California Trip 2008

On Saturday we made it just in time to see Michael and Rose’s marriage ceremony in Mt. Tamalpais State Park at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater. It was great seeing some robot/geek flare at a wedding; the table center pieces and the cake topper consisted of welded metal figures and Michael and Rose’s robots were dressed in a bow-tie and veil for the occasion. The event was at a beautiful mountain location and the newly wedded couple couldn’t have looked happier. Our “words of advice” for them were: “Never go to bed mad at each other” and “Blame it on the cats”. I hope they got the caramel off of their car...

The Newlyweds.

We had some excitement checking in at the Motel 6 in Santa Rosa; when we arrived at the motel we were told that we had already checked-in and there were no other rooms available. The situation turned into a big debacle, with the manager showing up, security going up to our room to throw out the current tenants, and a crying desk clerk. In the end, security only found bags in the room, we checked in, the old tenants, who were actually guests that had been mistakenly checked into the wrong room, showed up at 1 a.m. and found their keys didn’t work, and finally, the manager checked them into the correct room.

Sunday we cheered on Jeremiah and Elaine while they participated in the Vineman Half Ironman Triathlon. The triathlon consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run (70.3 total). Both Jeremiah and Elaine did an amazing job and looked strong during each of the transitions and crossing the finish line.

Triathlon photographs are below:

At the start...

Participants started at different times depending on age and gender; Jeremiah's swim wave (male 29 and under) all wore white swim caps.

Elaine at the beginning of the bike.

Jeremiah at the end of the bike.

Jeremiah at the finish!

Elaine at the finish!

During the remainder of our trip we did a tour of and wine tasting at Castello di Amorosa (translation: Caste of Love) in Napa, saw the movie The Dark Knight, spent some mula shopping, ate at some excellent restaurants, and saw the Dale Chihuly exhibition at the de Young museum in the Golden Gate Park.

Castello di Amorosa photographs are below:

Our favorites from the wine tasting included their 2005 Chardonnay, Russian River "Reserve", and two Rosé Wines: 2007 GIOIA Rosato di Sangiovese and 2007 FANTASIA.

Our lunch view from the Bistro Boudin on the Wharf. Boudin Bakery is famous for baking San Francisco sourdough.

Ken making friends at the de Young museum.

Chihuly exhibition photographs are below: