Truck Update

Between rental cars and rides to work with one car we are looking forward to getting our truck back this week. It is official this past week, the truck has been in the shop getting fixed LONGER than we have owned it. Our accident was November 24th so it has been over 2 months. The only thing we hope for is it is in good shape when we get it back. Otherwise we are considering trading it in for a different one, but we'll give it a chance and drive it for a little while.
We'll get some pictures posted of it this week if we ACTUALLY get it back.

Our First Cruise

This past week, (Jan 15th - 22nd) Nicole and I went on our first cruise. Our cruise was to the Western Caribbean, with 3 ports of call. Our 1st stop was Cozumel, Mexico. Our 2nd stop was Grand Cayman, and our 3rd stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
The trip was a Christmas gift for mom from all the kids. It was mom's first trip out of the country. There were 11 of us in total and we had a great time.
On the cruise were Nicole and I, Ryan and Kari, their two kids Carlyn (11) and Ethan (8), Chad and Vid, Aunt Jeannie, and Andrew. The weather was perfect, we had nice and warm weather, but when it was warm there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean. We spent the week eating (of course), sight-seeing, sunning ourselves, drinking tropical drinks (lots of them) and just enjoying time with the family.
At Cozumel we shopped at the many shops they had downtown. We then spent a beautiful day at the beach. Beautiful sand and ocean in Mexico.
In Grand Cayman we spent the day at the beach as well. We snorkeled, which was great as they had a natural reef right off the shore, so we didn't have to take a boat out into the ocean to see some very nice fish. We enjoyed a great lunch on the beach and even had a massage on the beach, it was a true relaxation day, our favorite stop of the trip by far. Grand Cayman reminded us of Maui, which is still our favorite place in the world (that we have been). Our last stop in Jamaica was also very nice. We thought Jamaica was very lush and green with lots of trees and almost rainforest. We walked up the Dunn's River Falls, something like 800 feet high and you can walk all the way to the top. It's not too steep, more of a gradual climb and it was a lot of fun. The people of Jamaica are mostly very nice, but there are some very aggressive street vendors that take away from the experience, but at the end of the day they are trying to make a living, they are just more aggressive than the folks in Mexico.
As I write this we are sitting in the basement watching Gopher BB with temps outside of -14 degrees. Very different than our last 7 days looking at the ocean each night with temps in the 80's each day.
It was a great trip, but as always, we are glad to be home!

Back To Work

It was back to work for The Wards this week after a great vacation. We were very tired to start the week with a 2 hour time change 5:00 a.m came early on Tuesday. We just relaxed in the evenings trying to catch up a little. Nicole was busy this week and as I write this she is at the hospital working. This is her on call weekend and it has been a busy week at the hospital. We talked about taking a weekend trip in February to either Palm Springs golfing or to Tahoe skiing but when she got back to work and looked at her schedule she was booked through February. This was great news and we will just look at March.

Today, Saturday Nicole has a few patients to see and then we are going to look at condos with my brother Andrew. We have 4 scheduled today. This was Andys first week of work as an Associate Programmer rather than Intern or as I like to tell him "fancy title for computer nerd". I think it is pretty clear that I am very proud of him. We are also excited about the condo prospects it's just hard to pick one. He wants to steal one from this cheap market and we know it is important to buy it cheap enough because resale won't be great for a while.

Last night we went out for dinner in Stillwater with our best friends The Snyders. We went to Phil Taras Hydeaway which is a very cool place. We had never been there before but it is a staple for locals from Stillwater. We stopped by and put our name on the list and it was 35 minutes so we went to Brents parents for a glass of wine. His parents are just great people and so interesting to talk to. They have a beautiful home in Stillwater less than a mile from the restaurant. For dinner we had cheese curds for an appetizer (hey, we live in Wisconsin) and the Snyders and Nicole had steak and I had walleye. Food and dessert were great. It was great to catch up with them. They are heading to Vail this weekend for 4 days of skiing. Brent hasn't skiied in 9 years since he was in college at The University of Denver back when he was an extreme skier. He has a broken tailbone to prove it. Andy just got back from Vail and said the snow was excellent.

Have a great weekend!

Last Day In Napa

Our last day in Napa was Sunday. We started the morning out with a skype with Emily and Hattie. We always love catching up with her and she is talking more and more. We had a reserved tasting at Stags' Leap Winery at 10am. We were joined by two other couples that were visiting the area. It was an amazing place. You can see the house behind us. We were able to try 5 great wines and take a tour of the property in the rain. Stags' Leap Winery is "hidden" away and there are no real signs to get to it. They are only allowed 80 visitors a week. Below is the drive lined with Walnut trees. The picture by the fireplace is inside the house/winery. Everything in the home is restored to its original, so lots of history and antiques. 

We also made a stop at Charles Krug winery which is owned by Peter Mondavi and his two sons, Marc and Peter, Jr. Peter Sr is 96 years old and goes to work every day for 6-7 hours. We saw pictures of him and he looks great. We enjoyed learning about the history of this vineyard because Peter Srs parents grew up in Virginia, Minnesota. That is right, on the Iron Range. They owned a grocery store and saloon in Virginia before getting into the grape business. Peter Sr and his brother Robert Mondavi lived in Virginia, MN until he was about 10 years old. It is truly amazing that 2 pioneers of the Napa Valley wine industry were born on the Iron Range!

Below are the barrels from Merryvale. This tour was way more than we expected it to be. We are members of this wine club and I guess they like to "take care of" their members. Jason and I were here for more than 3 hours tasting wines and getting tours of the place. Great wines and Ron the tour guy was great.

We had to stop at this amazing place---Beringer Estates. This place had beautiful grounds and the home was spectacular. Again we tasted some great wines from their Estate collection. Unfortunately ones that we will never see in Minnesota.

It was sad to leave Napa, but great to be back home and get back to reality at 5AM this morning. That is only 3AM Napa time! Although we tasted some great wines, we really enjoyed the stories and history of each of these places. I just love learning about the families that started these places and the success stories as well as failures. We are already looking forward to our next trip back because there are so many amazing places that we have yet to visit and our favorites to visit again. Not to mention all the wonderful restaurants. Hope everyone is having a great week.

Day 2 and 3: Napa

On Friday we started our wine tours late. I worked through the close of trade which was noon at home, so 10:00 a.m. here. We grabbed lunch at the Oxbow Marketplace, which is a public market they have here in Napa. After that we had a reservation at Trefethen Vineyards. We are members at Trefethen and we got to try 4 of their wines for free. We joined Trefethen when we were there last year and we have loved their wines ever since. We had a great taster full of knowledge about the property and the wines. The best part about the tastings is not just the wine, it is learning more about the history of Napa and how that particular vineyard fits into that history. There are a lot of great "success" stories and many of the vineyards are family businesses passed on from generation to generation.

After Trefethen we made our way to Etude, which was very nice, a brand new tasting room. The wines were just ok, we had a few good Pinot Noir's, but nothing really memorable. After Etude we made our way to Artesa, which is a beautiful site, but it was closed for the holidays. 

We had dinner reservations at 5:15 p.m. on New Year's Eve (Blue Hair Reservation). We sat next to an old couple and the guy was on oxygen and he was GRUMPY as hell. He didn't like the table they were seated at, he didn't like his steak, and he didn't like his wife. :) It was kinda sad, and he was very rude to the waitstaff. We planned an early dinner so we could catch some of the New Year's Parties that were going on around Napa, but what we found out was that all the parties were sold out and we procrastinated too long to participate in any of them. So we enjoyed a great dinner, I had Ribeye, Nicole had Sole stuffed with crab. She had a great bottle of wine (she didn't drink it all, we took the rest home) and I had some cocktails to celebrate the New Year. After dinner we got some cheeses from the Oxbow Marketplace and we had a couple bottles of wine from our winery visits the past few days. We kept it pretty low key to ring in 2011. Our room is a suite so we have a couch and table with a flat screen in one area and then the king bed with another flat screen in another area so we just relaxed and watched the New Year ring in around the world. 

                                                     Jason outside Trefethen Vineyard

Nicole at Etude Winery

                                                        The scenery from Napa Valley

On Saturday we didn't have any vineyard appointments so we slept in and then went to breakfast. We went to The Carneros Inn for breakfast, a place called Boon Fly Cafe. The food was very good and we enjoyed a nice breakfast. We had the whole day free today (Saturday) so we decided to drive around the Napa Valley. The towns that make up the Napa Valley from South to North are as follows:

San Francisco is about 57 miles south of Napa, CA. From Napa, you take Hwy 29 to the North and you go through Yountville, then Oakville, then Rutherford (home of Rubicon Estates), then St. Helena, and finally Calistoga. All along this Hwy are wineries, too many to count and too many to see in a month's time. Then, on the same parallel there is a road called Silverado Trail that has more wineries on it running the same distance South to North as Hwy 29. So, today we drove north up the Silverado Trail and saw all new wineries. The structures at these wineries are just beautiful. Some are brand new state of the art buildings and some are century old Chateau's, all interesting architecture. When we were driving on this Silverado Trail it felt like we were driving through rural France or rural Italy on a rainy day. We stopped for latte's and pastries and had a great day. Tonight we are dining at one of Napa's finest restaurants called Mustards. In a lot of pictures between the vines you will see yellow amongst the grass. This is mustard seeds that are planted and they are beautiful. There is also a world famous restaurant in the Napa Valley called The French Laundry. It is located in Yountville and the chef is Thomas Keller. You won't even believe some of things about this restaurant.

1. You need a reservation 6 months in advance (the only other way to get in is to call that day and hope for a cancellation)

2. Each day they create a new 9-course tasting menu

3. Lunch is $250 for 2-people

4. Dinner will cost over $500

5. WE ARE NOT EATING THERE!!

Napa Valley is home of some of the best restaurants in the US and the French Laundry is lauded as one of the best in the world. Maybe someday when Nicole's school loans are paid back!

....on our drive---I took a few pictures of some cows until they started moving and then I jumped into the car quickly!

                                                   Scenery on a rainy New Year's Day drive

                                  Grabbing a Latte and Croisant for a "drive" around Napa Valley

As I write this we are sitting in front of the fireplace in the lobby bar enjoying a bottle of wine from Rubicon. Nicole is searching away on her Ipad (can't get that out of her hands when we are in the room or at home). We want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We wish you all the happiness and success of 2010 and we love you!