Thursday, January 03, 2008

Our Longest Post Ever.



Ahnalin and Crockett became friends on this trip. At their last meeting neither was too sure about each other. They've gotten to the point of being comfortable with each other and even being cuddle buddies. It's a Christmas miracle!



While in Nevada we split our time in Sparks at the Crowe household and in Genoa at Dave Walley's resort with the Shaffer Parentals. On our last night (Friday), the four of us visited the oldest watering hole in the state.



It was built in 1853 and has seen many visitors. The history pamphlet that they have for the guest claims that Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, Carol Lombard, Clark Gable, Lauren Bacall, Raquel Welch, John Wayne, and Clint Eastwood have all visited.



Me and Poppa Shaffer



The Shaffer Girls



It's times like these when I wish my arms were longer.



We drove through a little snow on the way to our New Years weekend in San Fran.



As soon as we checked in to the Prescott we were greeted by our very good friends Andy and Kimmy Mumma. They came in from Nashville to hang out and count down to 2008 and with us.



We didn't wast any time and got to the celebrating right away.



See if you can find Andy, Kimmy and Chelle in this picture.



Sunday morning we met up and boarded a limo to drive to the Napa Valley and do some wine tasting.





Our first winery was actually in Sonoma Valley but was awesome.










This was my first wine tasting tour and even though they don't pour a whole glass you can certainly feel a bit buzzed. I guess we could have done the wine snob trick of spitting the wine out, but we didn't want to be wasteful.







Our second stop was the Heitz Wine Cellar.



This is stop three. However, I can't remember the name. In fact I don't remember any of the names, but the wine sure was nice.



We asked the person taking this picture if they would take a picture of their fingers. They didn't get all of them in the shot, but you can see all of us waiting patiently in the background.



This winery is a castle. (This comment may seem obvious but it is for the braille version of the blog.)



It is a very warm and inviting castle. Could be the off duty Wal-Mart greeters they have at the front gates.






The wine has hit me and now I am enthusiastically showing you where they store the bottles.



A big thumb (again for the blind readers)



Home James.



Monday we wandered the streets of San Francisco around Union Square. We hit up my fav store and I got two new Ben Sherman suits.



A Cool BMW bike with Side Car. A note of caution, if you have a cool bike like this don't let Koala bears ride it, even if they do have cool leathers on. They may look cool and all but they don't ride too well. (cool count=4)



Union Square never looked so good.





For New Years the four of us ate dinner at a cool tapas restaurant that escapes me at the moment, but it was great. Afterwards we went to Bimbo's 365 club to count down til midnight.



Bimbo's has been in business since 1931 and doesn't appear to have been changed since opening. The vibe there is super cool. Everyone is dressed to the nines and top hats are provided.









Big Sandy and the Fly Right Boys played as we danced. There were a few other bands but we were too busy hanging out in the fireplace room.



Chelle and I were so happy to be able to spend time with Andy and Kimmy. They are real special to us and we miss them very much. Since Andy is considering going to film school we may be able to convince them to move to Los Angeles. Andy and Kimmy, if you're reading this please move to LA and play with us more often. We love you guys.





Happy New Years Kiss



A very warm Happy New Years to all our friends and family. Here's to 2008, I hope it is wonderful to you all!