The Beach Resort view of Monterey Bay @ night, originally uploaded by r3v||cls.
We went to Monterey for wine tasting last weekend and I took a ton of pictures. I finally got around to picking the not-so-sucky ones and uploading them. Take a gander, if you care.

The photo here is the only night shot. It’s awesome and I need to figure out how to do it better.

After a great Thanksgiving, Annette and I headed up to Napa for the weekend for her birthday. On our way in, we had lunch at AppleBees so prepare for the onslaught of fermented grape juice. It was the day after T-Day and they already had Christmas music playing. WTF? And it was the most horrid music. I mentioned to Annette that songs about “being merry” should’t make me want to put a gun in my mouth. After we escaped the unmerriness, though, things looked up.

We stayed at the Old World Inn (yelp review is still forthcoming), since out longtime favorite (The Daughter’s Inn) has changed hands. To be fair, I don’t know if it has negatively impacted the service at Daughter’s, but the hosts were a big reason to stay there. Our room had a 60″ screen with an HD projector and a very nice whirlpool tub… very nice.

On Saturday, we had a driver and a towncar. This is the second time we’ve done Napa with a professional driver. Last time, it was a very enjoyable experience even though the driver didn’t know shit about Napa. This time, we had a very cool, informative driver and the experience was a hundred times better. An’ that ain’t no hyperbole, bub.

Also, I have to say, this is a GREAT time of year to go to Napa. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Most of the vines have changed color and the grass is all a vibrant green. The view from Domain Carneros really shows it off nicely.

While driving, working, playing, sleeping, showering, whatever, I day dream about odd projects. One of plethora of these vapor-projects was a Yelp-like site that focused on alcohol. It started with beer, really. I thought it would be cool if you had a place to rate and log beers you had tried and share that data with friends. Then I realized that it needed to be about all alcohol. Scotch, Tequila, etc all need their love too. Then I thought about wine and the little thought bubble above my head turned into a rain cloud.

I love wine, but it magnifies the complexity of the task by a factor of ten. And so, yet another project that never really had a chance to seeing the light of day was even further doomed.

Fortunately, and not unsurprisingly, I wasn’t the only one with the idea. Cork’d is a site feature exactly what I mentioned. Well, except it’s only about wine. And it has more features. And it exists.

Via Uncrate:

Cork’d - It’s super tough to find good wine. Between the wine snob at store and the incomprehensible reviews in the wine magazines, there’s not much out there to help us normal wine drinkers. Luckily, Cork’d is…

So, while I don’t agree with the Uncrate guys about the difficulty in finding good wine (the difficulty comes in avoiding bad wine, which is a different task) I’m pretty stoked about their find.

Cork’d features a place for your tasting notes, reviews, shopping list, wine collection and friends. It’s really a great idea for wine enthusiasts. I’m glad someone with the time and, well, gumption, to follow through had the idea.

Thursday, TheGirl™ and I drove down to Monterey. We stopped for lunch at Sapporo’s Sushi and Steakhouse on Fisherman’s Wharf. We had sashimi, sushi, teriyaki and, of course, (Sapporo) beer. Then we drove down to Cannery Row and hit the The Official Regional Wine Visitors’ Center. Lots of fun tasting wine there, since they represent the Monterey region winemakers and have lots of different wines to taste. (Of course we left with several bottles.) Next stop was the Blue Moon, as Annette was wanting some oysters. Six oysters and two pints later, we were headed to check into our hotel.

We stayed at The Beach Resort where we had a room with an ocean view. (Allow me to rephrase: …where we had a room with a fucking kick ass ocean view.) The sound of the ocean was a constant background noise and I already kind of miss it. It was perfect to fall asleep to. The room itself was, in a word, ugly. Comicly ugly, even. Everything was clean and functioning, but well… we took a picture because words don’t describe it…. (link forthcoming)

That evening, we had dinner at the hotel. (Um, for the record, while I recommend the view, I do not recommend the retaraunt.) Afterwards, we hit the lounge/bar for some cocktails. We made friends with the bartender and she poured some really strong Long Island Iced Teas. She was very good to us. (So, to recap on the hotel… view: AWESOME, room: funny, restaraunt: bad, bartender: KICKASS. )

Amazingly enough, on Friday, we were able to rouse ourselves in time for breakfast. We ate at a little place called Laguna’s Cafe. Great food, nice staff, and an excellent, cozy atmosphere. After food, we headed back out to Fisherman’s Wharf for a whale watching trip with Monterey Bay Whale Watch. We had a blast on this little ocean voyage. We saw a school (… herd? …pride? …murder?) of Risso’s Dolphins hunting for food and two or three humpback whales. (Not to mention the sea lions, otters and dive-bombing pelicans.) Despite the cold and sun (resulting in a very sunburned me…forgot the sunblock, doh), it was an absolute blast. I highly recommend whale watching and I thoroughly enjoyed our guide, Captain Leon.

Afterwards, we shopped on the wharf and then went back to Cannery Row to visit the wine center again. (Mostly because a bottle rolled out of our hotel room fridge and broke. Luckily it was the cheapest bottle we bought. heh) Then we went back to the Blue Moon and had a real dinner. I had the sesame-encrusted Ahi and she had the (World Famous) Crab Risoto. I can’t recommend this place enough. The food and the view were both phenomenal.

Saturday morning, another breakfast at Laguna’s and we headed home. All and all, it was an excellent couple of days. I can’t even imagine spending it with anyone else. The last year with her has been excellent and Monterey was a great way to spend it.

Happy 1 year to us. :)

Spent Friday (and Saturday morning) in Napa Valley with the girl. Much wine tasting throughout the day. We hit Cakebread, Domain Chandon, Andretti and Trefethen. Almost needed a UHaul to get all the wine home. :) We stayed at a B&B that I can only describe as “bitchin’”. It’s called the Daughter’s Inn and it rules. It’s run by Brooke and Perry. Great hosts, and Perry is crackup.

Next time we go up, we’re gonna stay longer. We’ll definitely go back to the Daughter’s though. I highly recommend them.