The Bellefleur Odyssey

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Halloween #1

We dressed up this Saturday for an early Halloween celebration.

Mary came to visit and we did some costume hunting in Woodland. Woodland is a very interesting place. I'm excited because it has a bowling alley, and lots of good looking taco trucks. I was really surprised at how big the town is.

I dressed up as a Pirate, and I made a costume for my parrot, Garrett.

Arrgh matey

Garrett and I won the costume contest at our favorite bar, Little Prague. The prize, a nice bottle of champagne.

Mary found an awesome hat at the goodwill store

Thank goodness for $1.99 glue guns!!

Monday, October 22, 2007

A trip to Napa

This Sunday we took our friend Eduardo to Napa. Eduardo is visiting from Spain on an international postharvest technology scholarship and has been working in my lab for the past few months. He has been almost everywhere in California except Napa, so we decided to take him on a day tour through the area.

The vineyards as seen from Castello di Amorosa

We started off by visiting the Napa Visitor's Center, always a good idea, and decided we'd visit some of our favorite wineries as well as a few new ones that we had never been to. We enjoyed champagne tasting at Domaine Chandon, the free self-guided tour and smell-a-vision kiosks at St. Supery , the sun and the views and delicious cabernet sauvignon at the Robert Mondavi winery, and had burgers and fries at Taylor's Refresher (one of our favorite places to eat). Their Ahi Burger is amazing, as are their sweet potato fries. We also visited the Culinary Institute for the Arts at Greystone in St. Helena, which was a beautiful old Hogwart's style building with lots of culinary goodies inside.

Tasting champagne at Domaine Chandon

The long lines at Taylor's Refresher, well worth the wait!

During our last visit to Napa with Andy and Patti, we saw as Castle in the distance from the Sterling winery views. We asked about the castle at the visitors center and learned that one of the owners of a winery down the road had a love for Italian history and Italian castles, so he had a few shiploads of Italian rock sent over and built a castle, the Castello di Amorosa. It was sort of strange, but very cool. They do have tours of the castle for an arm and a leg, but we did the $10 tasting only deal and were able to wander around the castle a bit. I thought the best part was seeing a little girl who came to visit--she was dressed up in her snow white costume and running around the castle like she was a little princess. Quite cute.

Castello di Amorosa

It was an enjoyable trip, one of our longer times spent in Napa, and it was nice that we got to see some new places. We're so grateful that Napa is so closeby! So that means all of you come visit us in Davis so we can do a day trip to Napa!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Happy Birthday Garrett!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you!
Happy BIRTHDAY dear Garrett!
Happy birthday to you!

On October 7, 25 years ago, we have many thanks to give to a most wonderful Theresa Flynn. Thank you for your labor! :)

We celebrated early on Saturday with dinner at Cattleman's in Dixon with Felix, Eduardo (a spanish exchange student who works in my lab), Dov Alima, and Eileen and Paul.

Dinner at Cattleman's in Dixon. Steak. It's what's for dinner©

On the actual birth day, we had brunch at Cindy's with Vince and Felix, and watched Vince and Garrett's soccer team win (3-1, Davis v. Berkeley), and later had some wine and smelt at Seasons and then watched Shaolin Warriors at the Mondavi Center. It was a nice weekend of food and festivities. Happy day!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

On the East Coast

Yea so to comment on our trip as seen from some of the photos below...

We have a travel bug that leaves us itching to get out of Davis every chance we get...Since we've returned to the states we've only spent one full weekend in Davis! We've camped at Tahoe, traveled down to Santa Barbara for a wedding, visited Bodega Bay on Labor Day, and most recently visited New Jersey and New York for Jeremy and Durba's state side wedding ceremony. We took a long weekend off to have a small reunion with Garrett's friends and to join in the celebrations of yet another ceremony, this time a very heart felt Quaker ceremony, to celebrate the union of Jeremy and Durba. We met up with Devin on his ridiculous flight pattern (Seattle-Reno-Phoenix-Pittsburgh-Philadelphia) in Phoenix, picked up our upgraded rental car (yay Toyota Highlander and yay for Alamo being out of cars!), and drove out to Long Beach Island off the coast of New Jersey. It's a nice little island, a bit eerie, but I'm sure it's poppin' in the summer time. We got to swim in the Atlantic, cry at the ceremony, eat good food and dance the night away, then swam in the ocean again at night, and drove to Brooklyn the next day to drop some friends off and chill in the city. We hung out in Bedford, eating delicious Italian food and had after dinner wine and coffee at a cute hipster cafe. Then it was out to Brooklyn Heights to check out the view and get breakfast, and before we knew it we were back at the Philly Airport, heading home. (Home to waking up at 6am to pick apples in Stockton for Sylvia and to a doctors appointment and work work work for Garrett). Sigh...back in Davis again. Ah well, it's gotta end sometime right?

Weekends out of Davis!

Some photos from our weekends away from Davis...

At Bodega Head

At Portugese Beach--Luckily the sun came out for the drive up north!

Enjoying the view from Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, NY

Before Jeremy and Durba's ceremony, in Long Beach Island, NJ

Before the third marriage ceremony
(Yes, court marriage, traditional Bengali wedding, and a Quaker ceremony)

Professing his love, it was a teary and heart touching speech.

Us at the dock by Jeremy's grandmother's house, where the ceremony was held.

At the reception (they had some delicious scallops there...)

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Congrats Alf and Laura!

Congratulations to our friends Alf and Laura on their wedding day, held in Santa Barbara at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on August 25, 2007. It was a great excuse to have a small reunion of old friends, and a great excuse for allowing white people en masse to dance.