Posted by Robbie on August 3rd, 2009 |
1 commentAs most of you heard 2 weeks ago I went to San Francisco, CA for my cousin Matt’s wedding. I arrived on Friday the 24th of June around 1 PM Pacific time. My family was already at the airport (sans Amy whom arrived about an hour or so later). Once everyone was together and all the bags were picked up we piled into the Ford Flex that was our rental car. I must say, the Flex was pretty nice! It was my first time in one and the inside was pretty decent as well as the outside (I even liked the red body of the car with a white roof). We got on the freeway and headed over to Half Moon Bay, a small city right on the coast of the Pacific where our rented beach house was. When we arrived everyone was already there. This was the first time the Stump’s and Nalette’s were all under one roof in probably 10 years at least, it was just like old times and absolutely awesome! I haven’t seen Matt in 10 years as well and seeing him again it felt like no time had passed since the last time. In the house we had the Chow family (Dan, Martha, Ava, and Jacob), the Stump’s (Jim, Pat, Chris, Adrianne), and the Nalette’s (mom, dad, Amy, Laura, and I). Quite a bunch eh? Luckily, the beach house was huge and had plenty of room to accomidate everyone (even spare room for smelly hippies). Since the rehearsal dinner was that evening and we didn’t arrive until sometime around 4 we basically unpacked and got ready for the dinner which was in Half Moon Bay at an Italian restaurant called Mezzaluna.
The dinner started at 7 PM and was in the back VIP room of the restaurant. The room was definetely smaller than what we needed. They served pizza appetizers and for dinner we had a small menu to pick from. I ate some sort of chicken stuffed with artichoke which was pretty tasty. The wine was flowing the entire time, our table probably went through 5 bottles easily. After dinner, Chris summoned myself and the dad; it was time for tequilla shots. I can’t recall what kind of tequilla it was, but it was damn good. Next, Uncle Jim was presented with the bill for $5,000! I guess those bottles of wine were $50 each… who knew? At 10 PM they kicked us out and we headed back to the beach house. Chris and I stopped to purchase alcoholic beverages for the afterparty first though. Chris dropped $130 bucks on booze, I spent $10 (pint of Captain Morgans haha). Back at the beach house drunken family members were in full effect. Aunt Martha was affectivly showing off her hip-hop dancing skills and wanted to listen to the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom, Boom, Pow” more than anyone has ever wanted to listen to a song before. The night progressed with at least 2 more tequilla shots and probably some other shots but who can remember?
The following day was the wedding. The wedding was up in the mountains at some sort of resort of some sort and it was very pretty. When we arrived (5 minutes EARLY) Laura and I were asked by Matt to help hold the tent thing up that the rabbi stands under during the ceremony because they were having trouble keeping it up. So Laura and I took our positions holding this up for a few minutes, at least until the wedding party walked up front then we were able to sit again. Matt’s wife, Andrea looked beautiful, as did her dress and hair. The ceremony was longer that I would have liked, the rabbi was a little too verbose and wanted to tell too many stories but overall it was a nice event. The rest of the night involved speeches and eating (some sort of game hen or something, it was really good) and of course boozing. Uncle Jim’s brother, Kirk, was hooking Chris and I up with cocktails (instead of the provided beer or wine). I was drinking Chronic Tonics all night for the first time in like 2 years (tonic, lime, and Bombay Sapphire gin). The last part of the evening circled around a lot of ridiculous dancing. I think Laura danced with everyone including the wife of a big wig at my company which was interesting. I danced with my sisters and Adrianne and even little Ava.
On Sunday the fam decided to check out Pier 39 and downtown San Fran with the Chow’s. We wanted to take a boat ride to Alcatraz but they were sold out for a week! Instead, we took a boat ride that went from Pier 39 to under the Golden Gate Bridge and then back around Alcatraz. The boat ride was about an hour long and very windy and cold (which I was unprepared for of course). It was, however, worthwhile as we got some great pics of the Golden Gate surrounded by fog which was pretty cool. After the boat ride we decided to get dinner at a seafood restaurant. I can’t remember which restaurant it was we went to but it was pretty good, I had the swordfish (which I love) and it was excellent. We rounded out the day with walking around Pier 39 and checking out all the shops and what not. I bought an Alcatraz shotglass, my only purchase of the vacation!
On Monday the crew (Nalette’s, Chow’s, Uncle Jim, Adrianne, and Chris) went to Napa Valley to wine taste. This was awesome. The first vineyard was Peju, a favorite of Aunt Martha and Uncle Dan. The grounds were gorgeous as was the inside with stained glass and beautiful marble floors and counters. Our wine tasting guide was kind of a douche who thought it would be fun to make fun of my shirt and my hair. He’s lucky I didn’t throw the wine glass at him. Anyway, my overall rating of the Peju wine was probably a 6/10, it was fair but it didn’t blow me away.
The next stop on the wine tasting tour was Merryvale. The inside of this place was seemingly smaller than Peju, although they had a massive cask room with ENORMOUS casks presumably filled with wine. Definietly check out the pictures to see this. The wine here was better than Peju, I would give it a 7/10.
The final stop on the tour was Robert Mondavi. This place dominated the other two. It was much more upscale and just beautiful. Here we got to go on an actual tour of the facility with a guide who explained the wine making process to us and was very knowledgable. We were able to check out some of the vineyard vines and see the oak barrel room and the filling room, it was very cool! The wine here was the best by far, I would give it a good 8.5/10.
The last day of my vacation was Tuesday. I spent the day doing nothing. I didn’t want to sit in a car and drive anymore so instead Chris and I went to the restaurant behind our beach house and had lunch and drinks, followed by more drinks of course. I was sad to leave San Fran and the whole family, I had so much fun seeing everyone. Hopefully someone else gets married soon. Don’t look at me.
