It's been a crazy few months so I am catching up on some overdue blog entries. This blog entry is about October 19, 2008 and what turned out to be a really, really good day.
We were in San Francisco for a couple of reasons - I was running in the Nike 1/2 Marathon to raise money for JDRF and we had to take care of some very important business for Purple Teeth Cellars. Fun stuff.
The day started out with a pretty early wake-up call, particularly because the race started where we were staying - Union Square. So both Marc and I were up at 5:30am - what a guy. Marc and I drove the course the day before to get a sense of where we would be meeting up during the race, so after a delayed breakfast, we were ready to go.
The race weather was actually pretty favorable and I was pleased with my time of 2 hours, 13 minutes given how steep the hills were. My PR ('personal record' for the non-runners) was 2 hours and 9 minutes, so I was ecstatic particularly because I managed the race well and finished very strong.
After finding Marc, we high-tailed it back to the hotel because Big Blue was on TV because they were playing the San Francisco 49'ers. Watch our post-race celebration here. This is a good thing because I rarely get to see my Giants on TV living in Seattle so the fact we were in SF while their team was playing Big Blue... this was good. The Giants ended up winning and the Cowboys ended up losing, so the day is going well.
Marc and I spent the afternoon over at our winemaking facility pressing some grapes from our 2008 vintages, which was educational for the both of us. Then it was time to gear up for dinner at Michael Mina for lobster pot pie. For those of you who like lobster, Mina's lobster pot pie is just pure goodness and decadence. You can check out the presentation here. The sommelier paired it with a '04 Domaine de L'Arlot Nuit Saint Georges 1er Cru. Great stuff.
And the unexpected bonus came at the end of the evening when we found out that the Boston Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs by the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. Unfortunately they ended up losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, but as a Yanks fan - it's always "anyone but the Red Sox".
Other restaurants we visited during our stay included Quince (with Cousin Claire and Arnie, who had some of our barrel samples from our '07 Purple Teeth Cellars vintages) and A16 (with Anne-Cecile and Dan). A16 - stick to the pizzas and pastas. Quince - try everything.
All in all, it ended up being a great day - but the important thing is to give a special shout-out to Marc, for being awesome, per usual, in supporting me for the race and just for being him.
We were in San Francisco for a couple of reasons - I was running in the Nike 1/2 Marathon to raise money for JDRF and we had to take care of some very important business for Purple Teeth Cellars. Fun stuff.
The day started out with a pretty early wake-up call, particularly because the race started where we were staying - Union Square. So both Marc and I were up at 5:30am - what a guy. Marc and I drove the course the day before to get a sense of where we would be meeting up during the race, so after a delayed breakfast, we were ready to go.
The race weather was actually pretty favorable and I was pleased with my time of 2 hours, 13 minutes given how steep the hills were. My PR ('personal record' for the non-runners) was 2 hours and 9 minutes, so I was ecstatic particularly because I managed the race well and finished very strong.
After finding Marc, we high-tailed it back to the hotel because Big Blue was on TV because they were playing the San Francisco 49'ers. Watch our post-race celebration here. This is a good thing because I rarely get to see my Giants on TV living in Seattle so the fact we were in SF while their team was playing Big Blue... this was good. The Giants ended up winning and the Cowboys ended up losing, so the day is going well.
Marc and I spent the afternoon over at our winemaking facility pressing some grapes from our 2008 vintages, which was educational for the both of us. Then it was time to gear up for dinner at Michael Mina for lobster pot pie. For those of you who like lobster, Mina's lobster pot pie is just pure goodness and decadence. You can check out the presentation here. The sommelier paired it with a '04 Domaine de L'Arlot Nuit Saint Georges 1er Cru. Great stuff.
And the unexpected bonus came at the end of the evening when we found out that the Boston Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs by the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. Unfortunately they ended up losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, but as a Yanks fan - it's always "anyone but the Red Sox".
Other restaurants we visited during our stay included Quince (with Cousin Claire and Arnie, who had some of our barrel samples from our '07 Purple Teeth Cellars vintages) and A16 (with Anne-Cecile and Dan). A16 - stick to the pizzas and pastas. Quince - try everything.
All in all, it ended up being a great day - but the important thing is to give a special shout-out to Marc, for being awesome, per usual, in supporting me for the race and just for being him.