Bon Voyage Davy

My brother, Davy, is moving back to DFW on Wednesday (sad face), so we decided to spend the weekend together visiting a couple of Bay Area highlights.  The Bay Area is experiencing unusally nice weather for this time of year, so we took advantage of the warmer temps by spending the weekend outside.

SATURDAY - NAPA


Our first stop was to a winery we hadn't visited yet, Alpha Omega.  I selected this winery because of it's online reviews about its fabulous patio.....and fabulous it was!



Cheers!  Both Mike and Davy really enjoyed their buttery chardonnay.



You can see the Napa Valley Wine Train going by in the distance.



A picture of Alpha Omega's grounds.



We stopped for lunch at a BBQ joint in small town Calistoga called Buster's.  Mike and I had been here before...their meats are delicious.



Mike and Davy enjoying their ribs!



Calistoga is a quaint town that reminds me of a lil' mountain town.  Davy noticed there was a car show, so we stopped by to take a look.

 



I'll take this one! 



Our second winery stop of the day was to Castello di Amerosa.  Mike and I are wine club members here and always enjoy a visit to their tasting room.

Look at how full their vines are already!  Mike and I visited Napa last year in May and it was rainy, cold and hardly any vines blooming. 

Castello's Courtyard



Cheers!



The sheep were super friendly.  This lil' one was enjoying a pat from Davy.



Check out those teeny, tiny grapes!!!



SUNDAY - PACIFICA

Pacifica is a small, lazy beach town about 15 miles south of San Francisco.  It's generally foggy in Pacifica, but the fog was out to sea today.  Davy and I decided to walk the pups on the hiking trails bordering the coast.  It couldn't have been more gorgeous!



Can you tell what this building is?  See the lil' sign on the front?  Yep, that's right, it's a Taco Bell.  A Taco Bell right on the beach with the most fantastic views of the Pacific.

 

And here's the view we had while dining on our combined $11 meal at Taco Bell.  Fabulous!

 

What a wonderful weekend in NorCal.  Mike and I have enjoyed spending so much time with Davy in SF.  We'll look forward to seeing him in June when we visit home!

LA Tourists

FRIDAY
We decided to take advantage of Mike working in LA, so I flew down last Thursday night for the weekend.  We wanted to have a great time and made the decision to do all the fun, Hollywood tourist stuff.  On Friday, we took a tour of Warner Bros. Studios, stopped by the Le Brear Tar Pits, and visited The Griffith Observatory.


View of Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios from our hotel room.



View of LA (downtown is in the distance) from our hotel room.

Here we are on the 2.5 hr Warner Bros. Studio tour.  Recognize this famous square?  Its most famous movie scene is from "Back to the Future".



The producers and director of the TV show "Pretty Little Liars" were scouting locations for scenes for the show.  As we drove by, actor and director Chad Lowe smiled and waved at all of us.  Notice the pink golf cart to the left?  It read "Pretty Little Producers" on the back...too cute!  Some of the shows theme their golf carts to match their shows.



Just for the record, Michael Keaton will always be my Batman.  This car and suit was worn by Val Kilmer when he played Batman.



This was George Clooney's bat mobile...it cost more than $1M to build.



We're sitting in "Central Perk" from the set of FRIENDS!

 

The chandee on the left is valued at $7M.  The blue velvet sofa and pillows are from Carrie Bradshaw's apartment in the "Sex & The City" movie.



Warner Bros. Tower




We had a great time!



I thought this sign was a bit ridiculous...thank goodness they only sell "ethical" drugs at this pharmacy.




"Hooray for Hollywood...."  this is a view of the famous sign from the Griffith Observatory.



The Griffith Observatory is a wonderful museum with great/fascinating exhibits on our universe.  As we left the Observatory that evening, folks were starting to camp out to view the super moon.

 

View of downtown LA from the Observatory.


SATURDAY
We spent all of Saturday at Universal Studios and had a blast!!!  Many of Univeral's experiences now include a 3-D element which makes for a fun show/ride.  Our favorites rides were King Kong in 3-D, the new Transformers 3-D, and The Mummy rollercoaster.

Look at that...they rolled out the red carpet for us!



Ha!  This guy looked and sounded like Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice...he had his voice, expressions and manuerisms down very well.

 

Goofball!



Marty Mcfly's wheels from "Back to the Future".



In the lil fake town at Universal, there was a store dedicated to any and everything Switzerland related. This was the sign in the window.  We found it ironic because we may have the opportunity to go on a trip with the family to Switzerland in the Fall. Take a holiday to Switzerland?  Don't mind if I do!



Apollo 13's newest crew member.



I'm a bit obsessed with the movie "Jurassic Park".  When I'm working on my laptop in the evenings, I'll often play this classic or my other fav natural disaster movies in the background...2012, Twister, or Dante's Peak.


SUNDAY

We left LA around 10:30am on Sunday and took the PCH back up the coast.  Along many parts of this hwy, you have mountains to view on one side and the Pacific on the other...just gorgerous.



We stopped by the famous Hearst Castle for a tour on our way home.  The Hearst Family made their money from their newspaper and cattle businesses back in the early 1900s.



The beautiful grand entrance to the property. 



The 500 year old European fireplace in the Grand Room.

The dining hall.



Beautiful view of the Pacific.



We stopped by elephant seal beach to view the seals sunbathing.  They're pretty entertaining to watch as they start moving about and annoying one another.



What a fatty! :)