Schwegmanigans by the Bay!

As fun as wine country with my Schwegfam was, it only took up one day of their 3.5-day trip to Cali, and the fun didn't stop as soon as we left Napa. In fact, it started before Napa, the second Dick, Jodes and Jonathan showed up at my place on Thursday afternoon...

Emily didn't arrive until just before dinner, so I took my parents and Jonny over to San Carlos for a lengthy lunch...of the mostly-liquid variety...at Cask. 

Emmy got in, we headed back to San Carlos for a fantastic dinner of small plates and wine pairings at The Wine Project, and then back to my place for a palm tree sunset...

...and a belated-birthday celebration courtesy of Sprinkles Cupcakes! (Em's birthday is July 2, so she was NOT expecting this almost three weeks later...but my parents are awesome and never let a birthday go uncelebrated!)

Friday was Napa day, so we pick back up on Saturday. First, a bit of backstory - while my whole family has met Laura repeatedly over the last six years, Dave was a brand new face for them, and the Schwegfam likes few things better than new (victims) friends to (force to hang out with us) win over with our charming shenanigans. 

So when the Schwegs met Dave for the first time that week, it was kind of a bizarre love at first sight thing. Jonathan and Dave had, of course, already become bros during his earlier trip to the Bay, but my parents and Em were rapidly enchanted. To the degree that, when we decided to go out to breakfast on Saturday before heading to Stanford, Dave's attendance was NOT OPTIONAL in their eyes. Dave, however, had plans to enjoy one of his few days off going hiking. Fortunately, he's a gracious and lovely roommate/person and agreed to go to breakfast. At Stacks, when an extra mimosa showed up randomly, my parents, Jon, and Emmy all attempted to twist his arm into drinking it, despite his planned strenuous hike after food. 

Dave demurred, with the following exchange: 

Jodes: "Dave, honey, are you sure you don't want the mimosa?!" 

Dave: "Yeah, no, I just really don't like champagne." (Pause for look of slight horror on faces of entire Schwegfam.) "Oh, no, don't get me wrong, I LOVE alcohol...just not champagne." (Pause for look of dramatic relief on faces of entire Schwegfam.) 

Dave, you're a saint of a roommate and thank you for coming to breakfast with my wild and crazy family - we love you!

Long story short, Jonathan drank both the mimosas while wearing his sunglasses indoors because that's just how Jonathan rolls. 

I blame said mimosas for his incredible maturity the moment we rolled up to Stanford's campus...

I was so excited to show off campus to my family! I've really loved exploring it and spending more time there with work, classes and activities after-hours. The day, though, was rapidly nearing 90 degrees, and while the Schwegfam is incredibly good looking and very smart compared to the general population, we're not exactly known for our Stanford-level academic ability. So we just had fun instead...

Specifically, we walked around campus sweltering until we beelined for the bookstore, where Emily channeled her best inner Stanford student...

Dick...oh excuse me, his frat-boy alter ego Rick...joined the class of 2021 and got his letter jacket to prove it...

,,,and we screwed around making general fools of ourselves for a nice healthy amount of time. Schwegmans LOVE college bookstores. It's one of our things. 

Since Em couldn't decide whether to go the business, medicine, or law route, we decided to throw in the towel and seek cooler temperatures in San Francisco, starting in the Mission at Clarion Alley, a graffiti project that focuses on protest artwork. (We were a teeeeeeny tiny bit out of place. Oops.)

Once we saw our man Prince (RIP), we were good to go and headed toward Dandelion Chocolate for ALL THE SAMPLES and Brasserie St James for mediocre service and excellent cocktails. 

When we were in Northern California over the holidays, we stumbled into Fog Harbor Fish House on Pier 39 for a happy hour that turned into one of the best dinners of our trip. Dad, being a creature of habit, really wanted to go back, so we did! As much of a tourist nightmare as Pier 39 can be, it's worth checking out if you're a newbie to the San Francisco thing...and I highly recommend Fog Harbor for drinks, snacks, or a full meal. 

One of the biggest draws of Fog Harbor? Their house-made sourdough bread is baked every hour and served HOT tableside...like so hot that it's hard to pick it up at first. Both times we've been there, we've devoured multiple baskets of it. It's crack-delicious. 

Emily had insisted all evening that she wanted no further recognition of her birthday, but Dad is a sucker for any kind of party-style humiliation (and for free dessert). To get him back for the sneak-attack strawberry shortcake, Em, Jonny and I stealth-swiped the bill...a coup, if you've ever dined out with Dick and Jodes. 

All that was left was taking in a stunning San Francisco sunset to conclude our Saturday in the city...that Bay Bridge photo Em captured honestly makes my heart beat a little bit faster. 

In true Schwegfam style, we were pounding mimosas by about 9am on Sunday at Mayfield Bakery in Palo Alto, a brunch we were all kind of eh on...cinnamon beignets aside. 

After brunch, we headed back to Stanford to take in the panoramic 360-degree views from the top of Hoover Tower! I can access it for free anytime with my employee badge, and the day was so clear we could see all the way to San Francisco. 

After we wound down at Stanford, we took Jonny D to the airport and headed back to my place to relax and enjoy one last glass of California sauvignon blanc before my parents ran Em back. Little did we know, her flight would be delayed by three or four hours...so we turned right back around to pick her up and race back to my place for a little Iron Horse Reserve Cuvée!

Too soon, it was time to say goodbye to the rest of my Schwegfam loves, the only way I know how: with a raised glass and a "Cheers!" for the road. 

I can't wait for the next trip they make out my way...or for our next Schwegfam Five reunion in Minnesota over Thanksgiving! 

Student life: a summer class recap

Hi friends! How was Labor Day? Mine was utterly decadent in its total lack of major activity. I stuck close to home - power-cleaning and organizing, watching football (pleased to see a solid win by the Irish to start the season!), cooking up a storm, and trying to beat the Bay Area's absurd 110-degree heat in our complex's stunning pool. All in all, an excellent three days of relaxing before a manic autumn!

One of the best perks of my job with Stanford is that, as a staff member, I get to take classes at a heavily-reduced rate. I started just a week before summer session kicked off, and my bosses encouraged me to dive right in and use my allotted education funds. So I did! While there are a plethora of for-credit classes offered that will advance my career, improve my professional knowledge, and even move me along a slow but steady road to a graduate degree, I decided to be kind to myself in a season of major transition and chose my summer classes utterly for pleasure. While they won't get me anywhere near a degree in anything but being a professional dilettante, I had an utterly pleasurable experience learning for the mere fact that I love to learn. 

I started my week with "Great Opera Performances" on Mondays. Taught by Speight Jenkins, former host of Live at the Met and the director emeritus of the Seattle Opera, the class explored in depth what makes an opera performance "great," from both a technical and emotive standpoint. Jenkins, at the age of 80, has been an opera lover and expert for decades, and brought the most incredible personal anecdotes and insights to every class. His personal friendships with titans of the opera world often left me with my jaw actually dropped, and learning about what performances/artists/stagings have succeeded or failed - and why - has completely re-framed how I look at the opera world. 

On Tuesdays, I took "The Innovations of World-Class Museums," which was far and away my favorite class. Taught by a Harvard-educated curator of Stanford's expansive museum collections, the three-hour class started each week with a thematic discussion of a development or cultural shift that affected the world of museums, and shifted in the second half to discussing a specific museum adapting or responding to that change. Some favorite combos: the rise and influence of technology, coupled with the British Museum's collaboration with Google to make their collection available digitally; the "corporatization" of museums versus government support, framed against the Louvre's controversial partnership with the United Arab Emirates; and the ethics of cultural sensitivity, appropriation, and education, demonstrated through the shifting approach to Holocaust museums, as well as debates and legal tangles over artifact ownership the world over. 

I could not get enough of this class, guys. Our professor was incredibly articulate and incisive in getting to the heart of controversial topics, and presented fact without allowing her opinion to pollute the discussion we had weekly. The accompanying course text, "Riches, Rivals and Radicals" by Marjorie Schwarzer, illuminated our focus areas even further and stretched my admittedly conventional view of what a museum should be to consider, instead, what a museum could be. 

And finally, Wednesdays found me taking a virtual class for the first time in my life with History of Wine! As we've covered extensively here, I've turned into a hardcore wino since moving within day-trip distance of Napa/Sonoma Valleys, and this class added so much to my appreciation of wine. Focused on the origins of wine, through the present day "cult" and "corporation" of wine production and distribution, I gained a totally new vocabulary around wine. While I'm nowhere near "Somm" level knowledgeable, I have a much better context for wines across the world, and can use that context to appreciate wine so much more. Plus, the flexible online format was a total kick - one of my favorite places to "take class" was at the Stanford gym on the ellipticals for a couple hours! 

I'm taking the fall semester off from classes due to our 8/31 year end, as well as a hectic stretch of travel and visitors that would make tests and papers hard to fit into an already busy schedule - but it's safe to say I've fallen entirely back in love with life as a student. I tweeted something in that vein in the thick of midterms:

Still mean that, every word, and am so grateful that Stanford is enabling me to foster a lifelong love of learning. 

Lately I'm Loving: California Edition

Team, I am officially SO Californian. I drink lots of Russian River red wines, I eat avocados, and I'm in three different yoga classes. I discuss traffic on "the 101" and bemoan the plastic bag tax. I went on a date last night with a guy whose brother has a tech startup (because everyone's brother has a tech startup these days). And in honor of my full-throttle leap into all things NorCal, here are a few things making me laugh/on my mind/causing distraction these days:

- One of my favorite Stanford discoveries lately came to me via my mama bear, who sent me the 2017 Stanford Summer Reading List right after I started. Every summer, Stanford picks three books they deem important, and recommends them to the Stanford community at large...everyone from incoming students to faculty and staff. I'm surprised by the number of people I've encountered who are reading them...and am planning to pick up my copies over the weekend. 

- San Franciscans have the most delightful sense of humor about most things - especially their weather. It fills me with inimitable joy that they have personified the omnipresent Bay Area fog - his name is Karl, and he is possibly one of my favorite things about San Francisco so far. Thusly named in 2010, his nomenclature inspired hot debate, which just makes me happier. For deliciously ironic laughs, check out his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - I follow it all. 

- While I do miss Minnesota a little bit every day, I'm starting to feel a lot more settled out here. That said, this video of Californians trying to pronounce the names of Minnesota cities filled me with ALL THE NOSTALGIA. 

- Despite Karl, I was pleased to see that my new ZIP scores highly on this totally arbitrary metric of what locations in the US have the most "pleasant" days per year. While I personally agree with the author's assessment of what constitutes "pleasant weather," not gonna lie, some days you just need to be on a boat scorching in 90-degree heat to feel alive. 

- In honor of my 153 days of pleasant weather per year, I'll be making this rosemary rosé spritzer - and ice-blending it to recreate the frozen rosemary rosé that Laura and I pounded for hours on the Godfrey roof last September. 

Cheers and happy Friday, campers! 

#highwaytohal meets #sanfranlizco!

Last weekend, I hosted my first official California visitor, as ex-roommate Hal made a stop in San Francisco for the weekend! Although we lived together for nearly a year, I saw very little of him during that time due to our respective travel schedules, his grad school application process, and his side gig driving Uber…so having a whole weekend to spend together was an incredible treat!

As soon as he rolled in Friday, we headed to Vesta in Redwood City, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. We dined with our friend Erik, who is also a Bay Area resident, and then headed down the block to Blacksmith for more cocktails…

…including, naturally, frosé. A basic white girl never forgets (although this bar bill def didn’t rival last September’s shenanigans at the Godfrey roof…eek).

We took advantage of the gorgeous evening to head back to my place and enjoy the sunset on our deck – wine included, naturally. (A lot of wine included.)

The next morning, we had grand, ambitious plans of being up and on the road by around 8am to get to wine country by 10. Needless to say, Saturday morning actually didn’t find us crawling out of bed until closer to 9, so we arrived in Yountville around noon. First stop:

Bouchon, for foie gras, croques madames, and bellinis at the bar! Incredible food and the best chat with the bartender put us in the perfect mood for a strenuous afternoon of serious wine tasting.

Once we had finished up, we headed across the highway to Chandon (duh). While my June wine club shipment wasn’t ready yet (first world problems, amirite?), we did enjoy the free flights for members. While sampling, we chatted with Michael, our tasting host and a fellow recent transplant to the area, about his favorite wineries on the Napa side and a few restaurants he recommended.

While Napa is great, I really prefer Sonoma for the generally more laid-back atmosphere, and wanted to show Hal the contrast between the two valleys. We crossed the Oakville Grade, laughing all the way at the absurd roads, and made a brief, abortive attempt to stop at the (wrong) Hanna tasting room before heading to my personal fave: Iron Horse!

I’ll never get over the views – and Hal was appropriately enchanted.

Everything the light touches will one day be yours, Harold…if you MOVE HERE (not like I’m biased or anything).

After a fantastic tasting experience, including their special-edition Rainbow Cuvée (#prideweekend, duh), we made the most serendipitous of stops at La Crema’s Saralee estate riiiight around 4:57. As they close at 5, we were initially told we wouldn’t be able to taste, which I had expected, but I made sure to emphasize that I really wanted to show Hal the space – a spectacular renovation of a 100-year-old hops barn. After effusively exploring the building, the tasting room manager, Andrea, said possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard: “We just can’t let you leave without tasting something.” Andrea, you are LOVELY, and you speak my language.

We tried their delicious single-vineyard Shell Ridge pinot, and then hit the jackpot when Andrea brought over the day’s last open bottle of their 2014 Nine-Barrel pinot noir – a reserve label that retails for over $100, and is produced on select years with only the best grapes in La Crema’s entire portfolio. Andrea let us take our (generous) pours out back, admire the view from the deck, and relax while the La Crema staff finished closing. All in all, an utterly lovely and unexpected experience that definitely cemented La Crema’s spot as one of my favorite vineyards in the area.

 We took it easy Saturday night after a lengthy day of tasting, as we wanted to be fresh for Sunday’s jam-packed calendar. First stop: the unparalleled spectacle of the San Francisco Pride Parade!

Favorite shirt of the day: "Why ban gay marriage when you can ban KidzBop?" HA!

The following photos don’t even scratch the surface of the event, which featured everything from “Dykes on Bikes” to every imaginable protest group…

…plenty of Trump hate that was as clever as it was civil…

…every corporate sponsor in the Bay Area…

…the San Francisco cast of “Hamilton” as the honorary grand marshals!...

…and of course, this guy, making the day an absolute joy. We stayed for three hours, and when we left the parade was not even close to over. We had to hightail it back to Palo Alto for the evening’s entertainment: DCI WEST!

I’ve mentioned DCI, and Hal’s obsession with it, in the past (here, for example). I’ve also come to love the spectacle and sheer uniqueness of competitive drum corps through Hal, and was excited to join him, Erik and his friend Sean for the evening. It also marked my first trip to Stanford Stadium!

And I can’t wait to get back in there to watch some college football (GO IRISH, duh!). The show itself was fantastic and varied, with some amazing shows even this early in the season. We had a ball critiquing the performances, discussing the art of drum corps, and hanging out on a gorgeous NorCal evening.

All in all, I think the weekend went a long way toward convincing Harold he needs to make the Bay Area his post-Duke MBA future home…am I right, Hal? Am I right? At the very least, it was a fantastic weekend of shenanigans with a great friend, and I am so happy that #sanfranlizco made it onto the #highwaytohal!

101 in 1001: The Road Trip Edition

One of the hardest aspects of planning and executing my recent cross-country move was trying to sort out the logistics of actually, you know, getting there. Fortunately, my mom is a complete and utter rockstar, and volunteered to make the drive with me – cementing her status as Better Than Your Mother Since 1989. (If I could insert emojis in a blog post, I’d throw the hair-flip girl in right here.) 33 hours in a car with me? The woman is a saint. She deserves a medal. Or a spa day. Or a medal AND a spa day.

When we started to plan the route we wanted to take, a few points of interest made the list: first, neither of us had ever been to Mount Rushmore, and it was right on the way if we took a route through South Dakota. We also decided we wanted to detour a bit to see Yellowstone National Park. Serendipitously, both Rushmore (#6) and a national park (#15) were on my second 101 in 1001 list, which just sweetened the deal.

Our initial goal was to make the 33-hour drive in about 4 days, thinking we would take our time, explore, stop to smell the roses, et cetera. With that in mind, we mapped out the route below:

Heading west this way automatically checked off my 101 in 1001 #2, “Visit a new state.” In fact, every state we’d pass through (South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nevada!) on the way would be new to me! With grand visions of playing tourist in our own country, we loaded up the car the night before we left and set our alarms for like…4:40 am (Jonathan was home, and had a craaaaazy-early flight, so we got up with him!). Of course, it’s me, and my best-laid plans never fail to go awry. So in reality, we departed on Monday, June 5 at around 5:30am and were crossing the Bay Bridge by Wednesday, June 7 around 1pm. WOMP.

I can’t think of a more fun way to check off my 101 in 1001 #8, “Take a girls’ trip,” than with my favorite girl in the world: my mama bear. Stories and details below:

I’ll confess to being a bit of a wreck the morning we actually left. Saying goodbye to my dad was a total heartbreaker, and I’m pretty sure I hysterically and uncontrollably cried on and off for the first hour of the trip. Another tear-jerker: seeing the “Welcome to South Dakota” sign and watching the Minnesota sign recede in my rearview mirror.

South Dakota, guys. It’s flat and kind of awful for the vast majority of the drive. When I found myself playing passenger, I got so bored with watching empty fields roll by that I started to play “emoji artist” just to pass the time.

WALL DRUG. Oh my god can we talk about Wall Drug real quick? Every couple miles or so for the entirety of I-90 there is a Wall Drug billboard, and they are all kind of off-the-wall insane and hilarious. Wall Drug has a large dinosaur.

Wall Drug has a large jackalope (a fictional creature that is a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, of course). According to the locals, they are “fearsome critters,” but we didn’t seem to have a problem when we started climbing all over this guy.Wall Drug was a great little interlude to break up the trip, as was a quick stop at the Rapid City Panera for lunch. Next stop: Rushmore!

I was not entirely sure what to expect of Mount Rushmore, but I have to say I was really blown away by how well-done the monument and visitors’ center are. Some famous historical locations (coughcough STONEHENGE) have left me feeling underwhelmed after years of seeing photos, but Rushmore is definitely worth seeing in person. The drive there is winding and hilarious – a lot of steep grades and adventurous climbs that kept us laughing incredulously the whole way there.

As for the monument itself…

Couldn’t resist this oh-so-opportune photo of my future home’s flag with the stony visages of the presidents.

The walk up to the monument overlook is lined with the flags of each of the states, and was incredibly picturesque, paved in local stone and full of information. We were racing to beat the incoming thunderstorms, however, so contented ourselves with a quick walk around and a few photo ops, of course.

We also had to snap a photo of George in profile…”it must be nice to have Washington on your side,” as
“Hamilton” so appropriately puts it!

Post-Rushmore, we still had about seven hours of driving ahead of us to reach Cody, Wyoming, our planned stop for the evening. Little did we know how aggressive that plan was…especially after prairie thunderstorms and the crazy-winding roads through Bighorn National Forest slowed us wayyyy down. By our last rest stop of the day, I was seriously debating buying this sexy coyote cap and settling down in rural Wyoming forever just so I wouldn’t have to get back in the car. (Please note: this is the prettiest photo of myself that I have EVER put on the Internet.) We arrived in Cody around 10:45 at night, checked into the Beartooth Inn (you can’t make this shit up), and promptly passed out.

Day Two was our Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Parks morning, and we had a blast – taking almost six hours to cover under 200 miles. I refused to let Mom drive – I was having too much fun with the peaks and curves – and we totally basic bitched out and listened to the “Pocahontas” soundtrack anytime we had enough service to run Spotify…I mean, duh, why wouldn’t you? Favorite photos below:

My sole disappointment is that, despite the numerous roadside warnings to be on the lookout for mama bears with cubs, the Jodester in her Cubs shirt is the only one we spotted. Next time, I guess!

We had ambitiously booked a hotel in Elko, NV on HotelTonight because it was really highly rated and really cheap, but I had a mini-meltdown when we stopped for lunch in Jackson, WY at 2:30 and we realized we still had 7 hours of driving ahead of us. After 16 hours the day before, I was NOT looking forward to another marathon day, especially as we had planned to take it easier. My mom bought us car trip cookies and took over driving, and I chilled out as soon as we hit the road again…

…until I took over and Google Maps suddenly took us way, WAY off the beaten path. There really is no direct route between Jackson and Elko, NV, so we spent about four hours driving through literal no-man’s land. There were no speed limit signs. There were no other cars. There were no lines down the middle of the road. There were tumbleweeds, literally. There were rattlesnakes – literally (ick). There were moments where we honestly thought we were going to die in the wasteland that is southeastern Idaho/northern Nevada. We could not stop laughing - total incredulity, campers. 

And then we got to the Stockmen’s Casino and Ramada Inn, and you could cash your chips in at the same counter where you checked in. And I died laughing in a hysterical, surreal, punch-drunk-from-too-many-hours-on-the-road fit of complete insanity.

The next morning, we woke up and our sole goal was to get to the Bay Area as efficiently as possible. We got gas, washed the car, grabbed coffee, and pounded through Nevada and Northern California, falling in love with Tahoe on the way. I had my first Bay Area driving experience, which probably took years off my life, and before I knew it, we were:

Petting Fiona

Drinking alcohol at the biggest Anthropologie in the country (DEAD. I DIE. I STILL DIE EVERY TIME.) (also, #basicselfie, obviously)

Taking first roommate selfies

It had been a hell of an adventure, but it was over.

Tidbits:

-          If for any reason you ever find yourself in Cody, WY, stop at Cody Coffee Roasters. Utterly charming, amazing people, made-to-order crepes and excellent coffee.

-          Bears do not respond to humans’ requests for them to show themselves, not even if you roll the window down and literally yell “HEY BEARS WHERE ARE YOU?”

-          We saw a baby elk or caribou thing and I about died.

-          If you, like Jodes and me, are into Broadway and have 33 hours in the car to pass, I cannot recommend the “Broadway Musical” approach more highly. We listened to 21 musicals in 33 hours – and it was amazing. Full list:

1.       Waitress

2.       Company

3.       Spring Awakening

4.       The Book of Mormon

5.       Rent

6.       Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

7.       Hamilton

8.       Aida

9.       Mamma Mia

10.   Pocahontas (not technically a musical, but WHATEVER, haters)

11.   Wicked

12.   Dear Evan Hansen

13.   Les Miserables

14.   The Last Five Years

15.   Cinderella

16.   Chicago

17.   The Phantom of the Opera

18.   In The Heights

19.   Legally Blonde

20.   La La Land (also not technically a musical but GUYZ ALMOST BEST PICTURE OMG)

21.   Hello, Dolly!

-          Finally, if you ever have the opportunity to road trip one-on-one with a parent, I highly encourage it. To be fair, I adore both my parents, and love spending time with them, but I seriously will always treasure the memories of this trip with my mom (and couldn’t be more grateful to her for her patience, forbearance, and support the entire way!).