Mom and Freefs after our lunch at The French Laundry

I’m not going to waste much time and am going to get right to it (if you’re interested in other Napa Valley tidbits…). Here is, course-by-course, mom’s 60^th birthday lunch at The French Laundry:

Not pictured is our amuse bouche, which included a mini puff pastry stuffed with Gruyere and also an “ice cream cone”-inspired salmon tartar and crème fraiche.  

Oysters and Pearls

First course: “Oysters and Pearls”
“Sabayon” of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar.

It was warm, salty, and heavenly.

Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Palm

Second course: Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Palm
Compressed cucumber, mango, Hass avocado, chili and Rangpur lime “gastrique”

It was the most refreshing—and fresh—salad I’ve ever had.

Sauteed Fillet of Atlantic Cobia

Tracey’s third course: Sautéed Fillet of Atlantic Cobia
Bluefoot mushrooms, nantes carrots, cipollini onion, parsley and “Beurre Rouge”

"Tartare" of Ear-shell Clam

Mom’s third course: “Tartare” of Ear-Shell Clam
Chanterelle mushrooms, Tokyo turnips, somerset peach, and garden mint

A collection of salts, just because.

While still raving about the salty yums of the “Oysters and Pearls” our server overheard me mention how much I like salt. So, he appeared with three salts for me to try—the one in the upper left is a Jurassic salt recently discovered in a mine in Montana.

Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster "Mitts"

Fourth course: Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster “Mitts”
Basmati rice, cauliflower, Sultana raisins, Marcona almonds, cilantro shoots, and coconut and Madras curry.
You have never in your life tasted curry like this. It was so good, I’d rather have not even sullied it with the lobster (really, my only constructive critique for Mr. Keller).

Salmon Creek Farm Pork Belly

 Tracey’s fifth course:  Salmon Creek Farm Pork Belly
Toybox tomatoes, artichokes, Romaine lettuce, and Bottarga – hen egg emulsion

Dear Pork Belly, Marry me. Love, Freef.

Spring Lamb "Raviolini"

 Mom’s fifth course: Spring Lamb “Raviolini”
Lima beans, Brentwood corn, jingle bell peppers, and Swiss chard and Padron pepper consommé

The consommé was amazeballs in and of itself.

Snake River Famrs "Calotte de Boeuf Grillee"

Sixth course: Snake River Farms “Calotte de Boeuf Grillee”
Fairytale eggplant, broccoli, red radish, Asian pear, and “Sauce Japonaise”

It also had mini brisket cubes. So, double boeuf!

"Acapella"

 Seventh course: “Acapella”
Bing cherry, celery, Piedmont hazelnuts, and Australian black truffle

<drool> Obviously, the cheese course. </drool>

Yellow Watermelon Sorbet

 Eighth course: Yellow Watermelon Sorbet
Basil-honey and Saba vinegar

It also has yellow compressed watermelon and red watermelon as the vessel for the vinegar. At this point, I figured we were nearly done…

Caramelia Chocolate "Cremeux"

 Tracey’s ninth course: Caramelia Chocolate “Cremeux”
Gros Michel banana, candied pine nuts, “Dentelle” and salted popcorn ice cream

I totally won on this course!

"Nectarine Melba"

Mom’s ninth course: “Nectarine Melba”
Sicilian pistachio “Pain de Gene,” Andante Dairy yogurt, “Bicotti,” and raspberry sorbet

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

Mom-only ten course: “Birthday Cake”
It was a soaked sponge cake and chocolate whip and then covered in cocoa

Happy 60^th, Mom!!!

Megnardises (or "four more desserts after the dessert course!!)

 Eleventh course: Mignardises
Chocolate semi-freddo (looks like a cappuccino), doughnut holes, chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, truffles (from upper-left, clockwise: peanut butter and jelly, ginger, cherry, olive oil, hazelnut rum, Meyer lemon)

Four different sweet things rolled up into one course!

Not pictured: They sent us each home with a package of shortbread cookies, and mom got a package of chocolates for a birthday present, along with a fancy-pants, exclusive magazine.

After lunch, we strolled around The French Laundry garden, directly across the street from the restaurant.

I took about 50 pictures of this chicken.

The French Laundry compost pile is pretty effin' magnificent!

So, this is my mom. If you don't already know, she's kind of amazing.

It was, by far, the best culinary experience of my life and will be one of my most memorable life moments, thanks to my mom telling me emphatically at the end of the meal, “This was the best Saturday of my life!”

We wore matching outfits. True.

I’ve been to the Napa Valley several times before; in fact, I used to live in Sonoma, right off the town square. But none of my other visits compared to this trip, mostly because my mother and I were there to celebrate her 60^th birthday. You don’t need much more than 3-4 days in the Napa Valley, else you’re likely to come away understanding the phrase “Take-a-Napa,” so our trip from August 18^th – 22^ndwas perfect. In August, grapes are in their late vegetation state, right before harvest (or “crush”) in September, so the vines were full!

Yay, grapes!

Plus, the weather was beautiful and, though I vowed not to complain if it reached the 90’s as expected for that time of year, it lingered in the mid-80’s the whole time and the skies were sunny and blue.

The Napa Valley is spread out with countless wineries and Michelin-rated restaurants. We called Yountville home base for our three nights, and it’s simply what I’d recommend to anyone looking for the quintessential Napa Valley experience. We stayed at the Napa Valley Lodge , which was perfect for our needs. And, unless you’ve got the cash to stay at the Auberge du Soleil, I’d recommend it to anyone (and have via my TripAdvisor review).

The rolling hills and vineyards across the Napa Valley

Of course, we took full advantage of our close proximity to good food, dining at Zinsvalley (with my old friend and former boss from a different life, Guy), Etoile at Domaine Chandon (which just received its second Michelin star), Bouchon Bakery, and, of course, The French Laundry (curious about the dining experience and menu du jour during our visit?). We also visited the Girard tasting room  in Napa, and also took a drive over to my old stomps in Sonoma to visit Gloria Ferrer, Sebastiani, and Arrowood. We brought back our fair share of wine, including some old vine, unoaked chardonnay, white pinot, and both high and low elevation cabs—all of which are either limited production or exclusive to the tasting rooms.

Getting sloshed at Girard (always the mom, she thought we should hold up the brochure, lest we forget where the hell we were after many glasses of wine)

Things I learned on this trip:

• My mom, even at 60, can party tough, even when her saucy daughter can’t handle the liquor like she used to.
• The French Laundry composting pile is kind of amazing.
• It was a good move on my part to ditch the hospitality industry as a career (everyone there was SO NICE… I just can’t imagine doing that now that I’m old and bitter).
• Giving someone the “greatest Saturday of [their] life” as a birthday gift is, indeed, the sweetest reward.

The Sonoma Mission in the town of Sonoma

Lunch in Lahaina. John had the "Tropical Itch," complete with backscratcher.

It’s true, Hawai’i is not my most favoritest vacation spot. I would, in most cases, prefer to get my passport stamped when spending my hard-earned vacation dollars. Also, I’m a very bad vacation-relaxer. In regular life, I’m lazy, lazy, lazy, but on vacation, I like to explore; and Hawai’i is just begging to be relaxed upon. That said, there are some awesome things about Maui in March. My exhaustive list follows:

1. Humpback whale season. One word: amazeballs.
2. The ahi poke selection at Foodland. I could live on a steady diet of ahi poke, in all its variations. Bonus: it’s about ¼ of the cost than mainland U.S.
3. Shave ice. What is not to love about snowflakes with sugary, flavored syrup and artificial food coloring? Karen had pineapple-mango; I had pineapple-blue raspberry; John had the “High Tide” (key lime, blue vanilla, with coconut cream, all on top of vanilla ice cream—yeah, shave ice on top of ice cream).
   

   Nom nom nom. Blue raspberry and pineapple shave ice.

4. Orchids. My favorite flower flourishes here.
5. Snorkeling with Green Sea Turtles. I’ve snorkeled in many oceans and the visibility off Molokini Crater was the best I’ve ever seen. The species were the average variety of tropical fish, except at Turtle Arches off the south shore of Maui where we were lucky enough to swim with turtles. I’ve seen some giant turtles in some tropical, exotic locations, but swimming with the turtles is something extraordinary.
   

   My favorite flower!

6. Maui sunsets. Beautiful. And it makes me giggle that people clap when the sun disappears over the horizon.

Tsunamis still suck.

Goodbye, Maui!

Maui Sunset

Pre-tsunami sunset from our lanai.

Two days after I got back from my blizzard-battling trek to see Prince in New York, I booked a tropical vacation for us: Maui. We deserved it—a vacation perhaps free of Prince, but also free from tiring, yet stalwart attempts to see the Purple Yoda. Sun, sand, surf.

Add to that, (t)sunami. Yes, Mother Nature has again tried to flex her muscles and show us who’s the boss right in the middle of our damned vacation.

Watching Humpback whales at a lookout on the drive to Lahaina.

After a lovely, sunny day in Lahaina for lunch on Thursday, we were going to bed early to get some sleep before our 5:45am snorkeling departure on Friday. Before dozing off, the news came on and we heard about the quake in Japan and the tsunami watch in Hawai’i, which quickly turned to a tsunami warning. After an anxious couple of hours, we heard the reports from Wake and Midway Islands and decided that even though the condo is on the beach, it is at least 20 feet above sea level and that we’d likely be fine. We moved the rental car to higher ground and then came back to sleep in our bed (instead of in a car in a random parking lot). None of the surges came up to our condo, but Kihei Town, which is ¼ mile away got quite a bit of water.

Mother Nature not only hates me, but hates this poor blowfish, too.

Despite the warnings to stay off the beach this morning, we spent a couple of hours down there watching the ocean and breaching Humpback whales. We witnessed one surge—the ocean receded very quickly and dramatically (2 or 3 feet vertically) and then, about 20 minutes later, rose vertically and pushed forward horizontally (15+ feet) equally as fast. John “Tsunami Swimmer” Craft decided to go for a swim in the surge and had a good time; I stayed hunkered down under my beach towel and umbrella, already burned, despite the SPF 50. 

John swimming in a tsunami surge.

Snorkeling has been rescheduled for tomorrow, though who knows what the scouted sites will be like post-tsunami. We’re safe and sound, and even though it feels like the Pacific Rim is executing some sort of personal vendetta on me, acting as an agent of Mother Nature (who clearly has a problem with me taking a vacation), we’re here for a few more nights and will enjoy every minute (though I may take the opportunity to complain that my vacation has been “ruined” and that I surely deserve another one now).

Purple Empire State Building

He opened with The Beautiful Ones on piano, he sang If [eye] Was Ur Girlfriend with Janelle Monae, he rocked the classics (Purple Rain, Kiss, Delirious, Little Red Corvette, 1999), he made  me cry with Sometimes it Snows in April on piano, and he brought it home with four encores.  

We were so close, I can confirm, Prince doesn’t wear panties. We were at the tip of the symbol stage, 4^th row.

Even the Empire State Building is purple tonight. No lie.

I’m so Delirious, I can barely compose a sentence.

Camera police were in full force tonight, but for your enjoyment:

Sometimes It Snows In April, Encore

Was Ur Girlfriend, with Janelle Monae (and some dummy’s Loser finger)”]

If eye

Sorry we missed you, Pee Wee (or, ee Wee erman, by the nice crop job)

We ventured uptown to Central Park and slushed around the frozen tundra, walked up Central Park West past the Dakota, cut back through the park and made our way back to midtown down Madison Avenue where I only window-shopped at Lanvin. I was a very good girl.

Taking a short rest here at the hotel in Times Square (which is getting all de-snowified for NYE) and then on to Madison Square Garden for… Superfunkycalifragisexy PRINCE!

Times Square

Just another "Tiffany Tuesday" for spoiled, rotten me!

We must be running on pure endorphins. After 4am Gyros, we were up and out by 11am, determined to make the most of our shortened vacation.

It’s cold and there is snow piled 3-4 FEET in places and locals are up in arms about the slushy puddles at nearly every intersection in Manhattan. However, I’m impressed—coming from an area of the nation where 4 INCHES of snow harkens tweets and Facebook updates about “snowpacolypse”—that the city is up and running at all.

Today, we:

• Went to Macy’s at Herald Square so that I could get some fuzzy gloves (purple, natch) 
• Bought new boots to combat the puddles
• Spent several hours at MOMA admiring the works of Warhol, Pollack, Matisse, and Picasso
• Shopped at Tiffany & Co.
• Rested our feet at Rockefeller Center
• Dodged puddles in Times Square
• Had a quiet dinner at a small Italian restaurant

A good day, for sure, but bad news from a fellow Prince Mega-Fan who was flying in today from Canada for the concert tomorrow and planning on spending New Year’s Eve here. Unfortunately, her flight was finally cancelled after being delayed several times. The two seats next to us will be empty, and I’m heartbroken for her.

Needless to say, we’re very lucky to be here and will roll with the punches if we can’t get out of here on our scheduled flight. New Year’s Eve in New York? I guess I could think of worse things to do with my time.

Tron and the Big Ol' Christmas Tree

• A last-minute scramble to book a new flight to Newark through Phoenix (with 8 hours before departure) when Delta cancelled our Sunday afternoon 12/26 flight and no hope of a new flight until Wednesday 12/29.
• A mad dash through the Phoenix airport to catch a new flight when the flight to Newark was cancelled.
• Flight to Houston 12/26.
• Flight to Charlotte 12/26.
• Tears in Charlotte; “no hope of flying into New York area airports until Wednesday 12/29 or Thursday 12/30” and a Hail Mary decision to fly into Philadelphia at 8:00pm on Tuesday 12/27; overnight stay at a hotel in Charlotte.
• Delayed flight to Philadelphia that left at 10:30pm
• Missing the last train to the 30^th Street Station in central Philly; hailing a cab to the train station on the advice of buddy Alex in the hopes of finding a train into New York.
• A nice cab driver who mentioned some people were actually taking cabs into New York at a flat rate of $350.
• <giggle, giggle, giggle> “we’re not that desperate” … or are we?
• A $350 cab ride that got us to Times Square, in our hotel room, and with Gyros on the way—an hour before our first hope of ever leaving Philly on a train (maybe).

When this started on 12/26, I thought I could just magically beat the weather (yes, my ego is that big). By Houston, I was just insane. By Charlotte, I was nearly defeated until a flood of messages from friends with the resounding theme of “You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!” changed my tune. Indeed, I could. And did.

Terminal illness, indeed. John and I have seen 4 airports in less than 24 hours, which is not all that unheard of; but it was certainly unplanned. This is all in an attempt to get to New York for the Prince concert amid a massive blizzard that has buried the east coast under up to two feet of snow.

More-sane people wouldn’t have boarded the plane in Seattle to begin with. I am not that sane person and that was never an option for this mega-fan.

We are currently in Charlotte, North Carolina after inching our way east through Phoenix and then Houston, and are booked on a flight to Philly at 8pm tonight 10pm tonight (after a two hour so-far-delay). Amtrak is booked, so we’ll be at the mercy of public transit into NYC. We’ve missed PeeWee on Broadway, but I’m working hard to get those tickets refunded or transferred to a NYC friend. Our reservations at wd~50 are also cancelled, of course. But, we’re still hopeful that we’ll get to Manhattan in time to enjoy a day or two in the city and, well, Prince.

Exhausted yesterday, we almost threw in the towel, but now have an odd, renewed sense of hope and adventure (sans typical Freef-cynicism) and will press on.

The light at the end of the tunnel is purple. Maybe a light lavendar… (that’s realism, not pessimism).

Until then (when?), I’m sticking to domestic travel. And since I’ve become fairly domesticated since we last met in the blogosphere (complete with doting boyfriend, loving puppy, and another scrumptious puppy on the way), it is only fitting that I tell you about my most recent adventure: Washington’s Skagit Valley.

Mid-way through the April tulip-month, Doting Boyfriend and I packed up the Loving Puppy and drove out to the tulip fields, just an hour or so north of Seattle. After lunch in La Conner at a dive bar where we felt right at home—the kind of place where the oldest-living-La Conner-resident stops to admire your throwback Mariner’s jacket and starts spinning tales about when he was a youngster—we went to Tulip Town and walked through a couple of large fields. The flowers were stunning, but not unlike most of my other travel, I was grossed out by unruly children and their parents who allowed them to tromp right on past the “Don’t Walk Between Rows” sign and into/on top of/over the tulips. And forget about the “Don’t Pick the Flowers” signs. Imagine if you will: Rows of purple, red, orange, white tulips; a sign that says “Don’t Pick the Flowers;” and 15 sorority sisters with their wedge 5” heels (in the mud) posing by said sign with… wait for it… freshly-picked tulips behind their ears.

Rows and rows of tulips in Skagit Valley, Washington

I digress…  the tulips were beautiful, the sun was out (though it was windy), the company was perfect. It’s amazing the sense of serenity one can feel just by seeing rows and rows of colorful flowers that stack on top of each other to the horizon. Just going to the tulip fields and visiting a charming town nearby is a perfect day-trip. We made ours an overnighter.

Though the tulips were our primary destination, our state is so ridiculously accessible and there is so much to see in such a compact area, we were able to pack in a lot of quintessential Washington fun in a day-and-a-half. After Tulip Town, we also went to:

• Deception Pass State Park where the beach was quiet even on the gorgeous, sunny April day
• Anacortes for dinner at Star Bar, which was booked for dinner, but we were happy to sit at the bar and eat the scrumpdelicious food—we’re far more at home at a bar, even one in a sophisticated restaurant, than a white linen–clad dining room. We went back to Anacortes the next morning to pick up some breakfast and treats for the road at Calico Cupboards—a honest-to-goodness, made-from-scratch bakery.
• Fort Casey State Park in Coupeville on Whidbey Island—always a fun place to explore, get lost in the old barracks, and have a picnic on a sunny day (note, our picnic consisted of PBR—hidden, of course, since it’s a state park)
• Greenbank Farm on Whidbey Island, where we had a fantastic soup/salad lunch and picked up some artwork for the kitchen and some goats’ milk cheddar cheese—YUM!

Doting Boyfriend, Loving Puppy, and Me at Deception Pass State Park

Loving Puppy (aka "Dyoji) on the beach at Fort Casey

We did all of this in a matter of 30 hours and didn’t feel rushed at all. It was a wonderful, relaxing overnight trip that I’ll happily do again, every single April. It was a perfect reminder of how much Washington State has to offer and of how thankful I am that I live here and not someplace like… oh, I don’t know… Indiana?