Sunday in Healdsburg

I slept pretty well, but this pace of wine and food is tiring me out.
Such a tough life!!


If you are making comments on that new blog I tried to start, I can't access them to authorize or read because my hotmail account is frozen.  Basically, my computer/cloud connections are a mess.  When I get back in June, if the hotmail does not fix itself, I'll work on alternatives.  My gmail address is still working, so you can write to me there; however, that would be futile after today as I go where I won't have regular wifi.  I'll be back in mid June.


Because of all of that, I can't share too many photos either.  I am not much for putting photos on Facebook, but perhaps I'll have to start that in June.  


Cory was up early and off to see the sunrise.  He invited me to come, but I just did not feel well enough with my new cold.  Now I regret that.  
The sun is up and I'm awake. 


I think I did manage to get the date set for the Number 9 reunion, and arranged a hosting picnic at Bill's house with the pigeons and the pond.  That should be fun.  Nice to have that finally set up.

NOON

Elizabeth and Anne are off doing "girly" things.
The guys are all here.  They are kind enough to wait for me so I can check into the airline flight tomorrow.  The cold feels better.  I switched from Chrome to Internet Explorer and magically could again access my hotmail.  That is a relief as so much goes through that site.
It is another hot and beautiful day.  I feel rested. 
This has been a fine visit.  Jim and Anne are totally easy and this house is just a delight. 
I did some packing.  After today I'll be out of the cloud for most of the time until June 11. 

Since Ellie wrote that she is having trouble with the server on the new blog site, I think it is safe to say that I'll abandon that site completely. 

SWIMMING

We went to another section of Sonoma Lake, a beach. We swam and enjoyed the wonderful rolling hills of deep green trees scattered on tan grasses. 
The boys swam to the other side of this lake section to see if the swimming rope was still there. It was, but it had been cut short so that it could not be used.

Jim and the boys went up to a sausage place called The Wurst and we all had a sample of those sausages.  They were good, but did blow me away.
Elizabeth, Cory and I went to La Chacuterie and had some wonderful tastes.  I had escargo and a portobellow mushroom mix served with little toasts.  Elizabeth had a stewed chicken in a fine French sauce.  I ate most of her gravy.  Cory had a salad.  We all tried a honeydew melon cold soup made with a sprig of mint.  The mint did not seem to move through the soup.  I put the sprig in my mouth and then the soup tasted minty.
We drank a lavendar lemonade and that was very good.  I'd like to make that at home. 

We hung out and talked a while and then we said good-bye.  We will be doing mostly airplane tomorrow.  We will see Anne again, but the rest will be back at work/school.

I am packed and ready.  I am doing one load of laundry and I'll be all in fresh clothes again for the next part of my journey.

I am thinking that this is my last post until mid June.  Enjoy the coming of summer.

Supper at Ralph's

Jim and Anne treated all of us to supper to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday.  We went to Ralph's and ate very, very well. I had a chicken liver dish that tasted great.  We had tastes of appetizers and even some passed around dessert. 

It was a fine night.  The waiter was exceptionally funny and attentive as well as being down to earth.  

Peter reports the first leg of his trip is going well and he seems to be having a good time.  Nice to see him getting a break for a while from the routine frustrations.

We are home early enough and some are going in the hottub, but I think I have a cold coming on.  It seems more than just allergies.  


Afterwards we walked around the downtown.  Things were really hopping and I liked it very much.  We walked through a couple galleries and saw some wild and interesting pieces, including two done by an artist who played with our own psychological sense of what we see.  The art pieces seemed to move and change.  One was a wine scene.  Another was a car up in the corner of the ceilings and it seemed as we moved from side to side that the car also moved.

wine tasting/ Mexican meal

Two day of a server that always seems to be too busy for me to post on the other blogger site rules out my posting any photos from our trip yesterday.
Cory rented a bike and rode out to Lake Sonoma where we met him and had a bite to eat at a marina on the water.
It was quite wonderful and Elizabeth was pleased to celebrate her birthday there.  It was beautiful.  The water was clear and we swam there although it was very cold.  There were visible fish.


Later we went to an upscale Mexican place with Jim, Anne, Jacob, Ben, Taylor.
Mateo's Cocina Latina


The food was very good.  I had a special margarita - rhubarb=Fresno jalapenno corralejo blanco, hint of Mexcal, lime juice, mint agave nectatar.  It was a good idea, but too filled with ice to be a real margarita.


http://www.mateoscocinalatina.com/home/


We started with ceviche some crispy deep fried  crispy breads with olive oil guacamole.  It was tasty.  The ceviche was thin sliced.  No lettuce. Very good lime sauce.
I had cochinata pibil which was nothing like the Spanish suckling pig, but a good version of pulled pork and tasted wonderful.  The cinnamon cured red onions were a great addition.  That is sometime to try making at home.


I tasted Elizabeth's chicken taco, but I did not like that one.  Anne had a fish taco that everyone liked.


SATURDAY


We hung out talking and joking at the house, went into the hot tub. and then went for a special wine tasting at the Williamson Wines place where Anne and Jim are club members.  This was wine linked with small bites of food to show how the wine compliments the tastes.  I did not actually experience the complementation except when it was blue cheese.  I have always like wine and cheese and often let machego melt in my mouth before following it with a red wine.


Here the pairings were much more particular and distinctive. 
We had one white and I was not impressed.  I don't much like white wine.


Then it went to their Pinot Noir called Rapture.  All the wines were named in very sexy ways.  With the rapture came a bite of lamb and a bit of goat cheese. It was delightful.  This was a Burgundy style wine.  I do like the taste of goat cheese with wine.


Of Bordeaux Style wines we tasted Meritage Allure a blend of 5 reds and a Malbec Tango which is one of the group's favorites.  It goes well with spicy foods like Indian food.  That explains why Cory  likes it so well.


For Cabernet Sauvignon we had their Seduce which would works through strong foods so it would be good with a NY strip steak off the grill.  With this we ate pear with bluecheese and some blanched almonds.  Even Elizabeth liked the blue cheese and here is where I really detected the wine bringing out the flavor of the cheese.


Finally we had the shiraz called Heritage perhaps because this grape is the oldest grape for wine making. 
We did not taste the wine Jim had opened here that duplicates the French Chatenogh de Pape which I drank years ago.  That one here is called Trinity Enchant.


The wine merchant/grower/owner was fun to listen to.  He had many interesting things to say.   Beer makers he compared to cooks; wine makers to chefs.  Colorado Wine would always be inferior because the growing season did not allow them to harvest late enough for the grapes to get really ripe and luscious.
All his wine was made from his own grapes.  Some wine makers took grapes from other growers.  He owned some of the fields.  Others he leased from owners who liked having a vineyard to brag about but needed him to do the real farmer.  "think of me as your landscape gardener" he would say to them.
About half of his grapes were tossed away and only the best kept for the wine.  He was fussy.  He liked small vineyards.


For a while he talked about the local restaurants and that was great for Jim and Anne to make comparisons.  One place he recommended the chef  Chep Dustin Valette of Dry Creek who gathered that day from the Farmer's Market. Another insisted on using his own grown foods and some  he had no salt of pepper in his kitchen.


As for organic, he said that he tries not to use pesticides and uses no fertilizer, but that there are times when the choice is to lose the crop or spray to keep it.  
He was a climate change skeptic and thought that it was nothing new.  The seasons went in cycles.  "Ask the grandfather's" he said.  This is the one spot where I thought he was either naive or giving the rich what they wanted to hear.


Soon they are going to try to sell some Tony Bahama shirts with slogans like, " God made skin to stretch;  and I'm here to prove it."


Right now he said we were seeing the farmers braking off the sucker branches low on the bush and trimming the tops to expose the fruit.




This fellow was the least pretentious wine guy I have ever met.  Perhaps being Australian helps.  At any rate, we enjoyed the entire event.


Only cheese and honey are older products to raise.  Wine is a really old product.

SINCE THIS BLOGSITE CUT ME OFF IN FREE PHOTO POSTING,  I MAY DECIDE TO SWITCH UP AND START A NEW BLOG SOMEWHERE ELSE.

HERE IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT.
FOR NOW I'LL POST THERE RATHER THAN HERE BECAUSE I CAN POST MY PHOTOS.  I'LL TRY IT OUT.  SO FAR I LIKE IT FINE.  TAKE A LOOK AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.

http://pokerbluegill.blog.com/

Later note

I am not doing to well on the new blog.  It is always closed because the server is too busy.  Not my sort of blog, I guess.

Healdsburg Thursday/ Cory

Elizabeth and I were up and in the hot tub on the deck this morning.  Breakfast was strawberries, blueberries, figs, cottage cheese, and some organic squares of cereal.  Good, but I like yogurt a bit better than cottage cheese in this context.
Melana took these shots at Cory's graduation, so I'll add them to the mix.  This is not a real baby, but a very lifelike/life sized stuffed replica that stands in the corner and looks real.

While Elizabeth went to San Francisco to pick up Cory, I took a long walk down along the Russian River.  I could not see it often or well as I was up on a ridge with houses built between the river and where I walked.  But it was a fine walk, filled with flowers and birds and interesting ways of introducing the little places along the road.

This cactus is in front of the guest house at Jim's 

 this one was along my walk

I watched the 1943 movie "Government Girl" and enjoyed it.

Blogger shut me down as far as posting photos.  I have to decide to pay for posting more, or perhaps adjust my blog somehow.
For the time being I am just going to leave photos out of my blogging and play around with my choices once I get back home in June.

Cory, Elizabeth and I had supper at the Bar and Grill.  It was tasty.  I had a very well done mac and cheese, flavored in unique ways.  Cory had a salad.  Elizabeth had bean soup also flavored in unique ways.  We followed it with milkshakes.  No alcohol this time.

We drank a bit of red wine here at home, but my second grocery store bottle was not as good as the Steelhead Red. 

Healdsburg in the middle of the night

Up in the night.  


We watched a nature show last night.  Everything in nature just seems to be eating everything else.  It is sad really, although I certainly do my part.


This morning I'm reading about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease that may well be what many veterans actually suffer when they are routinely diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.  We know that football players die from it, like this Chicago Bears player who killed himself.  It is a catalyst for suicide.  This would mean that psychological counseling after war would be useless since the cause of the symptoms is brain disease.  Common sense suggests we might want to distance ourselves from football and from war.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/brain-disease-is-found-in-veterans-exposed-to-bombs.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120517


Perhaps someday the Super Bowl will be a time when the best poems of the year are celebrated and enjoyed, analysed and considered from all angles.  This may well happen about the time all animals stop eating each other.

Healdsburg Day 1

We are in Napa Valley at Healdsburg.  Jim and Anne have a fine house here and we are resting up after such busy times over the last few days.  I slept very well all through the night and woke up refreshed with the birds chirping their way into morning.


So far, my sleep has been better in strange beds while traveling than it has been at home in our bed.  This makes me think that it may be time to switch out our mattress for something new.  


I am just now getting some of the other family adventures posted, so if you skimmed the graduation report, skim back for added photographs.


I had a fine drive out with Jim yesterday with plenty of time to talk poker.  We stopped at a poker room as our bathroom break, and so I got to see what these look like. It was a fine little place with poker on one side and a few blackjack and paigow on the other.  The lighting was very dark and the entire feeling delightful.  Too bad New York could not offer these sorts of gambling experiences instead of simply taking advantage of her citizens with slots and video poker that is a disingenuous embarrassment.


I don't expect I'll play here, but it certainly is gambling with the gambler in mind.


However, there is an extensive poker library here, so I can freshen up on poker before going to Vegas.  


Included are these three


Hold em Poker by Gary Carson
Read 'em and reap by Phil Hellmuth
and my old favorite
Winning Low Limit Hold 'em by Lee Jones.







Also my reading has included some history of Healdsburg.  It was named for the Healds brothers who moved here and set up a flour mill in the 1850's.


http://www.ourhealdsburg.com/history/historytimeline.htm


http://www.ourhealdsburg.com/history/festivals.htm


Anne and Jim left the Images of America Healdsburg book with us.  It is filled with interesting old photographs, from one of a woven fishing weir that caught steelhead and salmon to the earliest settlers, the Southern Pono and Western Napo Indians.  One was of a unkele festival at a school, another of a barrel race with women paddling the barrels in 1946.  


Catch a view of this in one of the photos on this site which also provides a good sense of the area mapped.


http://www.fishfriendlyfarming.org/russianriverwatersheds/healdsburg-chalkhill.html




Much was written about the Seventh Day Adventists who had a huge following here, especially after Ellen White settled in the area.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_G._White


Here too were shots of the harvest of redwoods here, many of which provided lumber for San Francisco rebuilding, of canneries that preserved pruces and apricots of the "Prunes, hops, and grapes" being the produce of the area, and of the tan oak tree bark collected to cure leather gloves.


Some of these redwoods 

were in the park in the center of Healdsburg when we went for supper and some light shopping.  They were wonderful to see although they were just youngsters compared to the large ones in the forests.   Still, it was good to look at one and know that except for disease, this particular tree would be around for my great grandchildren to see and use as a backdrop for a photo.
We supped at a brewery.  
http://www.bearrepublic.com/home.php

It seemed odd to seek out beer in wine country, but it was a good choice.  22 ounces for $4.75 as compared to $10 a glass for wine.  I had Apollo brew and it was very good with all sorts of flavors.  Elizabeth had the Big Black Bear stout, and that was very good as well and very different from others I have tasted.









Elizabeth had a burger, but I ate a chili made from three kinds of game and a Cobb salad that was wonderful. They arranged each element of the salad: eggs, tomato, avacado, blue cheese, bacon etc.  It was a very tasty meal.  
We ate outside and the weather was warm and wonderful.  Such a good meal in comfort and the quaint ambiance of a small town.


I bought a couple cheap local wines just to get me through to the time we buy what we have actually tasted.  I wanted to be in the spirit of this area so both are from here, even the $3 bottle.  
I did very poorly on the seltzer, buying something sweetened with artificial sweetener.  No calories, but this is not what I like to drink.


At a bookstore we looked around at all sorts of books.  It was an old fashioned bookstore where nothing was discounted, but things were selected with taste and a good sense of what makes a good read.
I noticed that there were quite a few books on how to raise chickens and those caught my eye.  One was "City Chicks" and looked worth reading.  Probably the library at home is a good place to start to see if that adventure is something that I might like to try.


Home now and listening to Ray Smith.  Nice to have that option.


Sipping a bit of Sonoma Valley wine called Steelhead Red that we bought in the grocery store.


http://www.steelheadwine.com/wines-red.html


http://steelheadvineyards.com/




http://www.noaa.gov/features/resources_0908/fishwine.html


http://www.examiner.com/article/wines-that-give-back-10-steelhead-vineyards-california


which seems to be a good buy for flavor and for organic ingredients and a help for fisheries.  I also seem to have gotten a good price at $10, getting $5 off the price because Elizabeth signed up for a Safeway discount card.


Tomorrow Cory comes in.

Jim's

We spent out first night after Denver at Jim's house in San Carlos.  
We all went to a fine restaurant where Jim and Anne are regulars and know the waiter.  Elizabeth and I had a nice piece of halibut with mashed potato and carrots/ broccoli.  The fish was covered with a mild avocado paste that was not as distinctive as a French sauce, but was very good.  We started with a hot cabbage salad recommended by Ben.  This was outstanding.  I want to know how to make it.  The cabbage was run through a mandolin and there was muchrooms, garlic and other good tastes blended in.


We slept on the pull out couch with a memory foam top and I liked that experience and what the foam did for the bed.  Elizabeth was less certain.   I think these would be good additions to our upstairs beds.


Anne had brought a fine loaf of cinnamon bread with the sweetness all twirled into the slices.  
It was great toasted!
I am losing my good eating habits here, but having fun just the same.  Elizabeth and I walked into the town and sat in a pleasant coffee place where we processed our own relationship and other issues a while over lemonade and some Indian curry soup.  
The town was upscale and modern.  There were friendly little shops, organic eateries, and one place that sold just olive oil and carried over a hundred varieties, some in large vats for filling jars.
It was a fine and pleasant walk.
On the way back we saw the middle school marching band in the schoolyard that is directly across from Jim and Anne's while they practiced their marching music.


Then Elizabeth drove the car we borrowed from Jim, and he and I took the little convertible (only with the top still up so it was a convertible only in possibility.) We stopped at a poker room as our bathroom break, and so I got to see what these look like. It was a fine little place with poker on one side and a few blackjack and paigow on the other.  The lighting was very dark and the entire feeling delightful.  Too bad New York could not offer these sorts of gambling experiences instead of simply taking advantage of her citizens with slots and video poker that is a disingenuous embarrassment.


I don't expect I'll play here, but it certainly is gambling with the gambler in mind.


We had a fine, full day of talking family things, money management, Healthcare.  
Jim was so amazing about that issue.  
He is solidly behind developing health care as a right for every American in spite of the fact that were a clear and unchanging bill to be established like a single payer approach, it would cut hard into his own business because right now much of his work is consulting large businesses on what health care plan to choose.  He is a smart fellow and this business had grown from 17 to 62 with offices around the country.  Amazing really.  It was so refreshing to hear Jim take a stand on a political issue that was not a rationalization of personal interest and financial advantage.
Elizabeth asked what he would do if that happened, and he just laughed and said there was so much to do, he would find something new.  I loved his confidence and his sense of life for the good of others. 
However, I was upset with his projection for what was likely to happen in the immediate future,  that it was quite likely the Supreme Court would dismiss the personal mandate and that would cause the entire Health Care bill to unravel simply because it would not be fiscally feasible.
Single payer would have precluded this idiocy.  Even a public option in the marketplace would force insurance companies to stop overpricing everything and establishing in many cases a monopoly; it would have let the marketplace bring the cost of health care down.  Losing these two pieces may have put off real savings and precluded us from joining the civilized world in caring for our own people.
It is quite a mess!


For a while I was out of the conversation the couch with ice on my knee.  I fell at Jim's house in San Carlos getting my suitcase down the stone steps,(you can see them in the first photo) and while I think I did very well with the falling and quite proud of myself, I did manage to injure my knee right near the joint and it had swelled up to the size of a tangerine, and while it did not hurt much, we were worried a bit by the look of it.  The ice and an Aleve took it down to a comfort level and this morning it is completely back to normal.


I was able to watch Niagara on TCM while icing my knee.  What a great film!  I don't think Marilyn was at the peak of her acting, and there were too many long scenes dedicated to watching her walk, but  it was a fine. old film just the same and the shots of Niagara Falls were fun to see since they were back in the old days before all the modern development.   Afterward they had a travel piece on the Falls made in that era and it was fun too, especially since I had just been there and remembered many of the scenes now changed to accommodate larger crowds.  One ride is totally gone, a large boat like vehicle suspended over the gorge by wires.  It was run by the Spanish for a while and kept that in the name.  I don't remember enough to google it.


I was worried that we would not have wifi here. Well, we have all our electronics here.  We can watch our Netflix shows on the television, use the computer, and even Ray Smith can be pumped throughout the entire house with speakers built into the walls and the station accessed by a small old telephone.  It is amazing really.


Dana called and there is trouble at 38 around financing, so he is in our thoughts today as the politicians and Kirt try to work things out.  
http://www2.turnto10.com/business/2012/may/14/state-38-studios-discussions-ar-1036440/

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/05/panel-takes-no.html




We have a lazy day here and then Cory, Anne, Jacob come followed by Ben and Jim.  I think we are going to rest up for the partying.


I've been drinking a wine that was open here.


https://williamsonwines.com/product/enchant-trinity-2009


Ironically, this is the Sonoma Valley version of a French wine I loved in Spain and we may visit the winery that makes the original when we go on our French cruise.


Châteauneuf-du-Pape

The wine has been contained with a great little stopper I'd like to own for my bottles. 

http://www.amazon.com/OXO-SteeL-Stopper-Pourer-Combination/dp/B000BCCH76

Mother's Day

Sunday, May 13


Tico cooked a fine breakfast and we visited here at the house a while, 

and then took a long tour of the area. 

First, we went to Bolder Earth where Henry works arranging and guiding educational trips around the world. It was located in a very upscale neighborhood, just small offices doing work that reached out across the globe.

Alison was working and it was 

great to see her again.  What an energetic, life celebrating young woman she is! 

 Cory used to work there, 

so the visit to the office was a meeting up with old colleagues. Talk was of all sorts of places in the world. Fiji took up a good bit of time with Noah explaining how the people lived, what it was like to visit, and showing us some video. 
 Eliza is going to Fiji as part of her college studies. 



It was fun to see where Henry does his work. He likes the job and seems to be good at it. 




 From there we ate a panini sandwich and gaspatcho at a local spot and headed up a mountain where we had wonderful views and some hiked a short trail.  We were high enough that I noticed my body struggling with the altitude and quickly exhausted. 

I started a trend in posing for photographs when I bent my leg while leaning on a post.

We drove down the winding mountain road and went on to see Red Rocks which is a beautiful outcropping of colorful red rocks in which has been carved an amphitheater for musical concerts. 

The color and shape of these huge rocks were delightful. 
I can easily see how people get pleasure out of the mountains as I get pleasure out of water.

For our final adventure of the day, we went to celebrate Mother's Day at Ana's parents house. Jose and Diana were fine hosts and put out a tasty spread of tortilla, rice, beans, manchego, eggplant, ground beef with interesting spices, red peppers and garlic, and champagne, wine, and other alcoholic delights. We added in some cookies and Krause's chocolates from Albany, including marzipan. 

 Diana set a very beautiful table and included gifts for everyone.  The women received a copy of a book of women's spiritual writing which included entries about Inanna a Summerian goddess of love.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna


I don't know if I'll read about Inanna in Elizabeth's book, but I think if I ran into her in the neighborhood, I'd like her.


Here is an artist's video of art reflecting this old goddess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJhWqLa25k


The men received new ties.  I'll use mine perhaps for a wedding or a funeral as each is being planned as I write.

Antonio and Maite joined us with the new baby Theresa Sophia. 

 There were plenty of stories. 

Jose told us of his trip into the far Northern parts of Alaska, Diana's attraction to the totem poles, and how they managed to buy one in Washington State. 
 He told about going to Costa Rica and almost deciding to live there until an earthquake took out parts of one of the places they had stayed. 
He asked me about gambling and had thought of me when he read an article on gambling in Macau. 
 He gave us a tour of his plantings for the garden, especially the tall, tall tomato plants all grown so far indoors, but moved out to accommodate the celebratory dinner for Mother's. 

Tico told of his Costa Rican travels, and I loved listening to the two of them share different experiences. 

Maite told of how her grandparents escaped Cuba when their house and possessions were confiscated by Castro. He was a dentist, and he poured dental gold into a hollow part of his shoe and then traded shoes with a friend in the States who set up a bank account for him with enough finally to bribe his way out and set up a beginning in the States. 

We ate well, drank well, played a party game that involved guessing who had made what answer to a question like, "Of what invention are you most in awe," and enjoyed ourselves fully. 

It was warm enough for us to be out in the yard and see the beginnings of the gardens or visit in the gazebo

 In the course of conversation, I was willing to bet that Limon was on the Western Coast of Costa Rica, but I was saved the loss of money as no one took me up on it.  Jose said he did not want to take my money  and got down the atlas to show me Limon clearly where he remembered it to be, on the Southern Eastern coast.  On the way home Cory suggested that Basque is not pronounced with the Spanish "a" as I was using it. However, I think he loses this bet. http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=basque

All this talk of Basque culture and naming had me remembering out visit to Guernica, our tour of the area where Basque legislators assemble to discuss the law, and our visit to this "tree"

http://gospain.about.com/od/basquecountrypaisvasco/ss/guernica_2.htm

that reflected so much history of the Basque people.


We came home tired and while Cory got Dana and The Jeneral to the airport, we watched Midnight in Paris again. What great fun!