Finally…Saturday was here and it was Julz’s birthday!  I had stayed out partying pretty late the night before with my local “meet up” group friends at a local casino and then the tail end of a wine party.  I had about 4 hours sleep when it was time to get up and ready for my two hour drive to San Jose. 

Poor Julz had no idea what plans awaited her for her bday!  Since she doesn’t drink wine, I was on a mission to find another “girly” type outing like wine tasting.  I remembered there was a vodka distillery in Alameda (East Bay) and thought it would be fun to do a tour and vodka tasting!  

True to form, I was a little late picking her up but we were still doing ok on time.  We got lost on the “island” of Alameda since all the directions I printed out didn’t have street names we could find!  We took the bridge back and forth a couple times looking for a street named “Tinker” that didn’t exist!  We finally called the distillery and they directed us to the old naval base where the distillery is located.  Whoo Hoo ��" naval base but unfortunately…the base has been closed for a number of years so no chance of eye candy sightings…or so I thought! LOL. 

We drove through the base and Julz still had zero idea of what we were doing.  Once we got in, we started our tastings so we could know what everything tasted like prior to the tour.  I knew they made other spirits besides vodka but wasn’t aware we were going to be tasting like 10 different things.  YIKES! 

We started with two fruit fortified brandies which were yummy.  From there we moved on to four different vodkas - three of which were infused.  Unlike most infused vodkas, Hangar One uses real ingredients not artificial additives.  After the vodkas, we moved on to two whiskeys.  I am definitely not a whiskey person but the smoother ‘gateway’ whiskey one aged for about 6 years was tolerable.  After the whiskeys, we tried two herbal tea liqueurs.  The first one was yummy but the second one tasted a wee bit smokey or as Julz said “it tasted like a campfire”.  LOL. After the tea liqueurs, it was on to the fruit liqueurs.  OMG…talk about heaven in a bottle.  The raspberry liqueur was very much like the raspberry wine I had in Washington back in April.  It was almost syrup like and we instantly fell in love! 

By now, it was time for our tour to start and the guide was a girl named “Andy” who was HYSTERICAL.  The tour was long for a small production facility but she provided incredible insight to the history of the company, as well as alcohol production, bottling, and ultimately consumption.  The end of the tour was the history of Absinthe and it’s ban in the US as well as St. George Spirits being the first company in the US to reintroduce it after the ban was lifted in 2007.  The Absinthe tasting was another $10 extra but we decided to try it and see how it tasted.  It definitely was not my cup of tea and was a bit hard to swallow.  Listening to the history of the bottle label was interesting -  they wanted a picture of a crazy monkey with two femur bones pounding a drum.  They had no luck getting the label approved unless they could provide supporting documentation.  The government was concerned about the label being misleading.  Instead, they ended up with a crazy monkey holding one femur bone and a cowbell…..LOL. 

Toward the end of the tour as we were at the bottling line machines, both Julz and I spotted eye candy!  They had come into the tour late and one of the guys was pretty good looking.  They ended up being down on the opposite end of the bar when we did our Absinthe tasting but we had a good view (see accompanying pic of the hot guy). 

After trying hard to finish the Absinthe, we walked around their store area a bit and just as I was looking at a dessert cookbook by Alice someone, our own TB Alice (alicegourmet) called! LOL.  What are the odds?!?!  We wandered around the store a bit, took some photos, bought some of the Rasberry Liqeuers and we were off for Julz next surprise! 

We stopped outside to get some photos of the SF Bay and the Bay Bridge and I was getting a bit worried since it was starting to get hazy and our evening activity was outdoors and too many clouds would ruin it!  Anyways, we got some great photos of the naval ships which are actually part of a museum - was unaware of that so that is something to check out another time when I am down in the area.  

As we get on the road and cross over to the Bay Bridge to head into San Francisco, I turn to get a glimpse of the Bay and spot hot guy from the vodka tasting room next to us on the freeway! Talk about strange timing - somehow they had left and not only caught up with us on the freeway but they were headed over the packed Bay Bridge into the City.  Whoo hoo!  They spotted us and there were some waves back and forth and as Julz and I pointed out, good grief, why didn't they say anything when we were standing 5 feet from them versus across a 6 lane toll bridge?!?!?  HA HA.  

After losing them back in traffic somewhere, we made our way through SF over to the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito for lunch/dinner on the Bay!  I've been by the Golden Gate Bridge and over it but this was my first time actually driving it - pretty cool.  We would've stopped for pics but the lots were all full, it was kinda cold, and we were on a schedule as Julz main surprise still awaited! :D                                                           

My now husband finally got back from Iraq, so I decided to move back to PA. He flew out and drove from Alameda, CA back to Pittsburgh, PA with me and my dog and cat. We decided to take the northern route this time. Some of the highlights for me were Reno, the entire state of Utah (loved it), and Mount Rushmore. We drove through CA, NV, UT, WY, SD, MN, IA, WI, IL, IN, OH, and PA.

Our journey begins, Alameda, CA. I was really sad to be leaving. I loved it here. I met a lot of friends at the dog park. Archie, my dog, had 4 fellow schnauzers he befriended, and I knew this wasn't go to happen in Pittsburgh. Alameda has a wonderful dog park, one for big dogs, one for little, and it's so nice to watch a bunch of smaller dogs get to play and run around without the large dogs breaking it up. Needless to say, it was a tearful goodbye. :o(

I just moved out here a year ago and I don't regret it one bit. I can commute to work and come home to my little paradise. Its a quaint city by the bay. To your left you see San Francisco and to your right you see Oakland. If I feel like it I can walk, bicycle, or drive to the Robert Crown Memorial Beach and frollick on the shore or just have some time to think. A lot of the people that live here are retired military, an older crowd. Like San Francisco there are also some Victorian homes here that line the streets. I am so blessed I get to live in this prime location.

Today, I left California to begin a 3 month trip that is following the end of my job in California.   As many of you know by now Novartis purchased Chiron and sent me packing with a going away gift.   I have decided to travel across the country to first visit my friend Bozo Bob in Nashville TN.   Bob is a refugee from California, since I will be a temporary refugee, it seems appropriate that I find out a little more of what it is like to leave paradise for an extended period of time.

Well at first the travel gods were not friendly to me.   The canceled my flight twice on United Air due to bad weather in Denver.   It didn't seem right since I really didn't want to go to Denver, but be that as it may at the last minute I got a flight on my favorite airline (not) Southwest and off I went to Los Angeles and then to Nashville.    Since Bob and I haven't seen each other in a year and our minds are beginning to fade it took us a while to realize that we starring at each other probably for several minutes before we recognized each other.   He said it was probably our hats that made a difference in our appearances, not too likely

Bozo was very gracious and let me use his bed for several nights as I began my adventure with the Bozo in Nashville. 

I actually like sushi house quite a bit. They used to have a smaller location in the shopping plaza across the street. Even though you always had to wait a long time to get a table, once you did get it in seemed more exciting because the place was packed and lively. I've only been to their new, larger location once, but from what I can tell it feels less intimate, less chaotic, less filled, and more formal.

Fortunately, the food quality seems to have remained quite good. This is definitely not your traditional sushi. The pieces are large and usually dripping in sauces and flavor. Although it's different, it's still delicious. Go here with three or four friends so you can all share dishes and try the maximum number of things out. My favorite rolls are the Rainbow Roll (7 different kinds of fish), the Crispy Roll (a deep fried roll), and the Lion King (A baked, heavy salmon roll dripping in thick sauce).

If you order 1-2 dishes per person expect to pay around $20 a person.