Bike Tour: Day Two (Gualala to Point Reyes Station)
July 8, 2010
Stats of the Day
Distance: 76.2
Moving Time: 5:33
Elevation: 6,778 ft
(all stats and maps here)
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Woke up a bit earlier than I expected this morning and ended up hitting the road by 6:40AM (would have been even earlier but I had to wait for Chris to call and wish me good luck on my last leg.)
Pre-ride breakfast = a banana
(knowing that I only had to go but 9 short miles until I’d come upon [drum roll please] Two Fish Bakery in Sea Ranch!)
I dream of the day when I know longer hear the siren call of bakeries, candy stores, and the like but, alas, that day is not today.
And so, I pedaled onwards to the bakery and, unlike yesterday, I did so without going through the thick pot-smoke-air that is the area directly above Fort Bragg. (Seriously, the air was so dense with the smell of pot I almost couldn’t breathe for a minute there!)
About 9 miles in I saw a sign for the left turnoff to the bakery. Bad part: the left was up a very VERY steep little hill (especially steep given my tired legs.) I think you climb like 300 feet in a very short space (like maybe half a mile). Not good for the legs!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
After having my heart pump out of my chest I made it to Two Fish! And what a fantastic little stop. I was pretty much the only person in that tiny place that they didn’t know on a first name basis, but they were super friendly. In fact, when I was in line this guy just walked out and, upon seeing my bike, walked over to me and said “awesome bike.” At that I smiled and said “thanks” … and then after I got my snack (two pieces of banana bread [one for now, one for later] and a granola yogurt parfait thing), I realized he was still drooling over it. So, we ended up talking for 15 minutes. Best line from him, “you know, the word ‘beautiful’ is tossed around a lot where bikes are concerned, but I think it should really be reserved for titanium bikes like this. This is beautiful.”
Awesome.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Turns out he used to sell Moots and other bikes before he quit (no money in it unless you own the place) a few years back.
So after I got a little lesson in what makes my bike so great, I was told “happy riding” and “good luck” by a few more people leaving the bakery before I got back on my (much merrier) way.
The roads out of Gualala down the coast are definitely busier at times - more big trucks, not much shoulder at parts, and because of all the trees and turns, there’s an increased risk that people won’t see you. Thankfully, the only issue I ran into was a crazy pickup truck that was trying to pass a slower car in front of it (this is in oncoming traffic). He ended up going over the double yellow lines and was headed straight at me until he cut back in around the guy. I’m fairly sure he didn’t see me (and I’m fairly sure I peed a little), but it was ok. I ended up going way into the right side dirt and just waited for him to pass.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Other than that, the most memorable part of the ride was a climbing section filled with bugs and cattle guards about 30(ish) miles in. The climbing was long (at least it felt long with my backpack on), exposed, and hot. And, because I failed to look at any sort of elevation profile, I just didn’t know what to expect (and I’m not one of those people who likes not knowing what to expect on a ride.) But, putting all that aside, the views were absolutely unreal. The Northern California coast is just absolutely gorgeous - to the point where you are saying in your head, “is this really real?”
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
After that little trial, I hit Jenner and tried calling Chris. No dice. Continued on until I (thanks be to the gods) hit Bodega Bay. In Bodega I was hitting a bit of a low point (30 miles left and I just was feeling soooo slow), but luckily had cell phone reception. I got Chris and my mom on the phone and decided that my mom would continue up the one past Point Reyes station and instead get me before the rollers (which would save me about 9 miles).
With that new motivation I felt a bit better, that is, until the few miles going into Tomales Bay. So hot! All that climbing! No shade!
(ok it probably wasn’t that bad but I’m not in good shape right now! And my backpack is heavy!)
And as a side note, you can tell there’s a harder part of a ride when there are mysteriously no pictures for an hour or two.
After all that, I dropped down into little ole’ Tomales. And, per Chris’ recommendation, dropped by their bakery, too. I got some stuff to give to my mom as a thank you but took a quality assurance bite of each — very tasty!
Out of Tomales there were some massive headwinds getting into Point Reyes, but I survived! I also passed a couple who was biking down from Canada!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Eventually I made it to where Hog Island is (and where my mom and I were planning on meeting), but she wasn’t there yet so I just started my way down the rollers. I eventually decided to wait on top of one of the hills so I could easily see all the cars coming (so my mom wouldn’t unknowingly pass me!)
I saw her and, in her own words, “never had she seen me so happy to see her car.” I jumped up and down and my two-day tour was over! We went into Point Reyes for some delicious sandwiches at Cow Girl (where I highly recommend you stop on your own biking adventure) and another treat at the Bovine bakery (a must stop for cyclists.)
Overall the ride was beautiful, relatively safe, and a great experience. For all your wannabe cycling tourists, this would be a great two-day test run.
My only recommendation: get someone to go with you! It makes the hills less steep and the roads less lonely.
Happy riding!
Bike Tour: Day One (Westport to Gualala..lalala)
July 2, 2010
Stats of the Day
Distance: 78.3 miles
Moving Time: 5:20:27
Elevation: 6,410 feet
(all stats and maps here)
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
7:05AM and I was on my bike. The day before I got a nectarine and banana to eat for breakfast, knowing that about 20 miles in I could stop by the Fort Bragg Bakery for breakfast numero dos. Thankfully the weather was super cooperative - warm enough that my ear-covering headband, knee warmers, and hideous neon yellow jacket were enough.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
20 miles in and I was in Fort Bragg. I rode up to the bakery and at first walked in and left my Moots right out the door. But, after realizing that I was having a mini panic attack as I stared at it from the other side of the glass, decided to just accept that I was freaked out that someone was going to steal it, so I went out and brought it in with me. The woman behind the counter smiled and asked me “so did you bring that in because you think someone is going to steal it?”
me: “Yeah, I just can’t handle it”
her: “Umm… nobody is going to steal your bike here”
me: “really?”
her: “Yeah”
[enter a guy who ended up being her husband]
her: “He and I are both big riders… [looks at him] she’s not going to get her bike stolen here, is she?!”
him: “Yeeaahhhh, no. But what if she did”
me: “Exactly! But what if I did! I’d die!!”
her: [laugh] “Yeah, true”
From there we talked a bit more about biking and my bike specifically. They were both super friendly and as I left with my bagel for now and a “savory pocket” (pastry thing filled with sun-dried tomatoes and feta) for later, some other random woman sitting in the corner yelled out “have a great ride!” How cool is that?
I rode down to eat my bagel on a bench when this homeless guy passed me and asked what day it was. And what did I say? “Thursday” … I said “Thursday.” It wasn’t until about an hour later that I realized it was actually Wednesday…
After finishing my bagel I pedaled over to the bike shop I saw on the main drag. Unfortunately, it was closed so I couldn’t actually buy a patch kit and extra tube. I just had to pray that my one tube would be enough. Ended up being ok but that’s not so smart!
The cool part about the stop was running into two other cyclists who were waiting for the shop to open. They were actually biking South to North, which is a much harder ride — in part because of the strong headwinds they’d no doubt been battling.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
From there I just kept pedaling along…and along…and along. At one point there was some construction that required them to stop traffic and let one side go and then the other, which meant waiting for our turn for like 10 minutes. In the meantime a bunch of cyclists ended up chit-chatting. I was the only woman doing touring solo and the only other woman in the pack period (of like 8 riders) was doing it with her husband. I was a bit jealous… biking it great but it’s made so much better when you are with someone else - even if you aren’t talking that much at all! Just having someone to say “wow look at that” or talk with for a short break — those are nice. On the AIDS ride I did last year I was basically riding alone, but the diference was that I’d see people at all the rest stops and just randomly see people on the road from time to time. On this ride I barely saw anyone. At. All. …Ever
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Anyway, I kept on riding and eventually made my way to Gualala. At first I was nervous I was going to miss it but, like the girl from the motel said on the phone, that’d be very difficult to do. And, in fact, she was right. Most of the “cities” down the 1 are, like, lierally on the 1. “Main street” is the section of the 1 that goes through their town. And that’d be the whole town. So, when I saw the signs for Gualala I realized pretty quickly that I’d better start looking for the motel because in about 30 seconds I’d have biked through city limits!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Pulled up, showered, went to the grocery store next door to get a deli sandwich and chocolate bar for dinner, bumped into some cyclist dudes I saw earlier in the day (they were at that shop still in bike clothes getting lots of beer for their campsite down the road), and then called Chris from a pay phone.
The rest of the night was filled with talking on the phone, walking down to the beach, and watching junk TV.
Day One complete!
Bike Tour: Day Zero (Getting up to Westport)
July 2, 2010
After deciding that my summer was wasting away without me doing anything exciting, I decided to take some vacation time and give bike touring a very short trial run. At first I was going to do a ride from mi casa to Big Sur or San Simeon, but, upon reflection, realized that I’ve already biked from here to Monterey… so it wouldn’t be very “new.” Plus, the ride from Santa Cruz to Monterey is long and pretty much totally boring. So, given all that and the fact that Chris offered to drive me to my starting point, I decided I’d bike from Westport (about 20 miles North of Fort Bragg) down to Point Reyes in two days.
Day one: Westport to Gualala
Day two: Gualala to Point Reyes
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Tuesday afternoon Chris and I left for the long drive up to Westport, and after about four and a half hours we arrived at the Howard Creek Ranch Hotel. Now I know some of you are already judging me — “you stayed at hotels and motels during your trip? Why not camp out and become one with nature and oatmeal?!”
Well, a few reasons
1) I don’t even have a proper rack with panniers, which would just logistically make carrying a tent, sleeping bag, etc. pretty much impossible. I ended up carrying everything for this ride in a backpack (more on the wisdom of that later.)
2) I’m doing this ride alone and while I am confident tons of women have biked solo up and down the coast with no problems, I just feel a little less freaked out by myself in the land-of-no-cellphone-reception when I can lock a motel room behind me!
3) I like sleeping in a bed after biking all day. (This is the “princess” reason)
4) I don’t like oatmeal
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
So anyway, we arrived! The hotel is a bit, in Chris’ words, “kooky,” It’s seriously in the middle of nowhere and basically consists of two big buildings that are across a swinging bridge from each other. The room we stayed in was a tiny little thing in a converted barn. In the living area on the second floor was an indoor jacuzzi (wish I would have realized that before arriving!), a zillion plants pushed up against the windows, and just a hodgepodge of antique(ish) Victorian furniture with trinkets on every empty space. In sum, I loved it. It’s the sort of place you’d go, stay a few days, and basically just get away from everything.
That night Chris and I went into Fort Bragg for dinner and, thanks to Yelp, had some truly fantastic pizza (and I’m told beer) at Piaci Pub and Pizza. Not Delfina good, but really good. In fact, you know it’s good because outside in downtown Fort Bragg everything was super quiet… but then you open the door of this pizza place and it was totally packed.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
After that we got dessert at Cowlick’s Ice Cream. I totally recommend it! I actually sampled the mushroom flavor - totally delicious! More like maple syrup taste than mushroom, but the coolest part is they don’t add any extra sugar outside what’s already in the milk and cream. But it’s super sweet!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
So after eating all that, bemoaning my lack of self control, and heading back to the hotel, I was ready for the ride to begin!
Big Sur 2009 (aka: don’t cry, you were always an ugly crier)
April 28, 2009
This past weekend Eric, Chris, and I made our way to Monterey and Big Sur, California. And why? Because once again I talked Eric into doing the Big Sur marathon with me. But before I go into the details of the weekend let’s backup a bit….
So, just like the last time I signed up for a marathon (Big Sur 2007) the real purpose of the marathon isn’t really the marathon itself but instead the months of training. True to my Viking roots, I’m one of those people who gains about 15 pounds if I stop working out for more than a week or two. This means that I really have to be diligent about my exercise. And nothing spells diligent training like a marathon! And, let’s face it – I love food. And the body is a lot more forgiving for that Tartine morning roll and occasional donut (and big slice of cake with lots of frosting and strawberries with about a pound of homemade whipped cream, and …) when you ran 14 miles earlier that day.
And beyond all that, there’s a category at the Big Sur marathon called “Bonneydale” [sometimes it’s also called the “Athena” category]. It’s the category you can enter if you are over 145-150 lbs (depending on the race) and a woman. For men it’s called “Clydesdale” and is typically over 195 lbs. Anyway, I realized that if I ran at about a 9:30 pace for the marathon I’d have a real chance at placing in the top three for that. This would be a huge achievement because:
1) I’ve never placed in a sport. Ever. And to place for a marathon would be an epic win!
2) I thought to myself, “if you can place at a marathon than no matter what your body is like at that point, no matter how much you weigh, you’re really healthy. And that is enough.” Which is to say that I saw a win as validation that my body was good where it was – no matter what weight I was at when I crossed the finish line.
Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but none of that happened. Instead, Eric and I ran it ~20 minutes slower than 2007 and I was in extreme pain.
The Injuries
- I started keeping my exercise journal again on January 5th and on my very first entry I wrote “yesterday did 58 minutes/ 6 miles so today was rest as to avoid inflaming my right hip and knee” And basically that issue (my right hip) plagued me through all of my marathon training. The pain basically feels joint-related all up inside my middle to outer hip into the very top outer part of the booty. It starts kind of achy with this “I want to extend my leg out and pop my hip joint” feeling and then it gets sharper and sharper as I run. Soon enough I also feel sharp pain in my knee. So much sharp pain in fact that I started to wonder (during the marathon) if it was going to get so bad that my leg would just be unable to bend at all – like sharp pain rigor mortis! No lies!
On the Friday before the marathon (so the 24th) I had my first physical therapy appointment. Basically I needed the guy to tell me how I was going to get through the marathon with all the shin pain I had been experiencing. When Chris and I ran in Mexico, for example, the first lap or two I’d be hobbling and then it would slowly get better right up until we stopped – at which point the shin pain would cause me to limp around for the next twenty minutes. This injury was the one I was most worried about. I hadn’t experienced the hip issue for a while (it tended to come and go) but the shin could be a killer. I figured it was classic shin splints so I asked the guy to just tape up my leg, show me a stretch or two, and let me know the exact amount of Ibuprofen one could take before reaching toxic levels. Unfortunately, instead of that I was told that I had stress fractures up and down my left shin. He proceeded to tape my leg (and teach me how to do it for the marathon) but it was a really hard blow.
Friday Night
After getting the bad news on Friday afternoon I was pretty low. I still went out to sushi with Chris and Neil but by the end of it I felt fairly withdrawn. I was having an internal self-pity party of sorts. I thought about all the training runs I’d done – so many more long runs than the last time we did a marathon… I thought about all those cold winter mornings when I’d get my ass out of bed at 6:30am to go on runs three times during the week (plus long-run Saturday!) even when it sucked. And then I thought about how there was a very very real chance I wouldn’t be able to complete the race. How I could end up with a full-blown fracture through my shin, which would then totally fuck up my chances at completing the AIDS ride.
Eric made it the Bay Area by around 8:30 – 9pm and he picked me up in Palo Alto and we headed right up to SF. He wanted to study for the rest of the night but it ended up being me sobbing and sobbing with him trying to say it’d be ok no matter how it turned out. I was so stressed out and so very very scared.
Saturday
Well the gods must have taken pity on me because I woke up Saturday morning in a much better mood. Chris, Eric, and I got up fairly early and headed down to Tartine for a delicious breakfast and then started on our way to Monterey! The Big Sur race expo happens at the Monterey conference center so we bee-lined for that first. Eric and I picked up all our packet stuff and then we all meandered through the booths.
After all that, we ate lunch at a lovely little seafood place Chris knew about.
Then, Chris and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium while loser Eric studied at the nearby Starbucks. The Aquarium just got a new special exhibit on seahorses and I’ve got to tell you – it’s seriously cool. Something about seahorses is so magical. Like I’ve said before, they’re like the chariots of Thumbelina-sized mermaids!
And, as you see here, apparently regular sized mermaids too! (who friggin knew?!?!)
After all that (oh and a glass of wine for Chris) we headed to a pasta place for our pre-race dinner. I wasn’t really that hungry (I’d already eaten so much that day!) but tried to get myself to down at least a little of my pasta! And, straight after dinner we headed back to our totally reasonable hotel motel and I went straight to bed.
Sunday
pre-race
The three of us all set independent alarms for 3AM. Those ended up being unnecessary because I was already awake. Laying there. Eyes open. In darkness.
Chris was super awesome and helpful and filled up my water bottle with half gatorade half water, put a few extra aleve in my little running bag, and drove Eric and I to the buses (for Big Sur you have to take buses to the starting area because they close down HWY 1)
The next few hours (and there were quite a few!) consisted of Eric and me trying to huddle in whatever way provided the most warmth. Turns out there really wasn’t a position that could keep us both warm. So that wasn’t so great. If you are reading this and will one day run Big Sur, bring a few blankets and a pillow!
race
About ten minutes before the start we all lined up at the starting area. It’s just amazing how many people sign up to do Big Sur. I mean it’s just a sea of people! How can there be that many crazy people?!
And yet when the epic champion music starts to play (of the eye of the tiger / start me up epic variety) you forget that it’s crazy. I just looked at Eric and we both just started screaming with excitement.
The race then started and we started all right. Sadly I put sports shield (which is like a friggin god send against chafing) around my stomach (sometimes you can get cut from your shorts on top) and that caused my slippery shorts to ride up my butt like crazy (too slippery to hold so they just decided to defy gravity and go up up up!) So the first two miles were me constantly pulling my shorts down (to no avail). Apparently showing the world my butt has become a favorite past time of mine anyways [see Puerto Vallarta entries].
But I do wonder if trying to pull my shorts down caused me to run with poor form, which then caused the hip to freak out.
Either way, by mile 7 or 8 things weren’t looking so good. My hip injury came on with full force and by mile 10 I couldn’t deny it any longer. I had to stop to stretch it (basically I stretch like I’m really trying to pop my hip out and that seems to help for a mile or so). Mentally doing that was rough because we were right with the 4:30 finish pace group at that point. And stopping meant we’d really lose them. And lose them right before Hurricane Point – the hardest climb in the race (about 520 ft over 2 miles). But I had to stop. The pain was so sharp I couldn’t properly put my right leg out in front of me – I was sort of doing a rounded stride (so instead of the leg going in a straight line it was pushed out to the side and up in a half-moon hoop instead). I just couldn’t take it any longer- after about two miles of it, it was just getting way too severe.
As you can imagine, having to take a stretch due to severe pain at mile 10 (especially when I should have stopped at mile 7 or 
is a mentally daunting thing. You still have 16 miles to go and, since I knew the course, the next 16 were the really had ones. Big Sur has some non-trivial climbing all the way to the end and pain that early means nothing good.
Eric was really understanding (later I found out that since mile five he was experiencing pains, but he didn’t want to “keep me back”) but for me it was rough. The pain was a familiar one – after many 12, 14, and even 16 mile runs with it I knew it was one that would not just disappear if I kept running.
Either way we made our way up Hurricane Point, where I had to stop many many times to stretch it out 
again. By the top my quads were shot. I think it was just a combination of my hip and shin just causing less than perfect form (so you’re using the wrong muscles to make your way up) and not enough hill training. Even though in 2007 our top run was only 12 miles, almost all our long runs were hardcore trail runs up in the LA/Malibu hills. And those runs made Hurricane Point seem not so bad at all. This year, Hurricane point seemed pretty horrible.
After that it was slow going on the descents and the hip pain continued. I got fairly emotional at a few moments because I was just so frustrated with myself. If only I would have trained better (better hill climbing and better as in injury-free) I could be achieving my dream 9:30 pace. But instead I knew I wasn’t even going to get what I got in 2007 (about 4:57).
I think it was around mile 20 that Eric and I finally realized we needed to seriously walk. We were both in so much pain and my hip felt way way better walking than running. And so we walked. And, to be honest, it was probably the most enjoyable part of the race. I laughed for the first time. And, once I realized I would still be able to finish, I felt ok.
At almost mile 24 Chris found us! He walked out to run the last mile with us (and take lots of pictures) but since we were slower than we hoped, he just decided to keep coming out to find us. Of course, that was after:
the 4:30 pace group ran past him
he video taped them, thinking we’d be there [video here],
we weren’t there,
he wasn’t sure we weren’t there so decided to run after the pace group just to be sure [video here],
then was sure and decided to keep walking (hoping we really hadn’t passed him!)
And then found us!
And with all that said, it was great to see him! Great and sort of funny and sad. Funny because the juxtaposition of his energy to our absolute exhaustion really showed me how dead Eric and I were. Sad because it meant that my marathon end wasn’t going to be what I hoped for (us running strong as we made our goal 4:30 time).
Either way, we all walked together until mile 25, at which point we decided to harness all our energy and run the final 1.2 miles in [video of agony here]. Near the end Chris ran ahead to get pictures of us, Eric grabbed my hand and we ran the last stretch and through the finish line together. A team and partnership. From start to finish. In 2007 and 2009.
And, just like in 2007, I got a bit choked up at the end. I was a bit too weak to hold back the tears. I was so relieved while also disappointed while also happy. Relieved it was over, that we made it. Disappointed it wasn’t what I wanted – that I failed in a way. And happy – happy for such a great best friend and boyfriend.
After that we dragged our bodies (with the help of Chris!) to lunch. And then, Eric and I both fell asleep as Chris drove us back to San Jose.
And that my friends, was my emotionally turbulent marathon weekend 2009.
You can see all the pictures (with additional inside commentary) here
And all videos can be found here
Napa! (and by Napa I really mean Yountville!)
March 3, 2009
This past Saturday Chris’ friend Ming invited Chris and a bunch of other Stanford Immunology geeks up for the Make Our Garden Grow Napa Youth Symphony fundraiser. Ming is the conductor for the youth symphony and his girlfriend is a year above Chris in Stanford’s Immunology PhD program.
Chris and I decided it’d be fun to make a mini-vacation of it, so I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we headed up early for lots of drinking, ungodly amounts of eating, biking, and a generally merry fun time! I had actually never been up to this so called “wine country” before, so I was super excited!
I’ll go over some of the highlights
Wine
My favorite wine stop was, without question, Silenus. Silenus is a custom crush facility, which basically means a bunch of smaller producers can actually crush their grapes and make their wine there. This is all super great for me, the wine drinker, because I got to try lots of different makers’ stuff all at once. And, with the assistance of Erica, the awesome wine hostess we had, we got to hear lots of first-hand accounts about the winemakers. Oh, and they had great wine, too! I ended up getting the MOST delicious wine by Scott Harvey called “Angel Ice”. It was good. So good in fact that after I finished my taste I kept smelling my glass. Embarrassing really. But the nose on that thing! And it was like liquid heaven on the palate! Oh, and if you decide to buy some I recommend serving it super DUPER cold. It’s just totally meant to be that way.
Dearest Scott Harvey, if you ever read this, feel free to send me more of your deliciousness anytime!! Your Jana Rieslings are delectable!
[side comment: yes, I purposely found a way to say both “nose” and “palate” – how will I become a true wino like Chris if I don’t practice my vocab?!”]
In other wine news, I’ve discovered that I’m a fan of Muscat, or at least the Palmaz Vineyard Muscat Canelli Florencia [reviewed by an actual wine blogger person here]. Palmaz ended up being our big tour experience (they have caves… though they aren’t the dark murky spelunking caves with dwarves working away in them like I imagined… sadly) and the muscat was my favorite tasting there. Chris really enjoyed their cabs… I just haven’t gotten to the point of red-enlightenment yet.
Food
We ate so much food. So. much. food. The gluttony! The glory!
Highlights
Bouchon: Chris took me out for one fancy schmancy dinner and I got to pick the restaurant. I’ve heard so much about Thomas Keller and since French Laundry seemed *just a little* out of our price range, I settled on Bouchon instead. It was soooo good. I started with a goat cheese salad followed by steak frites (we were told that the fries are cooked with duck fat and were “must haves”) and finished with an almond pot de creme for dessert (which we split…because we were about to die from eating so much that day).
Chris started with a sweet creamy garlic soup (that I wish he would have shared more of!) and had the lamb t-bone (which was seriously yummy and lean). I also ate more than my fair share of the 
warm Bouchon bakery bread and sumptuous butter that was served at the start. Oh! And Chris spoiled me by bringing one of his best bottles of merlot! It was a Blackbird and was actually on the wine list for almost $200! (but don’t worry, while bringing a wine that’s on the list is a faux pas, Bouchon (tragically) post neither their menu nor wine list, so there was no way to know.)
It’s true that we probably would have liked the meal even more if we weren’t seriously stuffed but whatever! It was fantastic anyway!
Oysters: The next night Chris and I felt like we needed to detox so we decided to venture back to the Oxbow market for a light clean oyster dinner. Now I haven’t really had oysters before (just literally one at Google back when one cafe used to do that in the evenings) so I was a little nervous. But, thankfully, it turns out I find them quite tasty. We got a sampler of a bunch of different kinds, which was fun. We also had the best clam chowder. It was chock-full of clams and the base was simultaneously creamy and broth-like. Just what I wanted!
Bouchon Bakery: As many of you know, I don’t have a sweet tooth… I have sweet teeth. And so I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I 
found it my duty to try out as many sweet treats at Bouchon bakery as possible. I’d say their best treats were their chocolate chip cookies and macaroons. The TKO (“Thomas Keller Oreo”) didn’t really do it for me. It’s like music – if the original is better than the remake, why are you remaking it?! The macaroons, though, must really be tried by everyone. Oh and their sandwiches are quite yummy, too. But their chai was really bland and generally garners a “meh” rating. Overall I still think Tartine is better (except in the chocolate chip cookie category, Tartine’s are too crispy and thin)
Other
Biking! Chris and I went on two bike rides. The first, on Friday, was supposed to be the full Ink Grade loop (~50 miles) but we were feeling sluggish (this was the morning after the I-feel-overly-full-and-super-ill night) and had to turn around early (~30 miles) to ensure we arrived at Palmaz on time for our tour. I’ve got to say, the roads for that route aren’t paved very well – and there are parts where the cars are driving a bit too fast for biker-comfort.
On Saturday, however, the gods smiled upon us! We biked from Yountville to Calistoga and back (~45 miles) on the Silverado trail and it was fantastic! We ended up eating lunch in Calistoga (I love eating lunch mid-ride) and really sped it up on our way back. 
Chris said there was a straight away section where I was maintaining 23 mph! Go aerobars! Unsurprisingly, Chris caught me on the hill. Dammit! Anyway, I definitely recommend biking up there – Silverado trail is a great road for it. The rollers get noticeably bigger as you near Calistoga but it’s very tame.
The Fundraiser-Concert: I got to get all fancy (which is always fun) and Chris looked dashing in his new Van Gogh-esque tie for this. The opera singing was ok but I wish the kids would have played more. The final song was quite lovely but the Opera singers totally overpowered the orchestra, which is so sad!
So overall we had a super great time! Yountville was adorable and I had my first Napa/Yountville wine tasting experience!