Week of October 1: Uncle Dave and Aunt Marilyn

Uncle Dave and aunt Marilyn are semi retired and have a beautiful house (more like a castle) in Boqueron, Puerto Rico. They also have a farm in Omaha, Nebraska, that they visit once or twice a year. This year, Dave and Marilyn decided to start a road trip west from Omaha to San Diego. Along the way, they stopped over at the Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Jackson Hole, Banff, Vancouver, San Juan Islands and of course Oakland, CA. Andrea and I were delighted to have Dave and Marilyn stay with us for a few days.

On Saturday, drove up to Healdsburg to rendez-vous with Dave and Marilyn as they made their way down from Oregon. We finally met up with them around lunch at Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar. After warm heartfelt hello's, we got down to business and ordered lots of food and drinks. Willi's Warm Maine Lobster Roll was amazing! Andrea also tried her first oysters ever! She actually ate and enjoyed a couple of Kumamoto Oysters. This is not good news for me. Over the years, Andrea and I have reached a certain level of understanding and expectations. She eats her tomatoes with sugar and I eat mine with salt and pepper. She picks and orders the wines at restaurants and I finish them. She shucks the oysters and I devour them. Now I will have to share MY oysters! Great Zeus... why??!!

"Down the hatch!"

After lunch, we headed south to Sonoma for wine tasting. We first stopped at one of our favorite wineries, Matanzas Creek. As always, we really enjoyed all of Matanzas' wines. Our favorite was the 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. We then visited Wellington Vineyards where we tasted their many wines as well as their signature Ports. Very delicious. Finally, we stopped over at Loxton Cellars, which is a relatively new winery making some great Syrahs and Zinfandels.



Andrea and I also introduced Dave and Marilyn to Dim Sum. Andrea and I usually go to Yank Sing (we once set across from Nicholas Cage and his then newly wed wife Alice Kim there) in San Francisco for our Dim Sum fix. However, we decided to stay local and checked out the Hong Kong East Ocean Restaurant ("HKEOR"). To our surprise, the HKEOR was not only delicious but had a great view of the San Francisco Bay.

After spending a couple of days with us, Dave and Marilyn were off to San Diego. Andrea, Kodi and I were sad to say good-bye. But since we have an open invitation to visit Dave and Marilyn in Boqueron, Dave and Marilyn can expect to see us knocking at their gate real soon.