From the Napa Valley; Part I

We've been back in the Napa Valley for our annual week away with Louie.

We tend to do a lot of the same things each time we come here for an extended stay...in a sense, after all these years, it's become a bit like a home away from home. Of course, in addition to our old favorites, we make new discoveries and sometimes those discoveries are that a favorite place is no longer there. One such example of not being there is that Vanderbilt & Co. in St. Helena, our special place for tabletop and home decor items for ourselves and for gifts, closed its doors on June 30. I did know they had closed because I had called Charles, the owner, in June to check on a project we were planning and at that time learned that he just could not keep his lovely store afloat any longer. Yesterday I walked by Vanderbilt and it is mostly empty and dismally shut up tight.



So, on our way to the Valley, we made our usual early morning stop at Sweetie Pies. It wasn't quite early enough, though, because they were already out of Morning Buns, my favorite of their breakfast pastries. Undaunted, I expanded my horizons with a Breakfast Stick pastry, while Jim had his usual Pecan Sticky Bun.

From Sweetie Pies, we walked along the Riverwalk, along the Napa River, and, then, through downtown Napa.



Napa has become something of a restaurant town and we checked out some of the places we've been hearing a lot of buzz about. Morimoto has recently opened with popular Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto at its helm. The restaurant has a formal dining room, casual dining in its bar, and a retail shop and market.



We passed the historic Opera House which was restored in recent years and which now features a full schedule of live performances.



From Napa, we headed to Yountville to our hotel. Wanting just a light lunch, we headed to the Ranch Market's Yountville Deli for a made to order sandwich, which we shared.



We had considered stopping at the more upscale Bouchon Bakery for a sandwich but there was a line there out the door and absolutely no place to sit in their courtyard. So we headed instead for the Yountville Deli, a local favorite, as is the Market, and, for half the price we would have paid at Bouchon, we had a place to sit and a very good, just-what-we-wanted lunch.



Both the towns of Napa and Yountville are emphasizing their public art with Art Walks. In Napa, I snapped a picture of a very large fish sculpture along the Riverwalk.



In Yountville, it was this work that caught my attention.



For dinner on our first night in the Valley, we joined our friends Jerilee and Jim, who have a vacation home up here, for dinner at Grace's Table in downtown Napa.



We had not known of Grace's Table and were happy to have Jerilee and Jim introduce us to it. The cuisine is global, so there is something on the menu for just about any taste and appetite. Grace's is a modest-looking place that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.



Jim D and Jerilee both had the Halibut,




the other Jim had the Cassoulet,



and I had one of the evening's specials: Roasted Albacore. For dessert we shared a slice of rich Chocolate Cake between the four of us.



What a lovely first night!

SFMOMA and more

Today, I was fortunate to attend a media preview of the "Gerogia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities" exhibit which will be showing at the SFMOMA May 30 – September 7. We also had the opportunity to view the Robert Frank "Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans'" exhibit, which runs through June 27.




I got into town almost an hour early, It was a glorious day and the Financial District looked beautiful...a combination of San Francisco's old and new architecture against perfectly blue skies.



I decided to take a little walk around Yerba Buena Gardens, taking advantage of the view of the front of SFMOMA



and enjoying the Heart sculptures that are part of the art in the Gardens.




As is often the case on my wanderings through San Francisco, I spotted something that I've never seen before: what looks like a large sea creature, atop the W Hotel, next door to SFMOMA!



The Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams exhibit is an interesting pairing of the works of both of these artists, who were friends and admirers of one another's work.

Georgia O'Keeffe painted scenes from nature, particularly from nature in New Mexico. Ansel Adams photographed nature.

These are some of the pieces that particularly caught my attention.

"Waterfall II"



"Sand Dune, White Sands National Monument, New Mexico"



"Black and Purple Petunias"


"Dogwood Blossoms"



"Black Mesa Landscape"



Two O'Keeffe works, "Clam and Mussel" and "Red and Pink Rocks."



And, hung side by side, Adams' "Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico" and O'Keeffe's " Ranchos Church No. 1"



The Robert Frank exhibit celebrates the 50th anniversary of Frank's publication, The Americans. All 83 photographs are exhibited in the order they appear in the book. It's a dramatic exhibit, well worth seeing before it closes in another month. These are a few highlights from it:








After my morning at the museum, I met Harriet for lunch at Mixt Greens, which is across the street from 555 Mission Street. She chose this popular create-your-own salad place partly because we both like salad lunches and partly because of the public art in front of 555 Mission.

Jonathan Borofsky is the artist who created the human sculptures and Ugo Rondionone is responsible for the moonrise sculputres.




Mixt Greens is a place where you have a choice of selecting the ingredients of your salad or of ordering one of their creations.



For my first time here, I decided to order one of their creations, "The Dagwood," composed of greens,roasted red peppers, roasted zucchini, roasted portabella mushrooms, caramelized onions, goat cheese, garlic croutons, lemon herb vinaigrette. It cost $8.45 and was a very substantial lunch.



I got home late in the afternoon and had just made myself a cup of tea, when our friend Palmer and his French Bulldog pup, Astro, stopped by for a visit and some playtime with Louie.



My day ended with going to dinner with J at Chow Lafayette.



We both ordered the day's special sandwich, today a Chicken Cutlet with tomatoes and broccoli rabe. The daily sandwich special, priced at about $10, is a meal on a plate and includes your choice of soup, fries, or salad. We both chose the Broccoli soup.