Archive for Napa
Food, Fun and Friends
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t gotten out much in the last week. I think after the holidays and traveling I kind of wanted to hunker down and stay home. Today I’m wishing I was a bear so I could hibernate.
Just because I haven’t been going out doesn’t mean I haven’t been having fun and eating delicious meals.
On Friday morning, I went for a tour at the new Larkspur Hotel in Mill Valley. I’m interviewing hotels looks for the best one to host the Mountain Biking Marin Cross Country Mountain Bike Adventure coming up in May of this year. I was very impressed with this new hotel. It’s located on Highway 1 in Mill Valley right off of Highway 101, next to Frantoio. The Larkspur Hotel has done an amazing job remodeling the hotel (formally the Holiday Inn Express) and I was very impressed with Greg, the General Manager and Cassie, the Sales Manager. The hotel is beautiful, has a view of the bay and Mt. Tam and is located right next to the bike/walk path that will take you in to Sausalito or Mill Valley. I was wowed by the people and the place. I plan to recommend this hotel to Celia for the Mountain Biking Marin adventure.
I almost forgot to mention. Cassie from the Larkspur Hotel gave me a goodie bag when I was leaving. Among other things, it had a solar powered plastic flower that moves when the sun shines on it. Really, I think this is what sealed the deal. 
It goes nicely with the wind-up toys and purple pens in my office. (All reminders to me that life is about having fun.)
After my meeting at the hotel I met with Marilyn LoRusso, aka @Fun_Master at Cafe del Sol in Tam Junction and spent the afternoon chatting about social media and making life fun (Marilyn has some great tips on how to stay in the fun mode). I enjoyed sipping on a delicious ginger limeade during our meeting.
Then on Friday night we had a small dinner party. Since one of my fabulous neighbors gave me a gift certificate to Whole Foods I splurged on a yummy meal. We started with brie cheese and olive bread for appetizers while I prepared blackened salmon, roasted veggies, broiled asparagus, and salad. We finished the meal off with some Porto from our visit to the Napa Valley Wineries and yummy dessert.
I used the blackened salmon recipe I found on RealSimple.com. It was delicious!
A look back at 2009
Posted by: | CommentsHappy New Year!
Today is 01.02.2010 which is a palindrome. I thought this would be a great day to review the past year. Sally Around The Bay is less than a year old. I had the idea of starting this blog floating around in my head for awhile, but I did not start working on it until the beginning of last year. I think it was right around New Year’s last year when the name finally came to me. I remembered that my name, Sally was actually a word in the English dictionary meaning to go out on a venture or an excursion (usually off the beaten path).
Last year around this time I was feeling a little burned out and decided I needed to do something to motivate myself to get out of the house and try new things. I know when I travel I like to find the “local” spots to try rather than the typical overpriced tourist traps so I figured people might be interested in reading about the various local gems I found. I was right. Since I started this blog back in April I have had so much support and encouragement and have made a lot of new friends. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog over the past year.
I was just reviewing my blog posts thinking about 2009. I’m so thankful I started this blog. I have met some of the most amazing people because of it. I have also discovered some pretty awesome restaurants and businesses around the bay area.
I think the blog experience that I personally got the most out of was the visit to the farm in Petaluma. I got to meet Tara Smith who I found incredibly inspirational. I met Tara thanks to Peggy (my Twitter friend turned real friend) mentioning the farm on Twitter. View photos of the farm visit here.
Another fun experience was visiting Mrs. Grossman’s sticker factory. When I saw Mrs. Grossman on Twitter my brain went on fast forward down memory lane. I was so happy when they invited me to come in for a tour.
My blog inspired me to be bold, to try new things. As many of you know I did a big bold move when I wrote the open letter to MiniSF telling them about my Big Mini Dream. That was fun. I did not get my Mini (yet) 
I’m still hoping… but I did have a ton of fun with it and did catch their attention. Thank you to each of you that supported my Big Mini Dream. I was amazed at all the support I got. You people are awesome!
I got a new hat to help save a home.
Thanks to my blog I got out of my comfort zone and tried new shops and restaurants.
Some of my favorites were:
Coast Café in Bolinas.
Naan ‘N’ Curry in San Francisco
Toronado & Rosamunde Sausage Grill in San Francisco
The Whipper Snapper in San Rafael
Peju Winery in Napa
Also learned I like more than one Sushi restaurant in the Bay Area and that Thai food makes me smile. I think I discovered the best Chinese food in the Bay Area. Oh and I almost forgot the best Dim Sum in San Francisco!
Discovered Fourth Street in Berkeley.
Shopping at Gioia in San Anselmo.
Met a super cool relationship expert and the bloggers at MoreMarin. I also met Lissa Rankin from Owning Pink.
Thanks to my blog, I got interviewed on the BlogHer show The Juice and was mentioned on the Miniology radio show. Also something exciting to me was I got sponsors for my blog (check out the upper right column —> and be sure to click on them. Thanks!)
I can’t forget Mill Valley on Tuesday Nights or Marilyn, the fun master. I met Marilyn earlier this year, she always reminds me to have fun. I also met ATOMsanRafael who are super nice people that fixed one of my broken appliances.
My fondest memories from 2009 are the TweetUps and the wonderful people I met at the TweetUps especially Diane Fischler and Ken Underscore.
Twitter is Magical
Awesome Marin TweetUp
Stay tuned for future TweetUps in Marin! Working on one for February. (Still looking for a restaurant in Novato to volunteer). Moylan’s – hint hint.
Happy New Year!
I look forward to another year of blogging.
Wine Tools
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve still got Napa on my mind.
According to our friends, if we were going to buy fine wines we needed fine wine tools such as the Wine Saver Vacu Vin to preserve our wine after opening. They said the best place to get this was at Dean and Deluca located in St. Helena. Plus, they wanted us to see this adorable Dean and Deluca store full of gourmet food, wine and unique kitchen supplies. They also suggested we get some bread and cheese to snack on between wine tasting. This turned out to be a great idea! We bought some olive bread and sweet buttery bread that tasted like a big giant croissant. I resisted buying the chocolates.
I also resisted buying the gelato.
I figured I had eaten so much the night before. It was best to stick with the bread and cheese.
