On February 14th - Valentine's Day - it was Mr. B's birthday!
And he decided he wanted a meal that my mom used to cook for him....
Spaghetti and Crab!
The table was set and the tools were ready for some fast crab work.
I made the spaghetti sauce the day before and all of the additions for the crab & salad like
hard boiled eggs & asparagus, etc.
Andy made a delicious berry cobbler for dessert.
Unfortunately no one took a photo of the spread.
But trust me it was delicious.
Two days later Mr. B and I headed to Calistoga for a little R & R. Our first stop was R & D Kitchen in Yountville for their spectacular Ding's Chicken sandwich. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside and enjoyed our wine and fries while waiting for our yummy lunch.
Heading north from Yountville our next stop was in the town of St. Helena for a little shopping.
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Can you believe these are all silk flowers?
Onto Calistoga and check into our room at the Bergson Hotel.
We had a nice room on the ground floor which was perfect as I'm still not walking up stairs too well!
Dinner on Monday night was at Sam's Social Club which is affiliated with
Indian Springs. It was a delicious meal and it was packed so we dined at the bar.
We shared the Autumn Salad and Mr. B had the Lamb Shank on risotto
with an arugula side salad while I had the Pork Chop on polenta with broccoli.
They were both a home run!
Sweet dreams at the Bergson.
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After breakfast in the Bergson social room we headed into town which is just around the corner from our hotel. We walked around shopping but we really enjoyed our time in the book store! The funniest thing of all was while we were just finishing up our lunch I spotted two friends - Jill and her husband John - walking up the street. What a surprise! They had come up to celebrate Valentines Day.
We also drove back down to Saint Helena's to go to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum that neither of us realized was even in this area until Mr. B happened upon the information. It was a fun, informative place were they displayed his furniture, silver, paintings, photos, and some of his writing. The woman working there was very knowledgeable about his life. (Don't worry Mr. B kindly tested her knowledge!)
Dinner on Mr. B's official birthday was spent at the Calistoga Inn Restaurant. Our friends happened to have reservations there as well an were sitting just a couple of tables away from us.
Mr. B had the paella which he raved about while I enjoyed delicious beef short ribs.
The following morning we had a delicious breakfast at Cafe Sarafornia
sitting outside in the warm sunshine.
Time to head home. Driving along the Silverado Trail we enjoyed viewing the bright yellow mustard blooming in the vineyards and the workers carefully pruning the vines.
We will be back....
The breakfast restaurants name is derived from this quote:
The town's name comes from
Brannan's tipsy malapropism
that he would make this the
Saratoga of California,
which came out as the “Calistoga of
Sarafornia.”
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