Eating and Traveling: Napa and Healdsburg, CA

During my Spring Break I went to Napa again to visit a friend and look at more wedding venues. Of course, the trip was full of food and wine.

Napa

Napa

Since it was my friend’s boyfriend’s birthday, we had a nice dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni, but before we had a wine tasting at Merryvale, checked out Tra Vigne has a possible wedding venue (it was the restaurant the fiancé and I went to for our first Valentine’s Day) and had a milkshake at a burger place across the street. I also scouted a cute schoolhouse for the wedding: super cute, but way too small.

The next day I drove to Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley to see a wedding planner. She took me to a couple of different venues in town and then she became my designated driver in the area while we checked out all the different wineries: so pretty! My favorite was this modern one called MaCrostie. Unfortunately they were all too far and too expensive, so I don’t think we will be having the wedding there, but it was great to explore the area.

More: Easter 2015

Another perfect holiday with the fiancé: starting with an Easter Egg hunt, church in the morning, North Lake Tahoe for brunch in the afternoon and Polish/Brazilian Easter dinner with friends in the evening.

After attending Life Church in our neighborhood, we had brunch at Lone Eagle Grille, a beautiful restaurant by the lake at the Hyatt in Incline Village. Mimosas were flowing and I was on a mission to try almost every dish they had, including my first cronut (croissant + donut)!

Then at home I cooked a Polish Easter soup that includes broth, Polish sausage, ham, cottage cheese, and eggs (the fiancé’s family recipe) and Bacalhau (my Brazilian/Portuguese cod fish dish). So great to unite both of our traditions. Our friends approved of my cooking too!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Eating in Antarctica

Life after Antarctica has been pretty busy, so I have lots of updating to do to this blog, but I wanted to post one last thing about our trip. When you think of Antarctica, you probably don’t think of food at all, but One Ocean Expeditions did a great job catering to us.

Everyday there was a dinner with soup, a salad bar, three options for entrees, and a dessert. The funniest thing was the line for the salad: all those healthy runners couldn’t wait to eat their carrots! The fiancé and I hate lines, so we just stayed at our table with more soup and more bread. The staff was really accommodating towards the fiancé’s food allergies and even made him special desserts without eggs.

Some of the days we had a buffet and the day after the race we joined another boat and had a barbecue outside in 30 degree weather.  I also heard the breakfast buffet was awesome, but I never woke up early enough to get there 😉

Each lunch/dinner we sat at a different table to get to know our fellow travelers. There were people from all over the world: Australians, French, Russians, and, of course, lots of Americans. There were couples in their 70’s, families with their teenage kids, a group of friends who take vacations together without their wives every year, people travelling alone, and all sorts of people.

Besides good food, the Vavilov had good drinks. The bar was upstairs and had an amazing view, so that’s where most people would be after each excursion. They even served an afternoon tea with cookies that turned into Happy Hour. The fiancé and I weren’t drinking before the race, but after we completed our run we celebrated with a bottle of champagne. The next day there was an auction for a few of the race items, such as the mile markers and we sipped more drinks while that was going on.

The best part was when the fiancé and another guy got an ice block out of the ocean. The bartender cut it into smaller ice cubes and made drinks with it. Whiskey on the rocks – but with really really old rocks!

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