Feb. 9th Return to Tucson

This time Heather won the weekly poker.  Todd won the mini golf and go kart races...and little Finn is crawling.  Going to miss those guys.  Great food at Gus Balon's.  Old time diner.

Feb. 5th Palm Springs

Had a great time with Pattee and Brian in Palm Springs.  Breakfast at The Parker was really good.  That's the hotel from the reality show.  didn't even know it was in palm springs.  Checked out Elvis's house and Dean Martin's.  Some hikes...great weather.  Still lovin the In N Out Burger.  Ready to head home.

Feb 4th and 5th

Oh the pain.  Which was worse Aaron Boone hitting that homer or Manning to Burress?  We sat with the Mara family who own the Giants.  For the most part it was comfortable but one woman wasn't to fond of us.  Jack Kemp sat in front of us...the ESPN guys behind us.  Sick seats.  Never felt comfortable.  We were straight out outplayed.  and outcoached.  Particularly outcouched.  We high tailed it out of the stadium post game and headed off to our B and B.  This was how it was advertised but it was actually some kids house where we rented rooms for the night.  Danny commented that he was kind of like Brad Pitt's character from True Romance.  He did cook us a decent breakfast.  Danny and I drove Gui to Tucson and dropped him off at the airport and then I dropped Danny off in Phoenix and headed back to pick up Kerry in Palm Springs.  We are heading home. 

Feb. 3rd More Pics from Black Sunday

Feb.3rd Black Sunday

We all watched the same game.  Happy Birthday Todd!  Just pics, no words.

Feb. 2nd WEEI Party

Wasted two bills each on the WEEI Block Party.  Patriots fans only. Drank a bunch of coors light, played video bowling and listened to Boomer Esiason, Pete Sheppard, Ordway, and the rest of the cast of characters tell us why the Pats are a lock.

Feb 1 More Parties

Forgot to mention our post party trip to Wal-Mart.  Found out In and Out Burger closes at 1AM so we took a food shopping trip to Wal-Mart at 2 and bought a ton of terrible food for 80$.  My first trip to a Wal-Mart.  Enjoyed a few hours at the golf tournament today.  The weather was perfect.  All of us were a little hung over and this crowd at the FBR likes to party so we just roamed and watched some of the big names go through.  Spent a little time on the 16th.  An infamous hole where the crowd gets wasted and screams a lot.  Only hole like it on the PGA Tour.  Went back took a little nap to prep ourselves for The NFL PLayers Party.  This was the most exclusive ticket of the weekend so we were pretty stoked.  A red carpet event.  We had player tickets so we had to walk through the players line to the cameras.  Danny told me to pretend I was a kicker.  Gui and Danny both looked like midgets at this thing.  Hard to recognize so many past and present players without their jerseys on.  Gave a quick hello to Lawyer Milloy.  TJ Houshmanzadeh, Maurice Jones -Drew, Warrick Dunn, tons of other guys.  Again Danny probably has a more complete list.  Biz Markie was the dj and some singer named keiysha Coles performed.  Open bar both nights.  food was terrible.  we had a great time. 

Jan. 31st Phoenix bound

this is the first time I have driven alone on this trip so the 5 hour ride to Phoenix felt a little strange.  I am picking up Danny and Gui at the airport and then heading off to our first party which is sponsored by Ea Sports.  Our hotel is right across the street from the FBR/Phoenix Open so we get to mix a little golf into the weekend.  We got a great room off of Craig's List.  sometimes making plans late pays off.  After I checked in I went and picked the guys up at the airport.  Danny had a hellacious day of flying with some ticketing issues by the airline.  The two arrived within minutes of each other, one from LA and the other SD.  After they got settled we took the drive into Scottsdale to find our party.  Gui's cousin, who works for the NFL was able to get us into some pretty exclusive parties.  When we walked into this one Trey Wingo was onstage commenting on the Madden championship between Marshawn Lynch and Willis Maghee.  Danny and I roamed a bit while Gui found the real party upstairs in the dance room.  We made our way up.  Just a few of the guys we got to "hang with":  Joe Montana, Chris Berman, essentially all the espn guys, Carson Palmer, Big Ben Rothslisberger, Donovan Mcnabb, Jamal anderson, Keyshawn, Matt Leinart, Andre Reed, and the 100 guys we didn't recognize.  Particularly the huge lineman.  danny probably has a more complete list.

Jan. 30th Palm Springs

we are staying in Palm Springs where I am leaving Kerry with Pattee and heading off to The Super Bowl.  Kerry and I were able to play a couple rounds of mini-golf and hit the aerial tram which took us up to 8000 feet over Palm Springs.  Lots of snow and a limited view but a great ride up the mountains.  I'm not so sure Kerry liked the ride.  I'm off to Phoenix and the big game.

Jan. 29th

We are back in Santa Barbara and visiting with Amber and Sia again.  Ashley Rorrow joined us for lunch.  She is attending college out here with a quite a few other outer cape kids.  She has a great apartment overlooking the Pacific and she seems to love it out here.  Kim...you have to visit.  Drag Mark along!  Plenty of golf.  After lunch we headed up to Ojai to have a little dinner with Chelsea Vivian.  She gave us a tour of her family's company and then took us out to a great little dinner.  short visit but great to see her.  We are now headed to Palm Springs and then The Super Bowl. 

Jan. 27th Manresa

Los Gatos is a beautiful little town in the silicon valley.  It has a nice little commercial street kind of like ptown in the fall except they have lamborghini and bentley dealerships on the main drag.  Apparently the computer business is pretty lucrative.  Wish we had all bought yahoo when it was an IPO.  We are staying here because Nick has made a reservation at one of the best restaurants in Cali.  The chef has an exclusive agreement with a farm which grows all of his produce.  Each dish requires 3-4 cooks to plate.  So here is the menu from Manresa.  They started us with a chestnut crouquette.  Nik thought it was a perfect amuse bouche.  Next a blood orange sangria with a carrot foam.  The pregnant woman got a different course.  (not Neilly) They changed Kerry's menu quite a bit.  No shellfish, raw fish or booze.  Next course was a red pepper gelee and black olive madeline.  The last amuse bouche was a poached organic egg served in shell with chive, some sort of foam and a maple syrup reduction.  Very very good and a small mystery on how they did that.  Our first real course was a shellfish and boudin rouge(some sort of blood sausage) ficoide glaciale.  don't really remember this one.  The next course was Spanish mackeral and hearts of palm in a cuttlefish vnaigrette.  Next a salad that I will remember for a long time.  I know that I really could do a better job describing the food but as we all know I'm not much of a writer.  When they put the salad down Nick immediately noticed the plate was warm.  A general no no when you are plating salads. This salad had fresh greens on top(mostly bitters, dandelions, etc.) lightly dressed.  Very lightly dressed.  The salad was layered with all sorts of vegetables which started raw at the top and were warmer on the bottom with different dressing throughout. Very unusual and probably the best veggie dish I've ever had.  Next was foie with abalone and uni in a chantarelle broth.  after that pan-fried skate wing with cauliflower fondant, in a cucumber and dill juice.  My least favorite course.  After that was braised pork belly with barley and whipped parsnips.  Next beef roasted in it's own fat with potatoes roasted in hay.  Now dessert:  pine ice cream, gamay noir jelly with grapefruit granite.  Then caramel glace meyer lemon confit, Normandy cow's milk.  Then chicory and caramelized bananas with a beignet.  The chicory was ground like coffee but looked like sand and added great texture and flavor to the dish.  Last was strawberry-chocolate petit fours.  All courses paired with wine.  Amazing meal and terrific company.  we had a blast.  we stopped and santa Cruz the next day to say goodbye to the dynamic duo and have started our journey home.  

Jan. 26th San Fran

Kerry is not enjoying the PCH any more... to twisty and hilly and she has not been feeling well.  We stopped in Santa Cruz for a quick visit with Nick and Frida at the dog park.  Nick and I had a dinner reservations at Michael Mina in SF so we left to meet up later.  We stayed at The Huntington on Nob Hill.  Nice old hotel.  Kerry crashed out and I left to link up with  Nick for dinner.  This is the restaurant where Garrett (use to cook at the oyster) works.  Nick and I ordered the tasting menu and the wine pairing.  The whole meal was amazing.  I wish I had a copy of the menu.  If i remember correctly the amuse bouche was a foie flan with uni.  The second course was a seared toro dish that was killer.  Bay scallops with blood orange.  poussin with foie which was the best course if I remember correctly.  One of the best dishes of the trip.  blanking on some of the others.  Kobe short ribs.  The best tarte tatin I've ever had with burnt cinnamon ice cream.  We got a tour of the kitchen. Garret took Nick and I to a cool little bar after he finished work and Nick and I got to hang in our element... a dive bar with cooks and waitstaff.  Garret seems great and I'm sure is learning a ton at one of the top restaurants in the country.  Felt like old times and I predict that Nick, Garret, and Ryan are all going to be very successful in this sadistic business.  Kerry and I woke the next morning and touristed around.  Skipped the cable cars because of her belly.  Did drive down Lombard street,  had lunch on Fisherman's wharf, Pier 39.  Saw the sea lions, alcatraz  and The Golden Gate Bridge.  It rained the whole time so we were a little limited in what we could do.  We are checking out of the hotel and heading to Los Gatos to meet Nick and Neily for dinner.  

Big Sur

Long story which I won't tell but Kerry and I had a free room at a place called The Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur.  We were able to stay two nights and they put us in a room over looking the Pacific.  The inn is 1800 feet up surrounded by mountains to the east and the Pacific to the west.  Beautiful place.  Unfortuantely we were trapped in our room for most of the stay.  It was gusting to 60 mph and side ways rain.  We couldn't sleep the first night because we thought the house was going slide into the sea.  The award winning restaurant was a bit overrated.  Amazing kitchen.  We are seeing Nantucket Bay scallops with blood orange on every high end menu.  No stand out dish that I can remember.  Kerry had a grilled squab app. that was pretty good.  One of the photos was taken at sunrise on our last morning after the storm broke.   We were able to take a little hike before leaving for San Francisco.