Advance Party for Cafe Noir

I've been helping my friend Mike with some of the preperations for the new wine bar he'll be opening in Pasadena. Friday night, I poured, and tasted, my way through a pretty damn fine line up. Some of the highlights including, 06 Sea Smoke Southing, P2, 97 Williams Selyem, 04 Marsannay, and a 2000 Pommard. Also of note, a Marsanne/ Roussanne blend by Peay Vineyards. We did have one corked bottle, and I even got to hotly debate the subject. I poured some for Mike and he agreed, but I had to battle a wall of naysayers. They said I was wrong, just imagining things, but I KNOW I was right. Final verdict: I was right.

Indoor Rock Climbing

El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.



A climbing map of El Capitan.



Me climbing indoors. Not the same thing.

Brandy's B-Day Celebration

Here she is, posing with some of her crew.



Defending herself from one of the many skirt lifts attempted on her that evening. Looking over the photo, I notice that after I took heat for taking a picture of it, one of her best friends, Page, is clearly laughing, camera in hand.



Brandy's Arch Skirt lifting nemesis... also conveniently named Brandy.

Some sunset, somewhere

I don't even know where this was, but one side of the sky was pink, and the other side was purple. Lots of little beautiful surprises like this while we were on our trip.

Nika and Yosemite

Nika chilling in her car seat, surrounded with pillows, rocking my shades, and her homeboy, Yosemite the Bear.

Ice Cream

More River Swimming

River swimming was definitely the preferred activity on hot afternoons.

Yosemite

We camped out for three nights in Yosemite and had an amazing time.




A great picture Nika took of Chani and me.

Harlan

Chani, through some of her contacts was able to get us into Harlan. She asked me about it when she got here. "Have you heard of a Vineyard called Harlan? I might be able to get us in, would you like to go?"

Havens Vineyard

No trip to San Fran would be complete, of course, without a stop in Napa.



Here, a stop at Havens Vineyard, where I learned something about Havens. The first bottling of Black and Blue was at the request of Manifred Krankl (Sine Qua Non) for his LA restaurant Campanille. Krankl even did the artwok for the label.

San Francisco

Stopping to take a break.

Feeding the Birds in Santa Cruz

Nika would throw some bread, and then climb in after it, chase the birds around and throw some more. Sometimes, she'd grab it back and eat it. That last maneuver did not delight her mom.

Swimming in the River

I went for a swim in the VERY COLD river and Nika decided she wanted to come too. I figured she'd change her mind when she got in a little ways, but she loved it. She was a real trooper, I kept dipping her in with me and she'd scream, and then as soon as we came up, say, "Do it again!"

Post Hugging

With all the beautiful redwoods around, Nika was introduced to the concept of tree hugging.


She got a little carried away.

Trip to Northern Cali

Took a trip up North with my friends Chani and Nika. First stop was Big Sur where we camped out, did some hiking, and hit the beach.



And oh Yeah, Nika tried on some hats.