Disney Dayz: 2 and 3

The last 2 days in Orlando went pretty quickly. We had the opportunity to sleep late on Friday and took it, allowing for time for lunch at an Ale House and the delicious Zinger Melt contained therein. We got ourselves some tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, which opened its gates at 4 so we had a little bit of the afternoon to kill first. We knew our dining plans included a reservation at Boma, so we wanted to try to ride the bus over there, and check the place out. The Animal Kingdom lodge is gorgeous, I would definitely consider staying there if I had $200/night just burning a whole in my pocket. We eventually caught another bus to the Magic Kingdom, where the daytime crowd was on it's way to the gate, and the night time crowd was just getting costumed up and in the park. We were Later met by L. and her mom (who is one of my favorite "friend's moms" of all time. If you're dying to go to the magic kingdom and hate waiting in lines, this is the way to go. They kick all the daytimers out, and make you repay to stay, so the number of people in the park is significantly reduced. We rode everything we wanted and never waited more than twenty minutes for anything. My last few years in Florida I'd been to the MK at least once a year for Night of Joy, and it was a completely different experience from that too. The Halloween parade is extremely cool and starts with a ride-through from a headless horseman. The fireworks are great too, we happened to be at the top of the Swiss Family Robinson tree house when they started. The tree house provides a great view for the show but since it's above the water can be a little mosquito-y. There are also trick or treating stations throughout the park, and they have really good candy! 'We shut the place down with a little shopping, then went back for crashy time once again.
On Saturday we got up for the early shift again and went directly to the boardwalk for breakfast with one of W's long lost friends Mark. We Ate at Kat Cora's restaurant Kozzina on the boardwalk. The Yelp reviews are mostly accurate here, the food is really good, but the service is remarkably "un-disney-like". We had a reservation for which we arrived promptly, but were asked to wait with a pager until a table was ready ~5-10 minutes. (We walked past plenty of empties on the way to our table). We got coffee in a carafe (thank goodness) and shortly placed our order. Our server brought our food, and disappeared until unceremoniously dumping the check on our table and saying no hurry on this. That would have been fine, had my french toast actually come with some syrup, or if we didn't need more cream for coffee. To be fair the food was really good, but wow, can bad service really change your perception of a meal. So W goes out to the front table and tells them about our experience, and they kind of just blew her off. Needless to say, I don't reccomend eating there, and it seems many Yelpers agree. I got better service at the barbecue place in animal kingdom, and I bussed my own table! After that we were off to Disney's hollywood studios. We waited in the 70 minute line for the toy story ride (totally worth it; is 10x more fun than the buzz lightyear ride). We took the Back lot tour, and W was an active participant. The 2 best part of our Hollywood Studios tour 1. the San Francisco backdrop, and 2. Drinks and Appetizers at the Brown Derby. Stop whatever you're doing, go there and have the champagne flight. Since the restaurant is built to be a see and be seen type of place, you'll see everybody around you watching your 3 glasses of champagne poured, and the Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto is worth the price of admission alone. Tasting note here, red sparklers aren't for everyone, but if you like them you'll surely enjoy this. We eventually made it back to Epcot for one more round of Food and Wine this time we visited:
Japan again, the tuna sensation was just too good to pass up and paired it with a Kirin
Australia
Seared Barramundi with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes,Arugula, and Lemon Oil and Grilled Lamb Chop with Roasted Potato Salad and Red Wine Reduction
paired with Rosemount Traminer Riesling and Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet
Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup paired with a moosehead beer
and at that point we cut ourselves off, knowing that a buffet for dinner was still on the horizon. We found a quiet place where W grabbed a little cat nap, and a little girl came by and pointed at W, and I could hear her mom say it's ok honey, she's just tired. At about the same time we were joined by a mixed marriage (Husband and oldest son wearing burnt orange and navy, Wife and youngest wearing crimson) and news of Alabama's loss to South Carolina was spreading at the same time. After a brief respite L's mom picked us up on the boardwalk, and off we went to Boma. Our service was a little slow. but not unreasonable, and I didn't meet a single thing on the buffet that wasn't fantastic. Even if you can't afford to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I recommend that you get yourself a reservation at Boma, it's fantastic. We went back to L's place for a little more wine, and then grabbed a quick nap before our 6 a.m. flight We got to the airport and home without incident. How many countries did we eat at? Tons, I'm glad we finally got that trip in, and we just might have to go back for the Disney Christmas Party.

Lots of reasons you should come visit

The most fun thing about living in the bay area is all the cool stuff we get to go do when people come visit us. This weekend we got a visit from one of W's sisters, and we moved all over town making sure she had a quality visit. So we started Friday night at the Bachhus wine making club, Where there was a delicious tasting going on. The concept was pretty cool, you buy by the half barrel, they bottle up your goods and put a customized label on it. The wines they have vary in quality and character, but there were some very good ones. After wine, we made our way to Berkeley and chowed down on some Zachary's Pizza. We elected for a half Caesar, and a large Deep dish with sun dried tomatoes and salami. As usual it was worth the trip. Saturday we got up early (by our standards of course) and made the drive up to Napa. On the way through we noted that there was a sonic in american canyon, that might warrant a stop on the way home. Our first stop was at Mumm Napa, the official wine of Jason and W. The tastings there are reasonably priced for wines that we knew we loved, so we picked up a few on the way out, and made our way to some lunch. Travel/Foodie friend Steve recommended that we eat at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. I started with a mojito, and W had what is quite possibly the best bloody mary in the universe. For lunch I had a seared ahi tuna salad, W had an amazin "Adult" grilled cheese sandwich with fig jam, and Mel had a really wonderful curry chicken. We sprung for dessert too, havina a strawberry crisp, pineapple upside down cake and this wonderful lemon cake a la mode that was just incredible. Next we were off to Clos Du Val, but since we'd seen them along the way, we stopped at Folie A deux, and the Cosentino Winery. We do really like Folie A Deux's Menage A Trois wine, but the tasting room was charging above retail for it, and their other wines were only average. W discovered Cosentino long ago while waiting for a table at nearby Mustard's, so we stopped in specifically to grab a couple of bottle of their "The Zin" wine, and try some of the other delicious wines they had available to sample. We moved next to Clos Du Val, which wins the prize for prettiest setting, and their wines are spectacular. They could sell wine that good from the back of a truck and it would still be great. We made a final move to the Vintner's Collective, and tried some really good wine there too, but by then the triple digit temperatures were starting to weigh pretty heavily on our tasting team, and we decided to skip our final planned stop and start working our way home. We stopped at that sonic on the way back to get some junk food, and a delicious cherry lime aide. Some time during my stop at sonic I managed to drop my wallet, and didn't realize it was missing until Sunday when I went to work, but I'll get back to that. We came home tired and had leftover zachary's for dinner and crashed pretty hard. For the record I was the DD, tasting a lot more wine than I drank.... safety first! W and Mel went shopping on Sunday back in Berkeley for an Item we needed for a special event coming up this weekend (details to come after Saturday) I was supposed to join them to come check out the international food festival, but I was busy looking around the house for my wallet. Finally I called the last place I remembered having it, the Sonic in American Canyon. Turns out they had it in their safe, just waiting for me to come back and get it. We had some time to kill before dinner, so we drove back up there to get it. It turns out some jerk lifted the $20 I had in there, and tossed it in the garbage. Fortunately a car hop was nice enough to rescue it and turn it in. So if you eat at the Sonic in American Canyon, California; Tip Big! they deserve it. We drove directly back to San Francisco to grab dinner at our must bring restaurant, Tomasso's. The wait for a table was 45 minutes, so we had time to go see one of our favorite wine maker's new ventures, the Vin Club. We've been a fan of Vin Nostro wines for a few years now, and are glad we have a new place to go drink them whenever we feel like it. We got back to Tomasso's and got seated at a booth! We really enjoyed our dinner and had their always wonderful tiramisou for dessert, and finally tried the creme brulee, which is just as good.
Monday we went for the final bay area delight, a burger from In N Out. I'm trying not to think about the number of calories we went through, but when visitors come we have to go all out. Stay tuned next week when we reveal the mystery item purchased someplace in Berkeley and why we need it.

Day 11, Crossing the Tasman

Finally the time had arrived to bid farewell to New Zealand, we packed up all of our stuff got in the car once again and made our way downtown. We had a very delicious final lunch at Fergberger (site works poorly in some browsers) . I had the little lamby and wished I had discovered it earlier in the trip, I might have eaten one every day. Yes, that does mean I held a baby lamb one day and had a lamb burger the next, but... circle of life. Then we reluctantly went to the airport, and bid adieu to our faithful rental car companion. Be warned that rental car dropoff is a long hike from the terminal across an unpaved lot, not easy to manage with lots of overstuffed luggage. We were disheartened to hear about a canceled Qantas flight as soon as we got on the terminal, but fortunately it was an Auckland flight. When we checked in they asked us to wait nearby, a familiar tactic if they're not sure you're going to get on. The weather was lousy, and they frequently weight restrict the flight, so it was a little touch and go. Eventually they did give us 2 exit row seats, so we were glad, and hustled through the terminal out to the plane. The flight from Queenstown to Sydney is only 3 hours, but we still got surved a hot lunch (we both went with the lamb casserole) and got a little bottle of wine that we really enjoyed. (there was no charge for the wine either). The dessert was the best part, because just when I thought we weren't getting a dessert, out comes a flight attendant with a Streets Magnum Chocolate Ice Cream bar for everyone. Best. coach. class. dessert. Ever. We arrived in Sydney after watching Get Smart, and needed to figure out some way to get to our hotel. We also had to bypass the very tempting tax/duty free store that you are forced to walk through. We found a shuttle service to hotels for only $13AU per person, which seemed much easier than navigating the train and then walking with our bags, or overpaying for a cab. We set ourselves up at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay. Our room was awesome, and we got a view of the harbour and opera house without having to spend an arm and a leg. After our somewhat stressful day at the airport, and 2 weeks of hustling we were ready to spoil ourselves a little bit so we stayed in to eat at the hotel. The Seafood buffet on the weekends is incredible. We splurged on the buffet our last trip to Sydney when we stayed at the Hyde Park Marriott, so we knew it would be good, but this was above and beyond even that. There was tons of fresh sashimi, balmain bugs as far as the eye could see, crab legs, and lots of lots and other choices. There was even someone preparing noodle dishes to order. The range of Desserts available was like nothing I have ever seen. But those are not even the most important features. The real maker of this deal was the wine buffet. $24AU for pour your own from a selection of 4 local reds 4 local whites and a sparkling. Between wine and sashimi, we more than got our money's worth. Stuffed, we rolled ourselves back to our room and crashed.