My sister-in-law Kelly graduated with her master's in counseling from Sonoma State this memorial day weekend. She is now officially a MFTI (marriage-family therapist intern...that "I" part stays on until she finishes like a million hours on the job). So to celebrate her feat, the family made a weekend out of it in Santa Rosa. My mother-in-law and brother-in-law Jeff flew up from the OC, and Scott joined us toward the end of the weekend due to his work schedule. It was a great weekend...here's a quick overview:
Friday: Spent the day in SF, lunch at the Ferry Building, walk down Fisherman's Wharf, and Irish coffees. Then we made our way up to Santa Rosa, where we spent the evening drinking champagne and playing the wii. We all had wii tennis elbow for the rest of the weekend.
The wine bar at the Ferry Building
We watched a touristy break dancing show
Saturday: The big graduation day! We began the day with a home cooked breakfast, and of course, more champagne. Then we attended Kelly's counseling department's reception, where the beverage of choice was champagne again. The graduation was HUGE, it was all the grad students and undergrads, and we didn't even get seats since we spent so much time at the reception, so we couldn't see a thing. (Hey, this happened last year at my little brother's graduation too, we spent too much time at cocktail hour prior to the ceremony and missed out on seats...but I have to say I would rather be a bit intoxicated to have to last through a long graduation ceremony!) Let me just say, state college graduations are not a Scripps graduation! They forgot to give the grads roses, and no one got the memo about the ivy train! Somehow during the ceremony, Jeff snagged more champagne ( I think he took the leftovers from the department reception), and so we had something to sip while watching all the heads infront of us.
The sea of heads (Kelly is somewhere in there!)
Champagne...
With the graduate
After the graduation, we headed to a pizza bar and grill in Petaluma called Brixx. We dined on gooey garlic bread, gourmet pizzas, and beer (what?? no more champagne??). We ended up staying at Brixx all night, as a band started playing, and we took over the whole upstairs and danced (thanks to this wonderful shot concoction the bartender kept serving us: red bull and orange juice, then you drop a shot glass of mandarin vodka into it and slam it..tastes just like sunkist...although I did no slamming, I was a shot sipper).
Beer at Brixx
Check out the band...I loved the washboard player!
Kelly and I
This is the site Scott encountered when he finally arrived after work
Sunday: Of course we had to go wine tasting while in the wine country. Usually we frequent the wineries of the Russian River Valley with Kelly, but this trip we decided to explore the Alexander Valley in Healdsburg. First off, Healdsburg is the cutest town in the universe, complete with a grassy town square full of strolling people and local children selling fresh cherries. There are tasting rooms downtown, which we tried on Monday afternoon, but Sunday was a winery day. Our first stop was Simi, a favorite of ours. I love their Sauvignon blanc and rose. We had a great tasting experience there, where I learned that I preferred acidic sauv blancs (I learn little things everytime we taste!). Our tasting room attendant recommended we visit Hanna winery next, so as we are always eager to find good wineries off the beaten path, we excitedly headed on our way. Hanna is a beautiful craftsman style winery located on a small hilltop surrounded by vineyards. They make delicious a sauv blanc and a rich Bordeaux blend. After Hanna we went to Coppola, our favorite Healdsburg picnic spot, where we picnic-ed on salami, cheeses, freshly baked baguette, heirloom tomatoes, my mother-in-law's cookies, and a bottle of Sofia champagne. Delicious!
Sunday night we celebrated a belated mother's day for Scott's mom by cooking her a down home New Orlean's crawfish boil. Great end of the weekend.
The McCarthy's at Coppola
6 comments:
Holly I must thank you for this Blog it is so well written and entertaining. The pictures and your insightfull comments are enjoyable to read.
I look forward to meeting you when I am in the U.S. later this month.
Stephen
you guys have so much fun!! i love the illustration of the heads at graduation. you mean not everyone does the ivy train?! my brother's grad from high school was held at a stadium. yes, stadium. and it was ridiculously big and annoying. and there were no cocktails for that. speaking of, i love the champagne in the water bottle! hilarious.
first of all i love the champagne in water bottles!
second i'm with you on the shot sipper. i just can't throw those things back down the throat.
third the photo of the day after reminded me of college SOOOO much
looks like a fantastic weekend. congrats to the grad!
That's some classy champagne, eh. :-)
my liver hurts just reading your post :)
hey hol, who is stephen?
and is there a brix on rte 29 also, like in yountville or something?
and the picture of the three on the couch is priceless.
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