced that Alaska Airlines would be flying to Hawaii, with some direct routes! However, those routes were not in operation during the time of our trip.

Another interesting note about our flight arrangements. Two of us booked the flight for about $800, I believe on Monday afternoon. The very next day, our other colleague booked his flight, the EXACT same flight, for $600! It turns out that NWA has a great policy that allows you to cancel and rebook within 24 hours of initially making the reservation, without penalty. So we canceled our first reservation, and rebooked at the lower price. We had to wait a few days for the first charge to be reversed from our credit cards, but we still saved $200!

The day we returned from Vegas was also the same day I was leaving for Anchorage. We did manage to squeeze in a nice lunch at Mandalay in Downtown, but the rest of the day I spent unpacking my shorts and t-shirts from my Vegas trip, and repacking my thermal underwear, beanie, scarf, and double-layer L.L. Bean jacket. It wasn't too hectic, but I will try to avoid these types of situations in the future!

I got to the airport a couple of hours in advance of the flight, as I usually do. This was the first time ever that I didn't have to walk all the way to the end of the terminal to get to my gate! The gate was the first one past security. Each of the planes we flew only had one aisle, with 3 seats on either side, but it worked out pretty well since there were 3 of us traveling together. This was my first time flying NWA, and I was pretty happy with the service, especially at the airport. It was nice having someone facilitating the flow of the line, rather than just being a free-for-all. Also, we were able to earn Continental miles, since it's not likely I will be using NWA frequently.

Arriving in Seattle was interesting. It was my first time flying there, and it was a bit bumpy on the way in. Also, very foggy! So foggy that I didn't even realize we landed until after we hit the ground! The Seattle airport is really a great place if you have a long layover. It's almost like being in a mall! The only slightly annoying part was the trains. We took 3 trains to get to the terminal we needed to be in, then found out that we could have just walked after the first train. Oh well, we got our exercise!

We had breakfast in a great food court with huge glass window. At one point, we couldn't see anything because of the fog and the darkness. It turns out that this airport was recently renovated, which explains it's new feel. More airports should be like this one, with lots of food court seating, and lots of great shops to browse through while you're waiting for a flight.

We took an Alaska Airlines plane to Anchorage. Again, good service. The flight from Seattle was only about 2 1/2 or 3 hours. About 1/2 hour before landing in Anchorage, I peeked out the window and saw what I've only seen in magazines or on television...huge snow-capped mountains, with no sign of civilization in sight! It was truly an amazing experience, just looking at giant mountains with all of that snow. It was quite a dramatic difference from the experience landing in Anchorage, which actually looked quite barren and a little swamp-like from the air! It was kind of overcast and the area around the airport was just kind of "blah", leaving me feeling a little like Alaska might not be quite what I was expecting, but that feeling wouldn't last very long.

To be continued...

Amina Pizzeria

When it comes to food, I am very much a creature of habit, although I am always willing to try something new. Once I find something I like, I tend to be a frequent customer. What is it that makes me want to go back to the same place almost week after week? Taste, of course, is a factor. But it's not only the taste. I've noticed that of the places I like, consistency is one of the keys. I know what to expect. Most of all, we like the people who work at our frequent haunts. The service might not even be all that spectacular -- we've been known to grab our own boxes or to not complain if we didn't receive our dinner rolls, but if the workers are nice and have made an effort to get to know us, that wins us over.

A while ago I wrote about one of our regular eating spots, Fat Boys. Right next door is another place we enjoy, Amina Pizzeria. It's a hole-in-the-wall counter service Italian place with good food and friendly service. A lot of people ask me about Zia's, a well-known Italian restaurant in Kailua (and another location in Kaneohe), and although Zia's is a table service restaurant with a regular crowd, I really prefer Amina.

So what's so special about Amina? Their food is really good, and even though it's counter service, it's made to order. As a result, it can take a while to get your food, so we usually call in about 15-20 minutes ahead. My two favorites are the meat lasagna and the combination calzone. They also have really nice green salads, and on occasion I eat their French bread pizzas. We've also ordered their pizzas once or twice.

The meat lasagna is a pretty hefty portion, and I almost never finish it. It has just the right combination of lasagna noodles, meat, sauce, and a variety of cheeses, and it's served with a garlic roll that I think is made fresh on-site. It's served in a nice pool of marinara sauce, which is quite tasty.

The combination calzone is like a pizza pocket. They have several varieties, but the combination is almost like ordering a supreme pizza, with sausage, cheese, peppers, and other goodies inside a folded up pizza crust. A side of marinara sauce comes with it, so you can pour it over or dip small bites into it. I once tried the eggplant parmesan calzone, which was quite good with big pieces of eggplant and lots of cheese, although I was a bit disappointed that it didn't come with marinara like the combination calzone -- I made a mental note to remember to order a side of marinara the next time.

The French bread pizza is exactly what it sounds like...French bread with sauce, cheese, and toppings. They have some pre-set toppings, but you can get whatever you want. I like mine with pepperoni, mushrooms, and olives. Their whole pizzas are quite good too, although if we're in Kailua, I would prefer to go to Round Table for a pizza. But for pastas, I'd definitely stick to Amina.

The prices may seem higher than most other fast food places, but it's less than if you were to go to a table-service Italian restaurant. Most items run about $7-$9, a salad is around $5. And the people here are really nice. There seems to be one woman who is there ALL the time. For a while I thought she was running the place all by herself, but the last time we were there, we actually saw a man working in the kitchen too!

So if you're in Kailua and in the mood for Italian, go and check out Amina Pizzeria!

Ninniku-ya, the Garlic Restaurant

On Thursday, November 29, I went to Ninniku-ya for dinner in honor of my birthday. Our reservation was at 6:30 p.m. I have heard really good things about this restaurant from a few of my friends. Basically, everyone who's told me they went there, liked it.

I tried to do some research on this place prior to going there, but finding information was a little difficult. Because it's kind of a boutique restaurant, there's no website or online menu. I did find reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp. Strangely enough, Trip Advisor contained mainly negative reviews, while Yelp reviews were mostly positive. Generally, I find reviews on these two sites to be fairly consistent with each other. That worried me a bit! However, while I find Trip Advisor helpful, I always take those reviews with a grain of salt because I've felt that the people who post there tend to be whiners who complain about every little thing. The reviewers on Yelp tend to be a little more fair and balanced, and for food reviews, I prefer Yelp.

So if you haven't heard by now, everything at Ninniku-ya is about garlic. "Ninniku" means garlic. "Ya" is used at the end of a word to indicate a shop, restaurant, or some type of business. For example, "Panya" is a bread shop or restaurant, "pan" meaning bread. Be prepared to smell like garlic for a while, although I didn't feel it was as bad as my friends warned me about (but who knows, maybe I just couldn't smell myself!).

The restaurant is located on Waialae Avenue, on the mauka side, across from the Kaimuki Shopping Center (the one with Times and Longs). You've probably noticed the blue Christmas tree lights wrapped around the trees outside. There is parking, but it can be a little tricky to find. If you're going down Waialae, with the restaurant to your right, there is an "additional parking" sign located just before the restaurant, which is where we parked. There's a little parking lot with approximately 8 parking stalls located behind some houses. You'll see the restaurant's main parking adjacent to it. The main parking is located directly behind Ninniku-ya, which is actually a house transformed into a restaurant. The main parking can be accessed from a narrow driveway right after the house. I think there was also another additional parking lot after that as well. While some people complained about the parking, I didn't find it a problem, and it seemed adequate for the amount of tables they have.

The restaurant can be accessed either from the front or the back of the house. We entered through the front on Waialae Ave., but we left out the back, which leads you directly to the parking lot. If you parked in the alternate parking to the right of the restaurant, you can cut through the parking lot to get there.

There are different types of seating areas here. In the house, the lighting is better, although some of the reviews say it gets hot and stuffy in there, since the kitchen is also in the house. There are also several types of outdoor seating in the front of the house. One part is up the stairs at the same level as the indoor seating. It reminds me of a porch or covered lanai. At the bottom of the stairs, to the right as you enter, is another covered area, kind of like a patio. It looks like it was designed for a small private party -- we saw a party of about 10 sitting at a table there. To the left is another area that is kind of like a garden, which is where we were seated. There is no roof, but there are very large umbrellas. This is probably the least well-lit area, so I can see some people having some issues here, although I kind of liked it. There were some plants that were adjacent to our table (like, our table was touching the planter), which scared me a little because of my fear of geckos. There was also a little pond with fish in it next to us, and my dining partner saw a toad appear. Toads are okay -- anything but a gecko!

The table was a bit small for two people, given their serving style, which I'll explain in a bit. I liked that there were two waiters serving us. They were fairly attentive, and while I wouldn't consider it exceptional service, I thought it was above average. My only very minor complaint was that they weren't great at keeping iced teas filled, but were prompt when asked.

We had iced teas, and I also had a glass of wine. We started our meal by sharing a Caesar salad. Unless you are ravenous or you're not eating an entree, don't even think about eating a Caesar salad by yourself! This was perfect for sharing. I think it cost about $10. There is a generous serving of chopped romaine lettuce, one boiled egg quartered, two big slices of prosciutto on top, and the best garlic croutons I've ever had! It was obvious that the croutons were made fresh, since they were still a little warm and toasty. The dressing was nice, kind of on the lemony side, and not too heavy. I could make a meal out of that salad.

Next, we ordered the garlic toast, which a lot of the reviews rave about. I like to call it a "heart attack on a plate." It was SOOO good! I think this cost about $6, and the presentation of this was kind of interesting. There was a bunch of oil, butter, garlic, and tomatoes on the plate, and there were two bread "pillars" that were standing upright. Some of the garlic mixture was on top of each of the pillars, and the server kind of shoved the mixture down into the bread, and left the rest to us. Again, this was perfect for two people, and I actually kind of overstuffed myself on this one because it was so good! The outside was nice and crusty, and the inside nice and soft. It soaked up the garlic and oil perfectly, so that every bite tasted yummy! I cut my pillar into pieces and would dip it back into the main plate to soak up more of the flavor.

Ninniku-ya has a variety of entrees to choose from, but are primarily pastas, some seafood, and steaks. They also have lamb, which I saw someone at the table next to us eating. The reviews on the pastas aren't that great, and the restaurant seems to be known mainly for their steaks. We had a New York strip and a rib eye. Both were about 16 oz., and we really could have just shared one. The steaks run about $34-$38 depending on the cut. The presentation of this is very unique. And you don't order your steak to a particular level of done-ness. The steaks are all prepared rare in the kitchen, then brought out to you on a sizzling platter. Both of our steaks and a huge mound of roasted garlic were on one hot "stone," as they call it, along with garlic mashed potatoes and a few slices of zucchini and baby tomatoes cut in halves (we each got a full ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes, and 3 slices of zucchini topped with the half tomatoes). They cut the steaks into big chunks, I think about 5 pieces each steak.

Although we were given instructions on the steaks, I wished I had paid better attention to the steak. I prefer mine medium rare, while my dining partner prefers his more well done. I tried to take one off immediately after the waiter left, but it wasn't cooked enough to have that nice charred outside. The stone further cooks the steak for a good 10 minutes. In retrospect, I would (a) leave the steak on the stone longer before taking it off; (b) turned the steak once to get it charred nicely on both sides; and (c) take all of the steak off the stone once it was ready to my desired done-ness. I ended up leaving some of the steak pieces on too long.

But, those complaints are all my doing, and nothing to complain to the restaurant about. The steaks themselves were seasoned perfectly, and were quite tasty. They provide 3 different sauces for the steaks, but the sauces really aren't necessary. As for the sides, they weren't bad, but nothing special either. I kind of wished I had ordered the garlic rice, which received good reviews. But, we really didn't need the sides after the salad and the toast. We ended up with a huge container full of our mashed potatoes, zucchini, and leftover steak.

And, I felt like because it was my birthday, we needed to have dessert, so we shared a chocolate decadence cake with was REALLY good and lived up to its name! They also had some interesting desserts including a garlic gelato. They also had a lavendar gelato which sounded interesting.

Some of the complaints in the reviews I read said that service takes forever, but I felt like it was fine. The only time I felt that things could have been sped up a bit was when we were pretty much done eating our meal. We sat there for a while before we were offered a box. Otherwise, I thought the servers were great at taking away dishes and checking on us to make sure we were okay. They even offered to bring out another hot stone in case we wanted our steaks to be cooked more. I think our dinner took a total of about 2 hours at most. The pace between courses was perfect, and aside from waiting after finishing our entrees, we weren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs. Not hurried, but not too slow either.

Overall, I thought this restaurant was great, and wouldn't hesitate to return. The next time, I would consider ordering something smaller, like the filet mignon, and ordering the garlic rice. I would also like to try their gelato for dessert. If you prefer indoor or outdoor seating, you might want to mention it when making a reservation. When we got there, it wasn't very crowded, but at around 7:30 or so, the tables were pretty full. And remember, this might not be the greatest place for a first date, given the garlic factor. But oh, it's so good!

Ninniku-Ya
3196 Waialae Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 735-0784

Viva Las Vegas!

So I'm FINALLY here to tell you about the Las Vegas portion of my trip, almost three months later! Thanks to all of you who have hung in there with me and have been checking in.

As I mentioned in my last post, we arrived in Las Vegas in the late afternoon on a Saturday, which turned out to be a great time since the airport was fairly empty. Since our last visit, there have been some major changes with car rentals. There is now a consolidated rental car facility, similar to the one in San Francisco. I've heard that this is the way the industry is heading in general, as other airports also have consolidated facilities, and others are planning for them. So instead of having to catch a shuttle for the specific rental car company (we used Enterprise again in Vegas), there is just one shuttle that takes you to one facility that holds all of the airport location car rental companies. Because there is just one shuttle, the wait is nonexistent!

Once again, Enterprise was good to us. The girl at the counter was just okay, not super-friendly, but not rude, just "there." However, the girl who met us in the parking lot was terrific. Turns out she's originally from Hawaii and started talking about the UH-UNLV game that was going to be played that night. She gave us a choice of about 3 cars, and we thought it'd be fun to take the PT Cruiser. We would've preferred a car with a covered trunk, but it wasn't that big a deal. And the car turned out to be a lot of fun to drive, although I wouldn't have liked it much if we were driving long distance since the seats weren't the most comfortable. But for Vegas driving, it suited us just fine.

That night we ate at Applebee's, where we seem to eat at least once each visit. For those of you not familiar with Applebee's, it's a lot like Chili's. In fact, sometimes I wonder if they're affiliated because there are a lot of similarities. For example, Chili's has a triple dipper combo, and Applebee's has an ultimate trio, which is what I ordered. I selected mini bacon cheeseburgers, Tuscan cheese spread, and (I think) the mozzarella cheese sticks. It was pretty good, but I think it may have sitting out a while before it was delivered since some of it was lukewarm.

The next day was our shopping day, since we knew we were going to be pretty busy the rest of the week with the Super Run car show. Our shopping trip included the obligatory visit to Trader Joe's to pick up omiyage. We also went to the Miracle Mile Shops in the new Planet Hollywood Hotel, formerly the Aladdin. It was around lunch time, so we were in search of food. We decided on Lombardi's, which was a great find! The food was incredibly good, and very reasonably priced. They gave us focaccia, which was more like a flatbread that we later determined was actually a pizza crust simply prepared with some herbs and parmesan cheese. It was really huge! We each ordered a Caesar salad to start. For entrees, we had a pepperoni pizza and the rigatoni, and both were extremely generous portions. We ended up taking half of the food home! All that food and a couple of iced teas were only $35! The pizza and pasta were $9 and $9.50 and the salads were $4.75. We would definitely go there again.

On Monday, we had to pick some people (from Hawaii) up at the airport. They arrived on the Hawaiian Air flight that arrives in Vegas around 6 a.m., so it was breakfast time. We went to a buffet at the South Point Casino, which is WAY at the south end of the Strip. I don't even know if you'd still consider it the Strip anymore. The breakfast was pretty good. Taste-wise, I think some things were hit and miss, but selection-wise, it was great, and overall it was a good buffet. I was really impressed with all of the desserts they had to offer! I think it might have been one of the largest breakfast buffets I've ever seen.

The rest of our week kept us pretty busy working on Super Run. Many of you know that we go there to "work," but don't really know what Super Run is, or what we do there. Super Run is a car show that is open to ALL vehicles. The majority of the cars are classic cars from the '50s and '60s, and there are some antiques from the '20s and '30s, although it also has its share of brand new cars like Ford Mustangs and Chevy Corvettes. People have even known to enter their boats! And this year there was a moped.

Super Run is the name of the show, and people pay $50-$65 to enter their cars into the show. they get a bunch of stuff like a shirt, hat, and pin, and proceeds go toward local charities and nonprofit organizations. The event is free to spectators. There is a kick off party which has been held at the District at Green Valley Ranch the past few years.

We grabbed a late lunch at Tacone Grill, which turned out to be quite good! The menu consisted primarily of wraps, sandwiches, and quesadillas. I had a United Steak of America sandwich, that normally comes with homemade chips, but I upgraded to fries. They also have a "flavor bar," consisting of almost any kind of sauce, dip, or dressing that you could possibly want. There were so many, I think I took about 3 or 4 different ones!

Because we ate a late lunch, and also because we were pretty busy, we ended up eating a late dinner, after moving cars and trailers to Water Street in anticipation of the weekend of events comprising Super Run.

Did I mention that I got to drive a Ford Falcon convertible this weekend? Scary, but fun! Scary, because the car does not have seatbelts. Scary, because I had to drive to Water Street in the rain, with the top down, and windshield wipers that weren't much better than if I had stuck my hand over the windshield and wiped it with a paper towel. Scary, because on the drive to Water Street, my friend was a passenger, and now not only was my life at risk, but hers was too. Fun because, well, while I wouldn't want to own a convertible as an every day driving car, a convertible is still fun! And the sound that car makes...vrrrooommmmm!

Anyway, sorry, I was reliving my moments driving the Falcon! As I was saying, we ended up eating a late dinner. I suggested Firefly on Paradise Road, which I first heard about on Rachael Ray's $40 A Day. The atmosphere was a little more like a bar than it was a restaurant, but I still thought this was a good find, and it seems to be quite popular. Their menu consists primarily of tapas, or pupus to the local peeps. Tapas are supposed to be smaller portions of individual foods that allow people to share and try different types of food. However, we found the portions here to be quite large, and for 3 people, we ordered too much food. My friend and I each ordered a mojito, and we ordered 5 items: firefly fries, baked brie, duck rolls, calamari, and chicken salad. The next time, I think I would skip the salad, as it wasn't what I expected. The rest of it was really good, and made a great late night meal. All of the food, 2 mojitos, and an iced tea only came out to a little over $50!

The main event is held on Water Street in Downtown Henderson (which is normally a very sleepy little town, nothing like Downtown Las Vegas!) over a period of 3 days. Every year the show gets bigger and better, with more cars, more prizes, and great entertainment. This year, Jan & Dean performed one night, and Chubby Checker performed another. The City of Henderson is a primary sponsor of the event, and helps to coordinate some of the cash prizes and the entertainers.

And what do we do? Well, just about anything and everything. One of the primary duties is assisting the vendors. There are a variety of businesses that pay for booth space at Super Run, ranging from car parts and clothing to food and candles. The majority of these vendors show up on Water Street between 6 and 10 a.m. on Friday morning, and we have to help show these people where their booths are and try to get them to keep within the boundaries of their 10 x 10 foot space. Because all of these people seemed to arrive at once, I found myself trying to be "Miss Aloha" by thanking them for their patience, explaining why the set up can sometimes take a while, and just plain "talking story" with them about their business, or whatever they felt like talking about. While this was not my "job" at Super Run, it sure helped to calm would-be-impatient (understandably) vendors.

My real job is to help with the registration tent. As a Super Run veteran, I take on somewhat of a supervisory role at the registration tent, training new recruits, and making things up as I go along. People who register in advance have packets prepared for them in advance that include a card that goes on their dash board which serves as the car's ticket in to the event. By registering, a car owner can participate in a variety of events such as burn out and slow drag contests. Those who work in the registration tent are also salespeople, selling shirts, hats, pins, and drawing tickets, good for a variety of prizes throughout the weekend.

One of my favorite parts of Super Run is the food. The food vendors are pretty awesome, both their food and the people themselves. We had one vendor consisting of a former local family that started a business up there, and they seemed to do quite well with their teriyaki chicken bowls! Another Hawaii transplant sells Kobe burgers and hot dogs. There was even a booth with Filipino food. Then there are the "normal" foods like BBQ. I say "normal," but by no means am I discounting the ono-ness of their food. One poor guy, who may have underestimated his audience, worked his booth almost entirely by himself the first day! I managed to snag the very last hot link he had, and he had to close earlier than other food vendors because he ran out of food (and we think he just plain ran out of steam!). The next day he was more prepared, and brought a helper. This year we had a new vendor called, Korn Man, who, ironically, is actually a lady! The business is based in Washington State, but I never got a chance to ask if they actually drove from Washington. Some participants and vendors do drive some pretty far distances to get to Super Run. In any case, the corn was excellent! A huge corn on the cob, husk pulled down but still attached, drenched in butter!

And what I look forward to every Super Run is who I refer to as "Indian Taco Lady." The lady is really nice, and her Indian tacos are the best! It's hard to describe if you're not familiar with Indian fry bread, but imagine a malasada that is stretched out and flattened a little. The fry bread has cinnamon and sugar on it, kind of like a malassada, but the Indian taco is the bread topped with stuff that you would put on a taco -- lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, cheese, and chili. Awww, it's SO good! I wish I had one right now!

So, by the end of day Sunday, we're pooped. But, we're also hungry and craving some not-so-fast food. While the food at Super Run is great, for the most part is pretty heavy and not-so-healthy. We are usually all craving some lettuce by the end of the weekend! We mustered enough energy to head to Silverton where there is a buffet called Seasons. They re did this buffet a couple years ago, and I really love the atmosphere now. It has a lodge-like feel to it, and the food is quite good, and extremely reasonably priced. Dinner is around $13-$14, and offers prime rib, crab legs, shrimp cocktail, and a gelato bar. There are various stations, such as salads, Italian, Asian, and American. There is also an area with seafood, and another area with BBQ. I would go there just for the gelato bar -- they even have ice cream cones! I asked for two scoops of different ice creams, and the one on the top ended up being a bit too soft, but it was still so good!

The day after Super Run ended was our last full day in Vegas, since I had to leave for a conference in Alaska that week. We tried to make the most of it, and we didn't leave until 2:45 a.m. Tuesday morning/Monday night. We had lunch at Olive Garden, which I LOVE! We had a slightly scatter-brained, but extremely friendly and nice waitress. We had a steak gorgonzola alfredo and a seafood alfredo. If you haven't been there before, all meals come with either soup or salad, and breadsticks. And although only I asked for the salad, she still brought a huge bowl out! We ended up sharing the salad. This meal, plus 2 iced teas and a side order of marinara sauce (to dip the bread), came out to about $40.

We also went shopping at Michaels, which I have always wanted to go to, but never had the time. It was AWESOME! If there was a Michaels here, I would be there all the time buying stuff I really don't need. For those of you not familiar with Michaels, it's a craft store. Picture Ben Franklin on Barry Bond's strength steroids! An entire aisle, both sides, full of scrapbook paper! And these are long aisles, not short little ones.

One of my "Super Run friends," Joanie, who I only see one day a year because she is a loyal Super Run volunteer and loves cars, told me that there is a great view of the city coming down from I-215, so I decided I wanted to find it and take pictures. Boy, she was right! I wish I thought about going there at night! I tried to take some pictures, but they're not perfect.

Our last dinner was at Makino's on Decatur. I'm still not sure if this is affiliated with the Makino's here, but it's similar. The guy who owns Makino's in Las Vegas is the original owner of Todai. The selection at Makino's is totally amazing. They have every kind of sushi imaginable, and it's pretty good quality! Hard to imagine getting quality seafood in the middle of the dessert, but I would much rather eat at Makino's there than the one in Aloha Tower, or the Kyoto Osho in Ala Moana. And there's almost never a line to get food, even when it's crowded.

So, that night, we dropped off our car at Enterprise (which actually closes, I think at midnight) and headed for the airport at around 1 a.m. While we were entering the consolidated rental car facility from the parking garage, we saw two men who decided that it would be okay to push their Smarte Carte (those carts you rent at the airport for your luggage) onto the escalator. One guy was standing in front of the cart, the other behind. I smelled a disaster. Sure enough,
the first guy gets off okay, then the cart hits the side of the escalator, and the second guy has to try to jump over the cart, and falls over in the process. They eventually got the cart off and left in one piece, but it sure didn't seem worth it to me! (And if you're wondering, these were grown men, probably in their 40s or 50s. And being that it was after midnight, the elevators were empty and available!) Anyway, it was entertainment for me, embarrassment for them!

Our journey ends there. We arrived in Honolulu at around 6 a.m., and I had to get ready to leave for Anchorage, Alaska about 15 hours later! I'll work on posting that adventure later. I think I'm going to do a couple of food posts, which won't take that long.

Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Las Vegas!

This will be my last post on San Francisco, then we head off into the next segment of our trip, Las Vegas! After that, maybe I will finally be able to post about my trip to Alaska.

We got up relatively early this Saturday morning so that we could ride the cable cars without dealing with crowds. The Tuscan Inn is only one block away from one of the cable car terminals, making it very convenient for us. There were only a few other people waiting, so we got our pick of spots on the cable car. I chose the front left, as those seats are what I felt offered the greatest views.

This was a pretty quick trip since we just went up to the cable car terminus at Powell and Hyde, jumped off, watched them turn the cable car, then hopped on another cable car, but this time, the Beach and Hyde route. I liked this route for the return because it included higher hills and even more beautiful views. It was especially beautiful going down the hill headed toward the Fisherman's Wharf area.

Because our flight to Las Vegas didn't leave until 3:45 p.m., we had quite a bit of time to kill before we had to be at the airport. Once we got off the cable car, we walked around the waterfront, first watching a bunch of crazy people who apparently entered some kind of swimming contest. The water must have been freezing!!! Crazy. We went for one last stroll near the wharf, and walked by the sourdough factory...yum!!! It smelled so good!

Of course, after smelling the sour dough, I realized that it was breakfast time. We were just walking around the neighborhood and came across an IHOP that was only a block from the hotel. I know all of you in Hawaii are wondering what the big deal is about IHOP when we have two locations on Oahu now, but IHOP is still one of those special places to eat whenever I travel to California or Las Vegas! It was a little crowded, so we ended up eating at the counter, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the service was! They were all amazingly attentive and the manager seemed concerned when we didn't have our food, even though we hadn't even waited that long. I would definitely return to that IHOP!

The only other thing on my to do list for San Francisco was to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. There is a lookout with spectacular views of the bridge. Before I continue with how beautiful it was, I have to share my camera's near-death experience. Because of my stupidity in having the camera in my lap in the car, but without securing the strap around my wrist or neck, I stood up to get out of the car, and my camera, my only 4 month old, $700 camera, fell to the ground. After releasing a few expletives and almost crying over what I thought was the death of my camera, it miraculously healed itself after pressing the shutter button once. I was finally able to relax after my camera recovered.

Anyhow, the lookout was extremely crowded, but I suppose that is to be expected, particularly on a Saturday morning. The landscaping at the lookout was almost as beautiful as the bridge itself. Sausalito and Alcatraz were both visible, and we could also see Fort Mason down below. There was also a neat little gift shop selling a variety of Golden Gate Bridge memorabilia.

After enjoying the views here, we still had some time to kill. When researching this trip, I read that the views were beautiful on the Pacific Ocean side of San Francisco. There are a couple of restaurants there, but after our huge breakfast at IHOP, we weren't that hungry. As we were driving away from the bridge and finding our way to the Pacific Coast, we came across a great find, the Legion of Honor.

The Legion of Honor offers spectacular views of San Francisco. Both the cityscape and the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz were visible from here. We decided not to enter the building since there was an admission fee and we didn't think we had enough time to look around inside. However, the exterior of the building, grounds, and surrounding scenery were enough to keep us and our cameras busy for a good period of time. There was a moving, but disturbing, tribute to the holocaust that we pondered before moving on.

We continued our scenic drive along the Pacific Coast, then drove through Golden Gate Park before making our way back to the airport. We were still a bit early, but it's a good thing because we missed the airport off-ramp! However, it wasn't too bad of a back-track. Another thing that takes a while, but is extremely convenient, is the AirTrain. The AirTrain is a monorail that connects airport terminals with parking structures, a consolidated rental car facility, and some other airport structures. I found that I prefer this to catching a shuttle to the rental car facility, since it's easy to wheel luggage or a luggage cart on and off the train. No need to lug heavy bags onto a shuttle bus!

Once at the terminal, we still had some time to kill, even considering some slow downs going through the security line. I found a place that made sandwiches to order that was actually quite good! The portions were very large too. Although I ordered two sandwiches, we only ate one because it was so large, and it came with fries, making it even more filling.

We flew Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas, and it was an enjoyable experience. The only thing I don't like is that there are no assigned seats, but they do have seating areas (Priority, A, B, and C), so it's a little more orderly than when they used to have cattle calls where people would be waiting in a line at the gate for over an hour to be the first on the plane. The crew is hilarious too..."in the rare event that this flight turns into a cruise on the way to Las Vegas, inflatable flotation devices will deploy..."

We arrived safely in Las Vegas around 5:15 p.m. Saturday afternoon, the day of the UH-UNLV game. This turned out to be a GREAT time to arrive in Las Vegas, as there were no crowds at the airport!

Ending here for now, will continue the Vegas Adventure in a new post.

San Francisco, Part II

Again, I must apologize for the long delay since my last posting. Those of you who know what my work entails know why I haven't had time to update my blog lately! I have broken the cardinal sin of blogging...not providing regular updates. They say people lose interest once a blog goes out of date, and I'm sure that's true with my blog too! Oh well. Thanks for the two of you who have hung in there with me!

Anyhow, so back to where I was...

After checking in to the hotel, we set back out, MUNI passes in hand. Except I didn't have a plan, a rarity for me. I had already accomplished one goal of seeing the Palace of Fine Arts. My other goal was to ride the cable cars, but we weren't going to wait 45 minutes to hop on one. We decided on the F-Market Street Cars, which are kind of retro and reminded me of the movie, Heart and Souls, starring Robert Downey, Jr. We decided to head to the Westfield Shopping Center, although we weren't really in the shopping mood, so we didn't stay there long. We ended up walking to Union Square, which I didn't think I've ever been to before.

Again, no plan, so much of the time was spent roaming! Across Union Square was the Disney Store, so we paid an obligatory visit, although we did not buy anything (personally, I think the Disney Store has gone in a strange direction in recent years, and I have little interest in it anymore). We stumbled across Chinatown and took a few pictures there. Then we walked. And walked. And walked some more. Next thing we knew, we were at the Ferry Terminal. I kinda wished we had gone in there, since we were there. I've read that there are a number of shops and restaurants there. But, I didn't have a plan, so we ended up hopping back on a street car back toward the Fisherman's Wharf area.

We spent most of the early evening at Pier 39, mostly looking at seals and admiring the beautiful sunset. We had dinner at Neptune's Palace, the same place we ate dinner during our last visit to San Francisco many years ago. We started with Caesar salad and calamari appetizer w/ really yummy accompanying sauces. Our entrees were a hazelnut crusted seabass with gnocchi, and the seared swordfish. Although it was okay and some people rave about it, the seabass wasn't really my cup of tea. I think it was too sweet. I was also disappointed in the gnocchi which seemed undercooked. That entree was really the only thing I didn't care for though. Everything else was terrific, including a mocha cake we got for dessert! The views were very nice, and service was good. The only thing that's kind of unusual about this place is that they have a $1 per person minimum wage surcharge. Apparently, restaurants are able to pass this on to their customers. It would have been nice if they told us about it, or had something explaining it, rather than it just appearing on our bill. I've read a lot of complaints on Yelp.com about it too -- most people think they should just factor this into their prices, rather than having it show up as a separate charge on the check.

After dinner, we stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe in Pier 39. We are amateur pin collectors and make it a point to stop at any Hard Rock Cafe that is easily accessible. Our experience here was a little annoying. The girls at the counter decided it was more important to flirt with the guy in front of us, instead of one of them trying to help us while the other described some great clubs to go to in the area. Then, when we asked about their signature pin, the answer was, "well, they're all signature pins." Unless things have changed, there are only one or two true signature pins to each Hard Rock Cafe location. So we left it up to ourselves to decide which ones might qualify as signature pins.

After this, we walked even more and this time went to Ghiradelli Square. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, at least not by the time we got there, but it was still a nice visit. After that, we decided to check out the cable car line at the Beach and Taylor stop. There was no line! We were the first ones there. We had to wait quite a while before the next car left, and a number of people had joined us, but it was worth the wait. We got off at the turnaround on the other end near Union Square, and decided to check out the Virgin Records Megastore we had seen when we rode the street car earlier. We were very disappointed when the Megastore in Vegas closed, so this was a nice surprise. I think we must've been there for over an hour! It was a big store, and it was worth our while to go there.

By the time we left the Virgin Records Megastore, it was about 10:30 p.m., and time to head back to the hotel since we planned to get up early to ride the cable cars in daylight with few crowds! The cable car ride back to the hotel was really nice, especially once we started heading downhill and could see all the beautiful lights. It's amazing that a number of people were still riding the cable cars that late at night, including locals, but we were still able to get on the first car that arrived.

To be continued, again...

I left my heart in San Francisco (Part I)

On Friday, Sept. 14, we enjoyed our Sweetie Pies breakfast, checked out of the Napa River Inn, then headed back to San Francisco for one night before flying to Vegas. We decided to go through Sausalito and cross the Golden Gate Bridge into the city. We didn't stop in Sausalito since I wanted to spend most of our time exploring San Francisco, but it was worth driving through the seaside town before heading over the Golden Gate Bridge.

I have always wanted to visit the Palace of Fine Arts after seeing it in so many pictures of San Francisco. We decided to check it out since it was on the way to the hotel. It was really a beautiful place, and there were lots of people either walking around like us, exploring and taking pictures, or locals jogging or relaxing on one of the benches overlooking the water. There is a place called the Exploratorium that is located at the Palace of Fine Arts that AAA and other sources say is worth spending a couple of hours. Again, my timeline did not allow for this, but I was happy just spending time taking photos outdoors.

After our photography expedition at the Palace of Fine Arts, we headed to our hotel, the Best Western Tuscan Inn. Being San Francisco, parking is in demand, and only valet parking was offered here. The valets/bellmen wear cute little outfits similar to those you might see on a gondolier, but not so masculine given their mauve-ish color. At the front desk, I found that our room was not ready yet, which was fine given that I was checking in about 3 hours early. However, I was pleased to hear that I had been upgraded to a one-bedroom suite. Also, the front desk clerk took my cell phone number and offered to call me if my room was ready ahead of the official check-in time...a nice touch! Additionally, the Tuscan Inn offers a discounted parking rate for AAA members ($29 instead of $37), and offers wine and cheese in the afternoon and biscotti and coffee in the morning. We left our luggage with bell services and headed out for a stroll at the Fisherman's Wharf.

The Fisherman's Wharf was a very quick walk from the hotel, perhaps 5 minutes. It was about lunch time, so we were in search of food, while taking in the surroundings of the vendors selling fresh seafood. While I had researched restaurants before this trip and knew which ones were popular or offered good food, I did not make reservations, nor did I have a strong desire to eat at any particular restaurant. We found one right on the water called the Franciscan. Ironically, this is a sister restaurant to the Crab Pot at Pier 39, which I considered and read great things about (known for their garlic crab). The greatest thing about the Franciscan is the magnificent water views. The restaurant is designed in a way that allows a good view from every seat, as the restaurant is tiered. The service was good, and the food, while not spectacular, was good, and I would return again to enjoy the view. We started with the clam chowder and a butter lettuce salad, and had entrees of a half order of garlic crab (more than enough for one person), and a prime rib french dip sandwich. One of the most spectacular sights we took in while having lunch was seeing pelicans and other birds flying by in formation.

After lunch, we continued our stroll in the Fisherman's Wharf area. Some of the area was reminiscent of the touristy areas of Waikiki or an older Las Vegas, with t-shirts and other items for sale. We walked past the Argonaut Hotel, a place I would like to stay if my budget allowed for it. We noticed that here too, the valets where cute outfits befitting the nautical theme of the hotel. Again, maybe not so masculine, but cute nonetheless.

Sometime during this stroll, I received a phone call from the hotel notifying me that my room was now ready. At this point, we were near the cable car turnaround at Beach and Hyde Streets, so we went to pick up 3-day MUNI passes good for a number of transportation options, and watched the cable cars and the people waiting in a line with an estimated wait of 30 to 45 minutes. After this, we headed back to the Tuscan Inn to get settled in our room before heading back out into the city.

To be continued...

I'm a baadddd blogger...

Okay, so I've been a bad blogger. So much for my grand plan to update my blog daily while I was traveling!

I'm back at home from my travels to Northern California, Vegas, and Alaska, and do not have any plans to travel until next summer (at the earliest), so now I plan to catch up on the blogging I did not do earlier! My apologies to those of you who have actually been checking my blog on a regular basis hoping for updates (all one or two of you).

Day 2 in Wine Country (Thu. Sept. 13)

Before I go into our adventures in Wine Country, I have to tell you about the breakfast provided at the Napa River Inn, which is prepared fresh by Sweetie Pies in the hotel complex. When we checked in, we were given cards to hang outside our door by midnight to request our breakfast for the next morning. The picture to the right is a picture of a breakfast for two (we probably could have just shared ONE of the breakfasts!). We each got a choice of a pastry or bun, a choice of a breakfast croissant or parfait or quiche, AND a choice of fresh-squeezed juice or fruit. It was all very delicious! It was great to be able to have a leisurely breakfast in the room and not have to find a restaurant first thing in the morning.

After breakfast, we drove out to Sonoma County, which people claim has "better" wineries. I think by "better" people mean less commercialized and more of what a true winery should be. I chose to go to Benziger in Glen Ellen, because they offer a tour on a tram pulled by a tractor, and they are known for their commitment to being green. While this tour was enjoyable, we liked Beringer better. Beringer seemed more interesting and the people there seemed friendlier.

The Benziger tour started with a tour of the vineyards. We stopped and got out of the tram to look over the vineyards toward Mt. Sonoma, and got a quick lesson on the types of soil and why it's good for different types of wine grapes. The tour continued by showing us some of the machinery used to process the grapes, including a tour of their wine caves. Some of the facts provided to us were similar to what we learned during the Beringer tour. The tour culminated with a tasting of two wines in a special tasting room. We were given the option to taste two more wines on our own in the tasting room, but we needed to make a lunch reservation in Santa Rosa, about 30 minutes away.

I made a lunch reservation at a restaurant called Syrah. I chose it based on good reviews, and because I could make a reservation on Open Table. The restaurant was very interesting in it's decor inside and out. The building was covered with vines, and the inside was somewhat artsy and just interesting in general. For example, while looking around, I noticed a Pillsbury Dough Boy resting on the beams.

While the food was pretty good, something about the restaurant disappointed me a bit. I think it was the service, which kind of made me feel as though they catered more to locals than tourists. I also didn't like how our waiter immediately took our wine list away because we ordered iced teas, without even asking if we still wanted to look at the wine list. Too bad, his loss. I probably would have ordered wine had he left the wine list.

Our entrees were a pork, pork, and more pork sandwich, which was an open faced sandwich with pork loin, bacon, and chorizo, topped with a fried egg, and the housemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and topped with a tomato-based sauce. Both were good, although not as good as the dinners we had in Napa. If I returned to this area, I would look for another place to have lunch.

After lunch, we hopped back in the car again for a quick drive to the Charles M. Schultz Museum, also located in Santa Rosa. I have to say that although the entire trip was memorable, this was probably the greatest find. I found myself emotionally overwhelmed by Charles Schultz's contributions to the community which will remain his legacy for generations to come.

We spent 2-3 hours in this area, first exploring the museum, which housed memorabilia, original art, and an exhibit of various Peanuts comic strips. There was also an outdoor area which included more original art and a kite-eating tree.

After the museum, we walked across the street to a Snoopy Gift Shop. We didn't find as much stuff to buy as I thought, but it was still worth a visit. Next to the Gift Shop is a skating rink called Snoopy's Home Ice. The Warm Puppy Cafe, where Charles Schultz spent time almost every day, is located here. We joked that the Warm Puppy Cafe might've been a better lunch choice! We did stop there to pick up drinks and take a quick peek at people skating, before driving back to Napa via Calistoga and the Silverado Trail, which is parallel to the major road there.

Dinner that night was at Celadon, which was most excellent! I read that their calamari appetizer was very good, and it was. It was cooked perfectly and seasoned nicely, and was interestingly served with Japanese ginger, like the kind they give you with sushi. The ginger was a nice complement! Our entrees were a flank steak served with mashed potatoes and yellow and green beans (a special), and achiote rubbed duck served with a corn and bacon risotto. The duck was so awesome! The skin reminded me a bit of a nicely crusted prime rib, and it was nice and crispy with a very thin layer of fat that kept the meat moist.

Celadon was a great way to cap off a nice stay in Napa before we headed back to the City of San Francisco!