Have you missed them?

Have you missed Dan and Ben?  They are so busy that it's hard for me to grab the camera and take pictures.  Ben is walking everywhere, Dan loves practicing his headstands on the recliner, both insist on playing with the exact same toy at the exact same time.  Here are a few pictures from my phone, as well as a video of Ben pushing his birthday present from Granny Rash down the street:

San Francisco (Days 7 and 8)

After our unbelievable experience at French Laundry, we packed up the next morning for the short drive back to San Francisco.  Our last morning in Yountville was pretty exciting--we woke up to chainsaws and axes at 6 am because Bouchon Bakery next door was on fire and the firefighters had to hack through the roof to make sure the fire was out.  Apparently, one of the oven exhausts caught on fire and the smoke and stuff got into the walls.  No one was hurt, but the damage was about $250,000.  Luckily, we'd had our big FL meal the night before since the bakery supplies all of their bread!

When we got back to San Francisco, we spend about 20 minutes navigating the one-way, no-left-turns streets of Union Square and downtown to figure out how to get to our new hotel, the Clift.  Surprisingly, we were able to check in, despite not being trendy enough or European enough, by the looks of the clientele.  We quickly put our stuff in our ultra-cool room and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf to return the rental car.  After that, we ate some lunch (chili and tomato soup in sourdough bread bowls, of course) and bought some chocolate at Ghirardelli Square before standing in line for an hour to ride the cable car back to our hotel.  Then we headed to the Asian Art Museum for a little culture, followed by an early dinner of Indian comfort food at Amber India.

On Friday, our last day of vacation, we went to Alcatraz.  Zach's favorite line of the day (which he repeated many times, in the hopes that people would overhear and laugh) was, "I can't believe they built this whole island just for the Nicolas Cage movie."  Sadly, he thought it was funnier than everyone else did.  The Rock (Alcatraz, not the movie) was fantastic and I highly recommend getting the headphones and taking the free guided audio tour if you go.  Also, try and take the night tour, where you explore the jail using flashlights.  I've heard it's even better than the day version, but it fills up like a month in advance.

We had a great vacation, but we were ready to head home to the boys and our normal life.  It'll be hard to top San Francisco and Napa, but I'll sure try when I plan our next trip!

I just realized this is the same thing I wore in the Lombard St pictures, but we did laundry, I swear!

What?! They have a radio in their cells?  Those prisoners had such a cushy life.

Chilly and windy on The Rock

Napa (Days 3-6)

Before we checked out and headed out of the city, I made Zach take a walk with me to Lombard Street.  This is the famous street that zigzags back and forth eight times as it winds down the hill.  It was a short walk from our hotel and it's just one of those must-do touristy things!  And as a bonus, we found a pop-up farmer's market with awesome flatbreads, fruit, and other treats, so we didn't need to stop for lunch later on.

After picking up the rental car and braving the crazy streets of the city, we were on our way to wine country!  The drive was only about an hour and a half but Yountville seemed like a world away from San Francisco.  We checked into our bed and breakfast and then just walked around the town, getting our bearings.  That night, we followed the recommendation of Zach's Aunt Judy and Uncle Jerry and ate at Mustard's Grill.  It was awesome and Zach had duck that "changed his life."

On Monday, we woke up and borrowed bikes from the B&B to take a leisurely 10-mile ride around the area.  I really can't describe how beautiful the scenery is--rolling hills of grapevines, beautiful wineries and houses, quiet back roads.  If you're looking to relax and de-stress, this is definitely the place for you. For lunch, we walked over to Bouchon Bakery and bought a few sandwiches and ate them on our hotel patio in the sun.  In the afternoon, we did a winery tour and napped before dinner at Farmstead.

Farmstead

The next day was Tuesday and I came outside to see the sky full of hot air balloons.  Gorgeous!  After another delicious hotel breakfast, we hit the farmer's market in the town of Napa.  Even though we'd already eaten, we managed to make room for more.  That's where we bought our lunch to eat later on back on the patio.  We hit another winery in the afternoon and then Zach went running while I took a dip in the pool.  Dinner that night was at Bottega.

Wednesday was our last full day in Yountville  so of course Zach had to stomp some grapes.  We did a wine tasting in the morning and then he stomped his little heart out.  After that, we ate at a deli in St. Helena before heading back to the hotel.

This was the day I was looking forward to the most because we had reservations at the French Laundry for dinner!  I've been dying to go to this restaurant for years, ever since I really started being interested in food and chefs and fine dining.  It is next to impossible to get reservations, though, so I had to call in my good luck charm, Lauren.  After I had dialed 200+ times over three days, my sister got us reservations in less than five minutes.  She's amazing!

The gardens across the street

Think the chef is picking our dinner?

French Laundry was everything I had imagined it would be and more.  The staff was so professional and knowledgeable and nice.  I'm sure they deal with a lot of high-rollers and VIPs (which we certainly were not), but they made us feel like we were the only people in the restaurant.  Zach had the nine-course chef's tasting menu and I had the nine-course vegetable tasting menu.  But the nine courses were more like 15 if you count the amuse bouche, bread, and multiple desserts, plus the take-home shortbread cookies.  I can't even describe all the food in a way that would do it justice.  And Zach was embarrassed every time I took out my camera so I don't have great pictures.  If you want to see awesome pictures of the beautiful food there, check out this blog.  The menu changes every day so we didn't have the same food as these people but you get the idea.  Everything was perfect and it was a meal that I will remember forever.  It was the perfect way to spend our last night in Napa Valley!

San Francisco (Day 1 and 2)

Zach and I left on our big vacation a week ago Friday and just got back on Saturday.  We went to San Francisco for two days, Napa Valley for four days, and back to San Francisco for the last two days.  It was glorious--eight days of no diapers, strollers, sippy cups, naps (except our own), etc.  Of course we missed the boys like crazy but we knew they were in good hands with my parents.  Dan and Ben had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa but not as good a time as we had on vacation!

Because of the time change, we arrived at our hotel in North Beach around noon so we couldn't check in yet.  We left our luggage and set off walking up those famous San Francisco hills.  Our hotel was about a block from Coit Tower, so we went there first to get our bearings in the city.  After that, we found a hidden staircase that took us almost all the way down to the Embarcadero.  From there, we walked over to Pier 39 and bought our tickets for Alcatraz the next week.  After that, we were pretty tired so we headed back, checked in, and settled in for naps before dinner at Slanted Door.  

View from Coit Tower.  Our accommodations are at the bottom right edge of that park.

The Rock

On Saturday morning, we took a walking tour of Chinatown through a group called City Guides.  I highly recommend them if you're ever in San Francisco.  They're all-volunteer and they do all different neighborhoods throughout the week.  After our tour, we ate at a Chinese restaurant (of course) before heading back for college football and naps.  That night, we headed to SPQR for Italian and then Citizen Cake for dessert.  I'm in love with burrata cheese and macarons (separately, of course)!

Graffiti in Chinatown done by the famous street artist, Banksy.

Famous for their moon cakes

And we just happened to be there for the Moon Festival!

Gifts made of paper, meant to burn as offerings for dead ancestors, to make them happy in purgatory (guess I'd have to get the golf clubs for my dad if we were Buddhist).

Making fortune cookies

He walks!

Ben technically took his first steps over a month ago but they tired him out so much that he went back to crawling for a few weeks.  He's just now choosing to walk instead of crawl the majority of the time.  Which is fine with me because he is the world's fastest crawler and not the world's fastest walker (yet).  I took this video this morning at open gym (a nearly empty open gym since school is back in session).

Birthday boys

After a delay of about a week (thanks, Hurricane Irene!), we finally celebrated the boys' birthdays with all their friends.  We held their party at Classic Gymnastics, where Dan goes to "jump" every week.  Everyone had a blast!  The kids just ran around and bounced and tumbled and hung and swung and stopped for pizza and juice and cake and then went right back to play.  At one point, Dan stopped, looked around, and yelled, "Where's my birthday party?!" Um, right here, dude, you're looking at it.  Ha!

Dan really wanted a Cars cake, so that's what he got.  He immediately took off the toys cars and started playing with them.  After a few pieces were cut from Ben's cake (strawberries and cream and lemon curd--soooo good), Dan decided to use the top of the cake as a road and he ran the cars back and forth through the icing.  So much for taking the leftovers home!

Dan and Milana (our neighbor) racing to the bouncy houses! 

Baby Jackson

Neighbor Grace

Dan with his crush, Sydney