6:50 AM - well that's more like it, I suppose. Not exactly a vacation sleep in, but at least in the same ballpark as my usual wake up time. I notice I am alone in bed.....Tracey is on the couch! Oh boy. She mentioned that the bed was really soft...too soft for her...so I guess she couldn't sleep. To me, it was like sleeping in a big King Size cloud of pillows! Softer is better for me. Just another example of the only part of our marriage where we are completely incompatible: sleeping.
She likes firm mattresses, I like soft. She needs to sleep in total darkness with no sound (earplugs, in fact). I require light and noise (TV usually). She sleeps at room temperature, I like my bedroom to be meat-locker-esque. It's definitely a challenge.
She's asleep as I type this, hopefully I am typing quietly enough not to wake The Bear. Couch Bear is usually much grouchier than Bed Bear so hopefully she sleeps until she wakes herself up......
Oh boy, it turns out that she moved to the couch because of someone's snoring, not an uncomfortable bed. She has awaken in a lovely mood, hopefully she doesn't get too tired during the day, bringing on the appearance of Grouchy Bear.
9:30 AM - Down to the lobby to pick up some muffins and coffee for breakfast while The Process is underway. We are planning a few hours in the park, that's usually enough time to see everything we need to see here. Checkout time is 11 AM and I expect we'll be using every minute of that time before we are ready to go.
What a beautiful hotel. So much better than the place we last stayed in, in Hollywood, which had blood stains on the carpet, a door so sketchy we actually moved a bureau in front of it to protect ourselves during the night, and a lobby so small that Tracey had to stand out on Hollywood Blvd. while I checked in because we couldn't both fit.
Just a slight upgrade this time.
11:00 AM - Off to the park! No huge lineup getting in; they have a sign advertising approximate wait times, and since the Despicable Me Minions Mayhem ride says only 10 minutes, we high-tail it over there. Of course, so does everyone else. Oh, that reminds me:
Reason 1,798 why Disney is better than Universal:
At Disney, a posted 10-minute wait time really means "little to no wait". At Universal, it means "bring a book".
So by the time we get to the ride, the 10 minutes changes to 20, and while we are actually in the line, it changes to 50. It didn't take us 50, but it was in the 30-40 range. It's a terrific ride, quite new for California (we did ride it on our last trip to Universal Florida), but it's a must-do for anyone, especially if you enjoy those movies. And if you don't enjoy those movies, you might want to skip this park, because the Minions are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. They obviously understand that it's OK to milk a popular franchise, I just wonder what the shelf life of this franchise will be. I know they are making a Minions spin off movie but unless they do a Despicable Me 3, which to my knowledge they haven't talked about, it might peter out.
Anyway, I love the Minions, so good for them. Hope it is successful.
We also notice where they are building California's version of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Exciting to be sure, but it doesn't seem like the area they are using (close to the Simpsons area) is big enough to do it right...but we'll see.
They've also opened up a new Transformers 3-D ride which I hear is a lot of fun, but the wait is over an hour (even in Universal time) and I can't stomach that long a wait today. Next time.
After only three attractions today (also including the Backlot Tour and The Mummy) and lunch, we are done. It's Saturday and the place is a zoo, and the heat has taken care of us. This is the hottest I can ever remember in September down here. It's crazy hot.
Oh, and the posted wait time for The Mummy was 20 minutes. After being in line (in the heat) for about 15, we hopped into the "single riders" line and rode separately....it still took us well over 20 minutes. I wonder if Universal figures it's guests can't tell time??
3:15 PM - We are in the car and headed down the freeway for our 45 minute drive to tonight's hotel. ROFLMAO. 45 minutes? Maybe if we had one of those futuristic cars we all saw in The Jetsons. In real life, on the L.A. freeway, it takes us an hour and a half.
I've never seen it so brown down here. It's not like I didn't know they were going through a drought, but I'm not sure it is getting quite enough attention back home. Miles and miles and miles of nothing remotely green.
4:45 PM - We arrive and check into tonight's 'transitional' hotel, the Comfort Inn, about 3 miles from Disneyland. We generally spend a night in one of these types of hotels if we are getting in quite late (so as to not pay the huge prices of the Grand Californian for nearly nothing), which was the original plan here, but after we changed the itinerary I didn't bother to change the hotel. It won't kill us to stay off-site for one night, and the hotel is very clean and perfectly comfortable for one evening.
5: 15 PM - We arrive at Downtown Disney to look around a bit before our dinner reservations at Catal. We brought the bottle of 1998 Merlot from Miner Family Vineyards that we purchased earlier in the week; Catal offers ZERO corkage fee if you bring your own wine. They have a fabulous wine list so I would not generally bring wine to a restaurant like this, but since we really need to drink quite a few bottles before trying to get back into Canada, this seems like a great time to start. We take the wine to Catal right away so it doesn't stay in the heat, and they put it into a red wine fridge for us with no problem.
It is so hot that we can't just go into a store to get cool; we have to go into a store and find the air conditioning and stand under it. It's really insane. After the crazy hot summer we had at home, I would have been fine with some milder temperatures.
7:00 PM - Dinner time and we decide to sit outside for our meal. It's still hot, but tolerable; I figure it's just about as hot as I could possibly stand while eating dinner. It doesn't really get any cooler during dinner, either. We have a great meal, and the wine was simply wonderful. After two courses and an appetizer, our bill (after my Annual Passholder discount and tip) was $75. It really pays to bring your own wine :-)
After dinner we look around a bit more, and try to see what else we want to do that we don't already have planned, and then walk back to the parking lot.
9:30 PM - Back to the room to have a look at our plans for the next few days. I admit it, I'm a planner; I like to have things planned and booked well in advance....but you gotta be flexible when circumstances dictate, and the heat is going to dictate we change our schedule. It's not getting any cooler. In fact, just the opposite...so we talk about switching to an "evening" schedule and staying out of the heat. It seems like a great idea until we check the park schedule and realize they aren't open late during the week in September, so there isn't much chance to make any significant changes. We are just going to have to accept the fact that we'll have to go into the parks more often and for shorter days. We can adjust.
Tomorrow we move to the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and have our first day in the parks! Fun!
Saturday, 13 September 2014
Friday, 12 September 2014
The Amazing Vacation Blog (TM), Day Five
3:52 AM - Sweet Jesus.
It would be funny if it weren't so sad that I'm up at this time of the morning; and not after a good sleep either. Oh, the humanity.
5:50 AM- After a couple hours of laying awake counting ceiling tiles (not that I can see the ceiling, it's pitch black), I am contemplating getting up and going to the gym when I notice that I am finally getting tired. So much for that.
7:30 AM - Awake again, and the wife is still not stirring, so off to the gym I go. Thankfully this is mostly a travel day and I can usually sleep in the car. I'm going to need some sleep!!
I spend about as much time at the gym as I possible can given the lack of sleep I have enjoyed so far this trip, and then stagger back to my room. Thank goodness it's across the hall.
9:00 AM - We're up and hitting up the free breakfast before checking out, loading up the car and heading onto the highway. I should say, HIGHWAYS. Nine different highways, no exaggeration, to get back onto the I-5 to lead us to Universal City. The California highway system is truly mind-bending.
I manage only about one hour sleep in the car (SERIOUSLY?? I CAN'T EVEN SLEEP IN THE CAR???? I used to be able to sleep in the car WHILE I WAS DRIVING!!!)
4;10 PM - We pull into the Hilton (if I were crass, I'd make a joke about how most guys would talk about pulling OUT of a Hilton) in Universal City, literally a 5-minute walk from the theme park. After checking in, we head out to the Universal CityWalk to grab dinner and look around. After a decent meal at Tony Roma's, we're back to the hotel to relax and hit the pool and hot tub.
While we are down at the pool, we both get calls on our cell phones from our alarm company. Of course, we didn't take our phones to the pool. Apparently my Dad closed a window he was not supposed to close, set off the alarm, and couldn't figure out what else to do. The alarm company dispatched the police. Thankfully we had left a key with our neighbors who let the police in, and they, after talking to Dad, obviously realized that he was not a burglar and went on their merry way. I suspect we are going to get a bill for that false alarm. Aye, carumba.
The joys of leaving an elderly man in charge when going on vacation. Actually he's far from "in charge", he's below three of our cats on the list of who we trust, but I guess the police have a preference to talk to an actual human being instead of a feline in these circumstances.
8:30 PM - After all the excitement, I decided I needed a damn glass of wine, so we cracked open the Robert Mondavi Moscato that they comped us yesterday. It's absolutely fabulous; the only downside is that it's only a half-bottle and after the alarm fiasco I probably could have used quite a bit more :-)
9:00 PM - OK I am going to take many sleeping pills. Just enough to go to sleep, not enough to mix with the wine and kill me. I hope. If I'm wrong, I'll let Tracey write tomorrow's blog.
Tomorrow: Universal Studios!
Thursday, 11 September 2014
The Amazing Vacation blog (TM), Day Four!
9:00 AM - I'm finally awake enough to drag my ass out of bed and head down to breakfast. Oh man that was a lousy night and with a big day ahead of us, I'm a bit concerned that I might hit a wall today. Oh well, not much I can do about that but forge ahead.
11:30 AM - We arrive at our first destination for the day, Caymus Vineyards, for a semi-private tasting. We are one of four couples at the tasting, and although we are the only ones from another country, we are by far the closest ones to Napa. The other couples all came from the deep southeast of the US. None of them have even heard of Canada.
OK, I probably am slightly exaggerating there.
The wines are terrific, of course, but we leave without buying any because we can easily get these back home...and Lord knows we don't need any more wine to try to get through customs when this trip is over.
1:00 PM - We arrive at Joseph Phelps for our next experience; we are actually booked for 1:30 but they have no trouble getting us in early. They have taken great care to ensure we have a great guest experience in a temporary venue; their normal tasting area is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, due to open up sometime next spring. The temporary area is very comfortable and our guide takes us through a tasting of a lot of great wine. Just about everything we taste here is high-end and expensive, and we are fortunate to taste two vintages of their flagship wine, Insignia (2006 and 2010). They also feature a couple of terrific Pinot Noirs, and we end up picking up one of their not-so-expensive Pinots which I suspect we will consume on this trip, so we don't have to try to bribe the Customs office when we try to get back into Canada.
3:00 PM - We arrive at Duckhorn, again we are a little ahead of our appointment but no problem getting in early and we are seated at a nice table inside. Outdoor tastings are available everywhere but it's just too freaking hot today...it's over 100 degrees. This is another winery who's wine is readily available back home (notice a pattern??), although most of the specific wines we get to taste today are winery-specific and not available in most stores, but at least we get a flavor of their winemaking technique. As usual, all the wines are top quality.
On the way back from Duckhorn, we stop in at Opus One and pick up a bottle of their 2010 that we tasted yesterday. This has officially become the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever purchased (outside of a restaurant) and we will be putting this one into storage for a special occasion. We drive it back to the hotel, in fact, because we don't want to leave it in a hot car for even a couple hours.
5:30 PM - We arrive at Robert Mondavi for our "Twilight Tour and Tasting". Tracey is quite disappointed to discover that Robert Pattinson is NOT going to be here.
Another great tour and tasting experience, which ends with a lovely charcuterie plate and an open-bar style tasting of whatever we wanted to taste, including their 2010 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which recently received a score of 99 points from Wine Spectator magazine. It was fabulous, as was everything else. We also tasted an interesting Merlot from 2007; the interesting part was that it was still really closed...for a 7 year old wine, the tannins were very sharp and it definitely needed to age more. Our guide suggested it could age for 30 more years! I tend to agree; and that's quite a lot for a Merlot. I was going to pick up a couple of bottles of this but it turned out they were sold out, so as an apology for not being able to buy them, they gave us a half-bottle of Moscato for free! Very nice gesture and a beautiful end to this part of our trip.
7:49 PM - Back in the room, done for the day and exhausted, in a good way. Tracey says "how do you spell over-indulge? N-A-P-A". I would concur.
Look, here's the thing: If you are poor, or cheap, don't come here. It's simple. I say that as honest advice, it's not my attempt to appear rich or superior (which I don't claim to be), but if you enjoy wine and want to have a fantastic time, and don't mind paying for the experience, get on a freaking plane right now. This is simply an amazing part of the world, and I can't wait to come back and spend a week or so exploring the 1.7 billion wineries we didn't get to yet. If you stand in the right place and fall forward, chances are a part of your body will be laying in 3-4 different wineries. They are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It's insane, in the best possible way.
Packing up our stuff tonight, preparing for two "one-night stands" the next couple of nights, so trying to pack just the right amount of clothes and toiletries into one bag so we don't have to lug our luggage around for the next couple nights.
Next up: Universal City!
11:30 AM - We arrive at our first destination for the day, Caymus Vineyards, for a semi-private tasting. We are one of four couples at the tasting, and although we are the only ones from another country, we are by far the closest ones to Napa. The other couples all came from the deep southeast of the US. None of them have even heard of Canada.
OK, I probably am slightly exaggerating there.
The wines are terrific, of course, but we leave without buying any because we can easily get these back home...and Lord knows we don't need any more wine to try to get through customs when this trip is over.
1:00 PM - We arrive at Joseph Phelps for our next experience; we are actually booked for 1:30 but they have no trouble getting us in early. They have taken great care to ensure we have a great guest experience in a temporary venue; their normal tasting area is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, due to open up sometime next spring. The temporary area is very comfortable and our guide takes us through a tasting of a lot of great wine. Just about everything we taste here is high-end and expensive, and we are fortunate to taste two vintages of their flagship wine, Insignia (2006 and 2010). They also feature a couple of terrific Pinot Noirs, and we end up picking up one of their not-so-expensive Pinots which I suspect we will consume on this trip, so we don't have to try to bribe the Customs office when we try to get back into Canada.
3:00 PM - We arrive at Duckhorn, again we are a little ahead of our appointment but no problem getting in early and we are seated at a nice table inside. Outdoor tastings are available everywhere but it's just too freaking hot today...it's over 100 degrees. This is another winery who's wine is readily available back home (notice a pattern??), although most of the specific wines we get to taste today are winery-specific and not available in most stores, but at least we get a flavor of their winemaking technique. As usual, all the wines are top quality.
On the way back from Duckhorn, we stop in at Opus One and pick up a bottle of their 2010 that we tasted yesterday. This has officially become the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever purchased (outside of a restaurant) and we will be putting this one into storage for a special occasion. We drive it back to the hotel, in fact, because we don't want to leave it in a hot car for even a couple hours.
5:30 PM - We arrive at Robert Mondavi for our "Twilight Tour and Tasting". Tracey is quite disappointed to discover that Robert Pattinson is NOT going to be here.
Another great tour and tasting experience, which ends with a lovely charcuterie plate and an open-bar style tasting of whatever we wanted to taste, including their 2010 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which recently received a score of 99 points from Wine Spectator magazine. It was fabulous, as was everything else. We also tasted an interesting Merlot from 2007; the interesting part was that it was still really closed...for a 7 year old wine, the tannins were very sharp and it definitely needed to age more. Our guide suggested it could age for 30 more years! I tend to agree; and that's quite a lot for a Merlot. I was going to pick up a couple of bottles of this but it turned out they were sold out, so as an apology for not being able to buy them, they gave us a half-bottle of Moscato for free! Very nice gesture and a beautiful end to this part of our trip.
7:49 PM - Back in the room, done for the day and exhausted, in a good way. Tracey says "how do you spell over-indulge? N-A-P-A". I would concur.
Look, here's the thing: If you are poor, or cheap, don't come here. It's simple. I say that as honest advice, it's not my attempt to appear rich or superior (which I don't claim to be), but if you enjoy wine and want to have a fantastic time, and don't mind paying for the experience, get on a freaking plane right now. This is simply an amazing part of the world, and I can't wait to come back and spend a week or so exploring the 1.7 billion wineries we didn't get to yet. If you stand in the right place and fall forward, chances are a part of your body will be laying in 3-4 different wineries. They are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It's insane, in the best possible way.
Packing up our stuff tonight, preparing for two "one-night stands" the next couple of nights, so trying to pack just the right amount of clothes and toiletries into one bag so we don't have to lug our luggage around for the next couple nights.
Next up: Universal City!
The Amazing Vacation Blog, Day III
Wednesday, September 10th
4:44 AM - Sweet Sassy Molassey. 4:44 AM. This is going to be a LONNNNNNNG day. I'm up an hour and a half before the freaking fitness centre opens for goodness sake!! What kind of a moron gets up at 4:44 AM on vacation?
After laying in bed doing nothing, so as to not wake the wife and incur the wrath of the "You-Woke-Me-Up-Too-Early-You-Idiot" monster, I get up to gather my workout clothes to go hit the gym that is conveniently located about 25 feet across the hall from our room.
6:04 AM - Despite the posted hours saying "6AM", I am unable to get into the fitness centre. As I head up to the front desk to see why, I pass a woman coming out of her room, heading towards the fitness centre....by the time I get the front desk guy to help me, this lady is already in the fitness centre. She tells me the exact same thing happened to her yesterday; she couldn't get in at 6, went to the front desk, and by the time they had gone back, another guest had got in. Apparently "6 AM" is just a guess on what time the door actually opens.
7:00 AM - Back to the room where I continue to avoid waking the beast...I am mostly successful, and am able to hop back into bed for a little while until it's time to get up.
8:00 AM - Up and down to the lobby for our free breakfast. It's very similar to what we had at La Quinta yesterday; decent food, decent selection....all pretty good for free (well, nothing's free, but included in our room rate anyway).
Back to the room where The Process gets underway before we begin our very busy day.
10:30 AM - We arrive at Opus One for our semi-private tour (5 people total) and tasting. Opus One only makes one wine, a Bordeaux blend, so our tasting is only going to be their current vintage, plus one library vintage. Opus One wine is expensive; $235/bottle here (current vintage), and we can get it back home for $400. During the tour, it becomes pretty easy to see why. The detail they go into is insane. For example, these barrels cost $1800 each, and are only used ONCE. That's right, ONCE.
And they are all different; purchased from many different European coopers. They are able to sell the used barrels for $250...so you can see they spend quite a pretty penny on just the barrels. I guess they have a right to charge $235/bottle.
The tour was amazing, the wine sublime (the second vintage was from 2007). It was a great experience and an incredible way to start our Napa experience.
12:30 PM - We have an hour or so until our next booking, so we go driving around to find a winery that will let us taste without an appointment...not as easy as you might think. We find one called Miner Family Vineyards. Great find! We get to taste everything they have available, 11 different wines, including their flagship Bordeaux blend called The Oracle (which sells for $90). It was nice, but it was probably unfair to taste it an hour after Opus One. Anyway, we walked out of there with a lovely Syrah and a Merlot from 1998! Yes, 1998! For only $55! What a steal! They actually had Merlot from 1997 too but the girl helping us said she had recently tasted them and the 98 was better so we choose that one.
2:00 PM - We arrive at Silver Oak for our Food & Wine Pairing lunch. We get four small plates of delicious food with four wines; two from Twomey Vineyards, their sister winery, and two Cabernet Sauvignons from Silver Oak (one from Alexander Valley, one from Napa). ALL the wines are amazing and they all improve with the food that was picked out specifically for that particular wine. What a difference proper pairings make!!
We leave with three well aged bottles, all at a pretty reasonable price, as well as a shirt and a leather wine 2-bottle carrying case. We are blowing our wine budget all to Hell already :-)
4:00 PM - Our next private tasting at Turnbull Cellars. This is not one I had heard of but was recommended to me, and they recently had a Cabernet Sauvignon get a perfect 100-pt score from renowned wine critic Robert Parker, so we figured we better check them out. Another fabulous experience, as our personal guide took us on a tour of the winery and we tasted five excellent wines, including the "best Cabernet Franc ever" according to Tracey. We didn't get to taste the 100-pt wine, but we bought one anyway, along with the Cab Franc. Getting these wines across the border may be a bit of a challenge :-)
That's it for wine tasting today (thank God), so we head back to the hotel and walk across the street to an Italian restaurant for a nice dinner...the first actual sit-down dinner of the entire trip to this point.
6:30 PM - Back in the room and I am asleep. I kid you not. I was asleep at 6:30 PM.
10:30 PM - Damn, that was too good to be true. Now I'm awake, and tired and grouchy. I stay this way until the wee small hours when I'm finally able to get back to sleep. Gotta get some rest, we have another huge day of wine tasting tomorrow!
4:44 AM - Sweet Sassy Molassey. 4:44 AM. This is going to be a LONNNNNNNG day. I'm up an hour and a half before the freaking fitness centre opens for goodness sake!! What kind of a moron gets up at 4:44 AM on vacation?
After laying in bed doing nothing, so as to not wake the wife and incur the wrath of the "You-Woke-Me-Up-Too-Early-You-Idiot" monster, I get up to gather my workout clothes to go hit the gym that is conveniently located about 25 feet across the hall from our room.
6:04 AM - Despite the posted hours saying "6AM", I am unable to get into the fitness centre. As I head up to the front desk to see why, I pass a woman coming out of her room, heading towards the fitness centre....by the time I get the front desk guy to help me, this lady is already in the fitness centre. She tells me the exact same thing happened to her yesterday; she couldn't get in at 6, went to the front desk, and by the time they had gone back, another guest had got in. Apparently "6 AM" is just a guess on what time the door actually opens.
7:00 AM - Back to the room where I continue to avoid waking the beast...I am mostly successful, and am able to hop back into bed for a little while until it's time to get up.
8:00 AM - Up and down to the lobby for our free breakfast. It's very similar to what we had at La Quinta yesterday; decent food, decent selection....all pretty good for free (well, nothing's free, but included in our room rate anyway).
Back to the room where The Process gets underway before we begin our very busy day.
10:30 AM - We arrive at Opus One for our semi-private tour (5 people total) and tasting. Opus One only makes one wine, a Bordeaux blend, so our tasting is only going to be their current vintage, plus one library vintage. Opus One wine is expensive; $235/bottle here (current vintage), and we can get it back home for $400. During the tour, it becomes pretty easy to see why. The detail they go into is insane. For example, these barrels cost $1800 each, and are only used ONCE. That's right, ONCE.
And they are all different; purchased from many different European coopers. They are able to sell the used barrels for $250...so you can see they spend quite a pretty penny on just the barrels. I guess they have a right to charge $235/bottle.
The tour was amazing, the wine sublime (the second vintage was from 2007). It was a great experience and an incredible way to start our Napa experience.
12:30 PM - We have an hour or so until our next booking, so we go driving around to find a winery that will let us taste without an appointment...not as easy as you might think. We find one called Miner Family Vineyards. Great find! We get to taste everything they have available, 11 different wines, including their flagship Bordeaux blend called The Oracle (which sells for $90). It was nice, but it was probably unfair to taste it an hour after Opus One. Anyway, we walked out of there with a lovely Syrah and a Merlot from 1998! Yes, 1998! For only $55! What a steal! They actually had Merlot from 1997 too but the girl helping us said she had recently tasted them and the 98 was better so we choose that one.
2:00 PM - We arrive at Silver Oak for our Food & Wine Pairing lunch. We get four small plates of delicious food with four wines; two from Twomey Vineyards, their sister winery, and two Cabernet Sauvignons from Silver Oak (one from Alexander Valley, one from Napa). ALL the wines are amazing and they all improve with the food that was picked out specifically for that particular wine. What a difference proper pairings make!!
We leave with three well aged bottles, all at a pretty reasonable price, as well as a shirt and a leather wine 2-bottle carrying case. We are blowing our wine budget all to Hell already :-)
4:00 PM - Our next private tasting at Turnbull Cellars. This is not one I had heard of but was recommended to me, and they recently had a Cabernet Sauvignon get a perfect 100-pt score from renowned wine critic Robert Parker, so we figured we better check them out. Another fabulous experience, as our personal guide took us on a tour of the winery and we tasted five excellent wines, including the "best Cabernet Franc ever" according to Tracey. We didn't get to taste the 100-pt wine, but we bought one anyway, along with the Cab Franc. Getting these wines across the border may be a bit of a challenge :-)
That's it for wine tasting today (thank God), so we head back to the hotel and walk across the street to an Italian restaurant for a nice dinner...the first actual sit-down dinner of the entire trip to this point.
6:30 PM - Back in the room and I am asleep. I kid you not. I was asleep at 6:30 PM.
10:30 PM - Damn, that was too good to be true. Now I'm awake, and tired and grouchy. I stay this way until the wee small hours when I'm finally able to get back to sleep. Gotta get some rest, we have another huge day of wine tasting tomorrow!
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
The Amazing Vacation Blog (TM), Day 2
Tuesday, September 9th
6:30 AM - Vacation or not, this is the time I get up these days. Yes, I know, it's sad. Anyway, today I'm down to the car to move it and see if we have a big problem or not; turns out probably not, as there is very little water on the ground under the car. Anyway we still have to have it checked out, if we have a hole a hose or the radiator we have to have it checked out.
7:15 AM - TRACEY IS UP TOO!! Obviously you know there is a problem when the wife is up and it starts with a "7" !!
7:30 AM - After a very lovely breakfast (sausages, eggs, waffles, muffins, etc...much better than the usual free breakfast), we head down to the Honda dealership. They tell us that according to our symptoms, it's more than likely just the air conditioning dripping through as it is supposed to (and it has nothing to do with the large rock that hit us). Just to confirm they check all the fluids to make sure nothing is wrong, and everything looks fine so we probably dodged a bullet. Phew!
Well, we are ahead of schedule but there is no reason not the hit the highway and get down to Napa. I am in the driver's seat again, we'll see if I can possibly drive for three hours again today!
9:15 AM - Nope. Tracey takes over and I'm asleep in minutes.
After my lovely wife misses the turnoff (second time this trip, already!!!), I wake up..... if she was ever going to miss a turn, this was the one to miss though, as the next exit takes us ostensibly to the same place, so no harm done and no time lost. And, since we are way ahead of schedule anyway, I have no reason to bitch (but I will anyway, because that's what I do!). We get onto a cute little highway that I have dubbed "The Long and Winding Road". That title pretty much sums it up. Up, down, left, right, up and right, left and down, holy crap. I actually feel bad that I am not driving on this cool little road....and my wishes are soon granted as Tracey pulls over because she is actually feeling a bit woozy from all the crazy driving! I mock her a little bit ("gee, honey, if you are sick from driving this highway you are going to have fun on the Disney rides") as you would all expect me to do (so would SHE). As I drive the highway like I'm driving in the Indy 500 (seriously after putting our car into SPORT mode it drives so INCREDIBLY well) I am having a great deal of fun, but I have to retract the mocking as it starts to get to me a little bit too. That is some serious back and forth and up and down at high speed. Still, a very very fun drive.
We've been driving to California, off and on, for 10 years, and have always bitched about all the freaking construction. It is still there, but this time we have noticed it is FINALLY paying off!! Miles and miles of beautiful, paved highway...including long stretches of the I-5 and almost all of The Long and Winding Road. What an incredible difference it makes to the drive! Kudos to the California highway people. If any of you happen to know any of them, please give them my best ;-)
1:15 PM - We arrive at our hotel, Best Western Premier Ivy Napa Valley; beautiful!! Man did we ever luck out. We booked this quite a while ago, and the price almost doubled between that time and today for the same room. And we got luckier than that..... we had originally zeroed in on an absolutely gorgeous resort called Andaz Napa, which was pretty reasonably priced for a high end resort (I should call it "Napa Reasonable", which means we would have only had to sell one kidney each to afford it), but when we went to book it all the normal rooms were sold out, leaving only suites in the $500-600/night range. That was more than I was willing to spend ( I mean, c'mon, why not save a couple bucks and spend it on the WINE!!!), so we went elsewhere and found this place. Then the earthquake hit....and Andaz Napa is one of only TWO hotels in the Napa area that is still closed! Had we booked it when we first found it, we would have had to cancel and scramble for a new hotel just about 10 days ago, and we would have never found anything close to this good at the price we booked it for. We would have ended up at a Motel 6 or something probably. Man did we get lucky.
2:30 PM - We pick up some lunch/dinner at Panda Express, some water and pop at Target, and head back to the room. You know you're eating some haute nouveau cuisine when Panda Express is by FAR the classiest meal you've had during a trip......yesterday's meals consisted of Taco Bell and Dairy Queen so this was quite a step up. I believe that there are quite a few better meals ahead of us on this trip :-) After lunch, off to the smallish, but very nice, pool and hot tub to unwind a bit.
4:30 PM - After I'm done with the pool, I ask the Front Desk where to go and get a nice bottle of wine, and they send me down to a specialty grocery store that reminds me a lot of Whole Foods. They have quite a nice selection of wine. I find a bottle of 2008 Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz for $20 (yes I know I'm in Napa freaking Valley and just bought a bottle of Australian wine, but at that price I can't resist), and I notice they have a clearance buggy marked "Earthquake Shake Sale". They don't have that much left in there, but they did have this little beauty:
A $100 bottle of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, on sale for $60. It was on the ground after the earthquake but was not damaged, except for the fact that the broken bottles had leaked all over it. They cleaned it up and are selling it for 40% off.....sounds good to me! I haven't tried this wine before but this is one of the wineries that was recommended to me for this trip. I couldn't fit them into our schedule, so this is a pretty exciting way to try it at a very reasonable price. When I tried to open it, I noticed one little problem...I forgot to bring a freaking corkscrew!! LOL what an asshole. We remembered our aerator and our nice Cabernet Sauvignon glasses, but forgot the corkscrew!!! Thankfully we are in Napa and the front desk has one, so we take it over there and they are able to open it for us. It's lovely (the quake shook some up sediment, no doubt, but no harm done), and the longer it sits in the glass it improves greatly. I'll have a full review of it on my wine blog once I get that updated.
7:00 PM - In the room watching TV and uploading this blog while finishing off this great bottle of wine. This is a pretty damn good start to what is going to be an EPIC vacation! Tomorrow we visit Opus One, Silver Oak, and Turnbull Cellars....wow that's going to be a great day!
Time to finish off the chinese food too and chill out before bed. Tomorrow starts early as we will get breakfast here in the morning before starting at Opus One and 10:30 AM. Yes, 10:30 AM. Thankfully there is a long winery tour first so we won't actually be drinking wine until close to Noon; my experiences at tasting wine in the AM have not been entirely positive up to this point (looks like I need some personal growth in that area!).
Ciao until tomorrow!
6:30 AM - Vacation or not, this is the time I get up these days. Yes, I know, it's sad. Anyway, today I'm down to the car to move it and see if we have a big problem or not; turns out probably not, as there is very little water on the ground under the car. Anyway we still have to have it checked out, if we have a hole a hose or the radiator we have to have it checked out.
7:15 AM - TRACEY IS UP TOO!! Obviously you know there is a problem when the wife is up and it starts with a "7" !!
7:30 AM - After a very lovely breakfast (sausages, eggs, waffles, muffins, etc...much better than the usual free breakfast), we head down to the Honda dealership. They tell us that according to our symptoms, it's more than likely just the air conditioning dripping through as it is supposed to (and it has nothing to do with the large rock that hit us). Just to confirm they check all the fluids to make sure nothing is wrong, and everything looks fine so we probably dodged a bullet. Phew!
Well, we are ahead of schedule but there is no reason not the hit the highway and get down to Napa. I am in the driver's seat again, we'll see if I can possibly drive for three hours again today!
9:15 AM - Nope. Tracey takes over and I'm asleep in minutes.
After my lovely wife misses the turnoff (second time this trip, already!!!), I wake up..... if she was ever going to miss a turn, this was the one to miss though, as the next exit takes us ostensibly to the same place, so no harm done and no time lost. And, since we are way ahead of schedule anyway, I have no reason to bitch (but I will anyway, because that's what I do!). We get onto a cute little highway that I have dubbed "The Long and Winding Road". That title pretty much sums it up. Up, down, left, right, up and right, left and down, holy crap. I actually feel bad that I am not driving on this cool little road....and my wishes are soon granted as Tracey pulls over because she is actually feeling a bit woozy from all the crazy driving! I mock her a little bit ("gee, honey, if you are sick from driving this highway you are going to have fun on the Disney rides") as you would all expect me to do (so would SHE). As I drive the highway like I'm driving in the Indy 500 (seriously after putting our car into SPORT mode it drives so INCREDIBLY well) I am having a great deal of fun, but I have to retract the mocking as it starts to get to me a little bit too. That is some serious back and forth and up and down at high speed. Still, a very very fun drive.
We've been driving to California, off and on, for 10 years, and have always bitched about all the freaking construction. It is still there, but this time we have noticed it is FINALLY paying off!! Miles and miles of beautiful, paved highway...including long stretches of the I-5 and almost all of The Long and Winding Road. What an incredible difference it makes to the drive! Kudos to the California highway people. If any of you happen to know any of them, please give them my best ;-)
1:15 PM - We arrive at our hotel, Best Western Premier Ivy Napa Valley; beautiful!! Man did we ever luck out. We booked this quite a while ago, and the price almost doubled between that time and today for the same room. And we got luckier than that..... we had originally zeroed in on an absolutely gorgeous resort called Andaz Napa, which was pretty reasonably priced for a high end resort (I should call it "Napa Reasonable", which means we would have only had to sell one kidney each to afford it), but when we went to book it all the normal rooms were sold out, leaving only suites in the $500-600/night range. That was more than I was willing to spend ( I mean, c'mon, why not save a couple bucks and spend it on the WINE!!!), so we went elsewhere and found this place. Then the earthquake hit....and Andaz Napa is one of only TWO hotels in the Napa area that is still closed! Had we booked it when we first found it, we would have had to cancel and scramble for a new hotel just about 10 days ago, and we would have never found anything close to this good at the price we booked it for. We would have ended up at a Motel 6 or something probably. Man did we get lucky.
2:30 PM - We pick up some lunch/dinner at Panda Express, some water and pop at Target, and head back to the room. You know you're eating some haute nouveau cuisine when Panda Express is by FAR the classiest meal you've had during a trip......yesterday's meals consisted of Taco Bell and Dairy Queen so this was quite a step up. I believe that there are quite a few better meals ahead of us on this trip :-) After lunch, off to the smallish, but very nice, pool and hot tub to unwind a bit.
4:30 PM - After I'm done with the pool, I ask the Front Desk where to go and get a nice bottle of wine, and they send me down to a specialty grocery store that reminds me a lot of Whole Foods. They have quite a nice selection of wine. I find a bottle of 2008 Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz for $20 (yes I know I'm in Napa freaking Valley and just bought a bottle of Australian wine, but at that price I can't resist), and I notice they have a clearance buggy marked "Earthquake Shake Sale". They don't have that much left in there, but they did have this little beauty:
A $100 bottle of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, on sale for $60. It was on the ground after the earthquake but was not damaged, except for the fact that the broken bottles had leaked all over it. They cleaned it up and are selling it for 40% off.....sounds good to me! I haven't tried this wine before but this is one of the wineries that was recommended to me for this trip. I couldn't fit them into our schedule, so this is a pretty exciting way to try it at a very reasonable price. When I tried to open it, I noticed one little problem...I forgot to bring a freaking corkscrew!! LOL what an asshole. We remembered our aerator and our nice Cabernet Sauvignon glasses, but forgot the corkscrew!!! Thankfully we are in Napa and the front desk has one, so we take it over there and they are able to open it for us. It's lovely (the quake shook some up sediment, no doubt, but no harm done), and the longer it sits in the glass it improves greatly. I'll have a full review of it on my wine blog once I get that updated.
7:00 PM - In the room watching TV and uploading this blog while finishing off this great bottle of wine. This is a pretty damn good start to what is going to be an EPIC vacation! Tomorrow we visit Opus One, Silver Oak, and Turnbull Cellars....wow that's going to be a great day!
Time to finish off the chinese food too and chill out before bed. Tomorrow starts early as we will get breakfast here in the morning before starting at Opus One and 10:30 AM. Yes, 10:30 AM. Thankfully there is a long winery tour first so we won't actually be drinking wine until close to Noon; my experiences at tasting wine in the AM have not been entirely positive up to this point (looks like I need some personal growth in that area!).
Ciao until tomorrow!
The Amazing Vacation Blog (TM)
Hey don't bust my balls about the title of the blog. If Sony Pictures can re-boot the Spider-Man franchise after three movies, I can damn well reboot my vacation blog.
Monday, September 8th
And awayyyyyyyyyy we go.....
10:30 AM - We're in the car and on the way, a half hour AHEAD of schedule. Definitely a first. Big lineup at the Sumas border crossing but thanks to NEXUS, we are through in a breeze. I'm driving the first leg of the journey, just for kicks and giggles. As regular readers know, I'm not the driver in the family, but I thought I'd give Tracey the morning off.
1:30 PM - THREE HOURS!!! I deserve a medal. Tracey's turn.
2:30 PM - Tracey's driving while someone a couple cars ahead of us loses control (blown tire) and boots over to the shoulder, sending debris everywhere, including a large rock which bounces in front of the car, then under the car making quite a large noise. This will become relevant later.....
8:30 PM - We stop in Sutherlin for gas and a burger for dinner. After we come out of the restaurant, I notice a puddle under the car. Oh boy. We move the car and Tracey investigates.....it's definitely not oil, seems to actually be water. We just had our windows washed, hopefully it's just the remnants of the water that has dripped through. Hopefully.
9:30 PM - We pull off at Grand Forks for the night. We check into a very nice La Quinta and park right in front of the lobby to unload. When we move the car.....MORE WATER!! Oh boy, that's not leftovers from windows that were washed an hour ago. Not good. Anyway, there isn't much we can do about it at this point, might as well relax for the evening and try to get a good sleep. Hopefully we'll still have a drive-able car in the morning and we'll take it to the local Honda dealership to get it checked out. If this turns into a huge repair bill, it's going to put quite a dent in this vacation.
On an interesting note, tomorrow morning's breakfast at Denny's will be my 9th or 10th visit to the Denny's in Grand Forks, Oregon. I cannot explain that, as I've never stayed overnight here before as far as I can remember.
.....then I find out that it turns out we get breakfast with our room, so much for Denny's 10th visit!!!
Off to bed, hoping for good news tomorrow!!
Monday, September 8th
And awayyyyyyyyyy we go.....
10:30 AM - We're in the car and on the way, a half hour AHEAD of schedule. Definitely a first. Big lineup at the Sumas border crossing but thanks to NEXUS, we are through in a breeze. I'm driving the first leg of the journey, just for kicks and giggles. As regular readers know, I'm not the driver in the family, but I thought I'd give Tracey the morning off.
1:30 PM - THREE HOURS!!! I deserve a medal. Tracey's turn.
2:30 PM - Tracey's driving while someone a couple cars ahead of us loses control (blown tire) and boots over to the shoulder, sending debris everywhere, including a large rock which bounces in front of the car, then under the car making quite a large noise. This will become relevant later.....
8:30 PM - We stop in Sutherlin for gas and a burger for dinner. After we come out of the restaurant, I notice a puddle under the car. Oh boy. We move the car and Tracey investigates.....it's definitely not oil, seems to actually be water. We just had our windows washed, hopefully it's just the remnants of the water that has dripped through. Hopefully.
9:30 PM - We pull off at Grand Forks for the night. We check into a very nice La Quinta and park right in front of the lobby to unload. When we move the car.....MORE WATER!! Oh boy, that's not leftovers from windows that were washed an hour ago. Not good. Anyway, there isn't much we can do about it at this point, might as well relax for the evening and try to get a good sleep. Hopefully we'll still have a drive-able car in the morning and we'll take it to the local Honda dealership to get it checked out. If this turns into a huge repair bill, it's going to put quite a dent in this vacation.
On an interesting note, tomorrow morning's breakfast at Denny's will be my 9th or 10th visit to the Denny's in Grand Forks, Oregon. I cannot explain that, as I've never stayed overnight here before as far as I can remember.
.....then I find out that it turns out we get breakfast with our room, so much for Denny's 10th visit!!!
Off to bed, hoping for good news tomorrow!!
Sunday, 17 August 2014
Boyhood
For those of you that do not regularly visit RottenTomatoes.com and think that movie critics' opinions don't matter because they are just opinions, you might want to stop reading; this column is probably not for you.
For the true cinemaphiles out there, yesterday I was treated to one of the great experiences of my lifetime. That is a statement that I don't make lightly.
As of right now, Richard Linklater's Boyhood is rated at 99% fresh on RT, with 181/183 critics giving it a positive score. The names of the two "critics" who panned this film, and I use that term very loosely with these chowderheads, are Rebecca Cusey and Matt Pais. I don't know who the Hell either of them is, but they should both be forced to give up their critic's designation and find another profession. I hear that we are really short on basket weavers.
It's not just the 99% score that is truly remarkable; it's the reviews themselves. A movie could get a very high score by being pleasant, mildly entertaining, and still quite forgettable. But let me share with you some of the short comments by some top critics about Boyhood:
Linklater's Boyhood is a must-see film for any lover of the movies. It's the type of film that was imagined when they invented film.
Boyhood is the summation of Richard Linklater's entire career...A moving and masterful evocation of what it means to be a family, and all the hurt and hope that comes with it.
This is more than a groundbreaker: It's a new American classic.
The closest thing to a lived life that fictional cinema has yet produced
Linklater has crafted what may be the most ingenious film of the century here and given it a tone like no other
Richard Linklater's latest feels more like living a life than watching a movie. It's a one-of-a-kind experience.
Few filmmakers ever make a great movie. Fewer still ever make a movie that expands what movies can express. Richard Linklater does both with Boyhood.
There isn't anything else quite like "Boyhood" in the history of cinema, although that wouldn't matter one-fifth as much if it weren't a moving and memorable viewing experience in the end.
I have long maintained that Richard Linklater is the most gifted and audacious director of his generation. His new movie, Boyhood, which runs 2 hours and 44 minutes, is a stunning reconfirmation.
And finally, from probably the most well-known movie critic alive today, Richard Roeper:
One of the most remarkable moviegoing experiences I've ever had.
Now to be fair, not ALL of the positive reviews are as glowing as the ones I picked out above; there are some that are more middling; but I also didn't pick out ALL the fabulous reviews. Check them out for yourselves.
As for my personal review, I don't really think there is much I could add that hasn't been said above. The words "epic", "brilliant", "audacious", "groundbreaking", all listed in the above reviews, are a good start, but they are just words. You need to experience this for yourself.
Can you imagine everything that could have gone wrong here? How do you even contemplate to film a movie over 12 years, starting with a 7-year old boy, and his 10-year old sister (played beautifully by Linklater's daughter Loralei)? What if the boy grew up to be a disenfranchised idiot, who had no interest in finishing this project? Or if Loralei decided she just didn't want to be part of "dad's dumb little movie" anymore as she reached into her teens? Or what if one or both of them just couldn't ACT?
Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, as the parents, both give the performances of their careers. But the star of this show is the unknown Ellar Coltrane, who quite literally grows up on screen before our eyes. It will be interesting to see if he decides he wants to continue acting; I suspect he can pick his own scripts if he does.
Hopefully by now you have all stopped reading this and gone to whatever site you choose to check out the movie times and are planning to go see this film right now. It might be tough to find, but you won't regret it. I'm hoping/expecting that the release of this masterpiece gets wider and wider; I saw it on a Saturday afternoon at 2 PM in a mostly packed house, and the word is that it's per-screen average gross has been excellent, which bodes well for further screens. We'll see.
If it doesn't get a wider release into a theatre near you right now, it will.....they will put it back into theatres the day after the Oscar Nominations are announced. This is as close to a lock for a nomination for Best Picture and Best Director as I have ever seen in a Summer film, not to mention 4-5 others I suspect.
It runs 2 hours and 44 minutes, but I felt like it was over in 10. I never wanted it to end, and I cannot wait to see it again. I may even see it again in a theatre.
Friends, see this movie.
For the true cinemaphiles out there, yesterday I was treated to one of the great experiences of my lifetime. That is a statement that I don't make lightly.
As of right now, Richard Linklater's Boyhood is rated at 99% fresh on RT, with 181/183 critics giving it a positive score. The names of the two "critics" who panned this film, and I use that term very loosely with these chowderheads, are Rebecca Cusey and Matt Pais. I don't know who the Hell either of them is, but they should both be forced to give up their critic's designation and find another profession. I hear that we are really short on basket weavers.
It's not just the 99% score that is truly remarkable; it's the reviews themselves. A movie could get a very high score by being pleasant, mildly entertaining, and still quite forgettable. But let me share with you some of the short comments by some top critics about Boyhood:
Linklater's Boyhood is a must-see film for any lover of the movies. It's the type of film that was imagined when they invented film.
Boyhood is the summation of Richard Linklater's entire career...A moving and masterful evocation of what it means to be a family, and all the hurt and hope that comes with it.
This is more than a groundbreaker: It's a new American classic.
The closest thing to a lived life that fictional cinema has yet produced
Linklater has crafted what may be the most ingenious film of the century here and given it a tone like no other
Richard Linklater's latest feels more like living a life than watching a movie. It's a one-of-a-kind experience.
Few filmmakers ever make a great movie. Fewer still ever make a movie that expands what movies can express. Richard Linklater does both with Boyhood.
There isn't anything else quite like "Boyhood" in the history of cinema, although that wouldn't matter one-fifth as much if it weren't a moving and memorable viewing experience in the end.
I have long maintained that Richard Linklater is the most gifted and audacious director of his generation. His new movie, Boyhood, which runs 2 hours and 44 minutes, is a stunning reconfirmation.
And finally, from probably the most well-known movie critic alive today, Richard Roeper:
One of the most remarkable moviegoing experiences I've ever had.
Now to be fair, not ALL of the positive reviews are as glowing as the ones I picked out above; there are some that are more middling; but I also didn't pick out ALL the fabulous reviews. Check them out for yourselves.
As for my personal review, I don't really think there is much I could add that hasn't been said above. The words "epic", "brilliant", "audacious", "groundbreaking", all listed in the above reviews, are a good start, but they are just words. You need to experience this for yourself.
Can you imagine everything that could have gone wrong here? How do you even contemplate to film a movie over 12 years, starting with a 7-year old boy, and his 10-year old sister (played beautifully by Linklater's daughter Loralei)? What if the boy grew up to be a disenfranchised idiot, who had no interest in finishing this project? Or if Loralei decided she just didn't want to be part of "dad's dumb little movie" anymore as she reached into her teens? Or what if one or both of them just couldn't ACT?
Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, as the parents, both give the performances of their careers. But the star of this show is the unknown Ellar Coltrane, who quite literally grows up on screen before our eyes. It will be interesting to see if he decides he wants to continue acting; I suspect he can pick his own scripts if he does.
Hopefully by now you have all stopped reading this and gone to whatever site you choose to check out the movie times and are planning to go see this film right now. It might be tough to find, but you won't regret it. I'm hoping/expecting that the release of this masterpiece gets wider and wider; I saw it on a Saturday afternoon at 2 PM in a mostly packed house, and the word is that it's per-screen average gross has been excellent, which bodes well for further screens. We'll see.
If it doesn't get a wider release into a theatre near you right now, it will.....they will put it back into theatres the day after the Oscar Nominations are announced. This is as close to a lock for a nomination for Best Picture and Best Director as I have ever seen in a Summer film, not to mention 4-5 others I suspect.
It runs 2 hours and 44 minutes, but I felt like it was over in 10. I never wanted it to end, and I cannot wait to see it again. I may even see it again in a theatre.
Friends, see this movie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)