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!
The Wards
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
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.
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!
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!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Day 1: Napa Valley
Our first full day in Napa was beautiful. It was sunny all day, it wasn't particularly warm, but warm enough. We topped out at 55 degrees but in the sun it felt pretty nice.
We started the day with a big breakfast at our hotel restaurant. Then it was off to William Hill. This is a medium sized winery by Napa's standards, about 100,000 cases/year. We have always enjoyed their wines, dating back to 2005 so we wanted to stop and check it out. They had a very nice vineyard and it had some great photo ops. We also enjoyed the wines in the tasting. We decided to join their wine club while we were there so we will be getting some William Hill over the next year.
Next stop Disneyland, I mean Rubicon. Rubicon Estates is the MECCA of Napa Valley. We have been members at Rubicon since our first stop there in November 2009. We enjoy their wines immensely. As members, you get free tastings whenever you are in Napa. The tastings are $50 for non-members and take about 45 minutes. We try the new wines (3 of which have already been delivered to us) and 2 which are limited distribution and will never be sold outside California. They assign a taster to about 3 couples and he goes back and forth about the history of the wine and it is very enjoyable and educational. After the tasting, we took the tour of the vineyard and learned about the site from the very beginning.
A guy by the name of Gustave Neibaum founded Inglenook (now Rubicon) in 1880. This guy was 35 years old and had was a multi-millionaire from some Alaskan Fur Trading. Think about that, 35 years old and worth millions of dollars, that's pretty impressive in 2010, how about in 1880. Warren Buffet might even be a little jealous. Anyway, this guy Gustave bought the site which is now Rubicon. He began winemaking and then it passed down to his Grand Nephew Josh Daniel and then in 1975 Francis Ford Coppola purchased the estate. Coppola owned the property for 20 years until he was able to buy Inglenook in 1995. That is when Rubicon was formed and now it is their flagship wine. It is a French Bordeaux style Cabernet. It sits for 22 months in French Oak (80% of those barrels are new at $1600 a piece) and then goes to the bottle. We will receive our 2007 Rubicon this coming March. We have 2005 and 2006 at home. These wines can last easily 20-years at the right temperature and get better with age and worth more. It was an amazing experience and we'll get some pictures posted of the beautiful Rubicon Estate.
After Rubicon we moved up toward St. Helena, another town north of Napa. We stopped at Franciscan, another good winery. We also tasted Mt. Veeder there, so 2 different wines are poured at this site. We have had both before, but it was interesting to learn about them a little more in depth.
After our 3 tasting of the day, we were done drinking wine. We headed to Go Fish for lunch, a great seafood place in St. Helena. We had some sushi and just recovered from 3 tastings and drank lots of water. We are very careful while tasting not to drink too much, water in between, dump out wines that we don't like. It's not a drinking contest, you won't insult the winery by dumping out wine. Drink what you like, and only what you like.
After lunch we made our way back to Napa (about 20 miles south of St. Helena) and took a little afternoon nap. Dinner was just across the street at Oenotri, a great Italian restaurant. We went to bed early after a long day of wine tasting. Day 1 was great, hoping for the rest to live up to the 1st day.
We started the day with a big breakfast at our hotel restaurant. Then it was off to William Hill. This is a medium sized winery by Napa's standards, about 100,000 cases/year. We have always enjoyed their wines, dating back to 2005 so we wanted to stop and check it out. They had a very nice vineyard and it had some great photo ops. We also enjoyed the wines in the tasting. We decided to join their wine club while we were there so we will be getting some William Hill over the next year.
Next stop Disneyland, I mean Rubicon. Rubicon Estates is the MECCA of Napa Valley. We have been members at Rubicon since our first stop there in November 2009. We enjoy their wines immensely. As members, you get free tastings whenever you are in Napa. The tastings are $50 for non-members and take about 45 minutes. We try the new wines (3 of which have already been delivered to us) and 2 which are limited distribution and will never be sold outside California. They assign a taster to about 3 couples and he goes back and forth about the history of the wine and it is very enjoyable and educational. After the tasting, we took the tour of the vineyard and learned about the site from the very beginning.
A guy by the name of Gustave Neibaum founded Inglenook (now Rubicon) in 1880. This guy was 35 years old and had was a multi-millionaire from some Alaskan Fur Trading. Think about that, 35 years old and worth millions of dollars, that's pretty impressive in 2010, how about in 1880. Warren Buffet might even be a little jealous. Anyway, this guy Gustave bought the site which is now Rubicon. He began winemaking and then it passed down to his Grand Nephew Josh Daniel and then in 1975 Francis Ford Coppola purchased the estate. Coppola owned the property for 20 years until he was able to buy Inglenook in 1995. That is when Rubicon was formed and now it is their flagship wine. It is a French Bordeaux style Cabernet. It sits for 22 months in French Oak (80% of those barrels are new at $1600 a piece) and then goes to the bottle. We will receive our 2007 Rubicon this coming March. We have 2005 and 2006 at home. These wines can last easily 20-years at the right temperature and get better with age and worth more. It was an amazing experience and we'll get some pictures posted of the beautiful Rubicon Estate.
After Rubicon we moved up toward St. Helena, another town north of Napa. We stopped at Franciscan, another good winery. We also tasted Mt. Veeder there, so 2 different wines are poured at this site. We have had both before, but it was interesting to learn about them a little more in depth.
After our 3 tasting of the day, we were done drinking wine. We headed to Go Fish for lunch, a great seafood place in St. Helena. We had some sushi and just recovered from 3 tastings and drank lots of water. We are very careful while tasting not to drink too much, water in between, dump out wines that we don't like. It's not a drinking contest, you won't insult the winery by dumping out wine. Drink what you like, and only what you like.
After lunch we made our way back to Napa (about 20 miles south of St. Helena) and took a little afternoon nap. Dinner was just across the street at Oenotri, a great Italian restaurant. We went to bed early after a long day of wine tasting. Day 1 was great, hoping for the rest to live up to the 1st day.
Jason by the CASK barrels
The newly barreled 2010 Rubicon--harvested this fall
The Rubicon Estate
Jason at William Hill
The William Hill Estate
Fransiscan--(jason on cell phone---it's velcroed to his hand)
My favorite picture of the mustard!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Napa Valley 2010
Nicole and I snuck away from home for a few days. This is a slow week at Nicole's office so we took the opportunity to get away. I am working a little while we are here, but my team at the office is wonderful about helping me with my clients when I am gone. Mark is big on our group getting away and recharging. I have seen this change in him over our last 11 years together. It's still hard to completely leave it, but it's easier than it ever has been.
We arrived in San Francisco yesterday at about 2:00 p.m. We rented a car and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first stop was the first town over the bridge called Sausalito. We really enjoyed this little town. The shops were great and there were many choices for waterfront dining and the views back to San Francisco were beautiful. The backdrop of all the views are the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, Alcatraz and of course the city of San Francisco. Not nearly the traffic and people either. We had a late lunch and took some pictures and then made our way to Napa.
We checked in last night to our hotel which is downtown Napa. Check it out. http://www.aviahotels.com/hotels/napa/
We drove around town last night trying to get familiar and saw about 6 or 7 great restaurants. The town reminded me of Vail just a little without the snow. Looking forward to seeing it in the daytime.
We are off to taste some wine today... William Hill first, then Rubicon. 2 is probably enough for the day.
We arrived in San Francisco yesterday at about 2:00 p.m. We rented a car and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first stop was the first town over the bridge called Sausalito. We really enjoyed this little town. The shops were great and there were many choices for waterfront dining and the views back to San Francisco were beautiful. The backdrop of all the views are the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, Alcatraz and of course the city of San Francisco. Not nearly the traffic and people either. We had a late lunch and took some pictures and then made our way to Napa.
We checked in last night to our hotel which is downtown Napa. Check it out. http://www.aviahotels.com/hotels/napa/
We drove around town last night trying to get familiar and saw about 6 or 7 great restaurants. The town reminded me of Vail just a little without the snow. Looking forward to seeing it in the daytime.
We are off to taste some wine today... William Hill first, then Rubicon. 2 is probably enough for the day.
Christmas 2010
We went to Springfield to be with Nicoles family for Christmas. Nicole and I did some cooking and drank some good wine. Nicole made her won tons and we also stuffed mushrooms with the same filling (cream cheese and sausage). I made some Asian chicken wings as well. For wine we tried a 2004 Trefethen Estate Cabernet. While certainly not their best Cabernet it was very good.
We had the whole family together. George and Michelle, Nicole and I, Ryan and Emily and their daughter Hattie (and expecting baby in June), Ashley and her son Zander along with her boyfriend Danny, and Allison. Then we had Grandpa and Grandma Tauer, and Grandma Coners along with uncle Paul and his daughter Libby. We also had a visit from Santa Claus who had gifts for all the well-behaved children. It is a lot of fun to watch the reactions on their faces when Santa arrives. Even Hattie did well with Santa, she was afraid you could tell, but she was also very fascinated by him and even gave him a hug at the end.
On Saturday we are just "hanging" with Nicole's family, most of the sisters are onto their significant others families, so it will be George, Michelle, Nicole, Ally and I.
On Sunday, on our way back to Hudson we will stop at my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Connie's home for a visit with my mom's side of the family. Oyster Stew is the tradition for the Will Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the Tauer family Christmas.
We had the whole family together. George and Michelle, Nicole and I, Ryan and Emily and their daughter Hattie (and expecting baby in June), Ashley and her son Zander along with her boyfriend Danny, and Allison. Then we had Grandpa and Grandma Tauer, and Grandma Coners along with uncle Paul and his daughter Libby. We also had a visit from Santa Claus who had gifts for all the well-behaved children. It is a lot of fun to watch the reactions on their faces when Santa arrives. Even Hattie did well with Santa, she was afraid you could tell, but she was also very fascinated by him and even gave him a hug at the end.
On Saturday we are just "hanging" with Nicole's family, most of the sisters are onto their significant others families, so it will be George, Michelle, Nicole, Ally and I.
On Sunday, on our way back to Hudson we will stop at my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Connie's home for a visit with my mom's side of the family. Oyster Stew is the tradition for the Will Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the Tauer family Christmas.
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