Winchester Mystery House

On Sunday, we went down to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. I have been wanting to go here since we moved here so it was fun to finally see it!
 

This house & the story behind it are pretty cool. Essentially, this chick Sarah married William Winchester, of the Winchester family that made and sold rifles. After her husband died, she moved to CA and built this mansion with all of the money she had from marrying rich, thanks to the success of the rifle company.

She apparently had spirits that told her to keep building onto this mansion in a strange way. Construction went on for 30+ years, around the clock, to create this weird house. She wouldn't tear down walls to create new rooms, she would have a new room just built right next to the old one. Therefore, there are doors and staircases in the oddest places such as a set of stairs that leads to the ceiling and doors that open into other doors.

 Um, these were in the gift shop and we did not know what the heck they were made of. You know what they look like! haha

Check out these cool Halloween shades....

 We went on a tour that took about 1.5 hours. You weren't suppooooosed to take pics in the house but I HAD to see if I could get any ghostly orbs in the photos. hah. We have seen this house on various ghost hunter shows!

 Old kitchen

 Ball room with an organ that does not work, but some people hear organ music in the house. Eek!

 Old walls

 More kitchen shots & old appliances

 Windows in the middle of the house because she built onto existing rooms. Here, she put walls up around the outside porch to make a new room!

 Stairway to the ceiling. Now, this might seem "spooky" but really what happened was she had a room built over the staircase & never took into consideration that the staircase would get cut off!

 Beautiful glass windows in her "storage" room made by Tiffany's!

 This is the Switchback Staircase that is super narrow & the steps are small and flat. This was put in when Sarah got bad arthritis.

 One of a kind glass window, that is not facing the sun so it never gets lit up!

 From the top floor, you can see all of the different roofs on the house thanks to all of the construction

 After the house tour, we did the basement tour. We also saw the front gardens and statues.

Sarah's lucky number was 13 so they have this shrub to showcase that.

No basement photos because we were a small group and the tour guide would've seen me. haha. After the house, we stopped on Santana Row for a snack. Santana Row is a little area with lots of shops and restaurants - tons of people were sitting outside because it was SO nice out!

We came back to our place for dinner and Erik's Mom made us Chicken, rice & beans. So good!

Luna Winery & New Restaurant

 After Sonoma, we rode over to Napa to go to Luna Vineyards. We are members here so we tasted for free! We also bought a bottle of the red blend and sat outside with it. It was so warm and breezy - it was a perfect spot!

 
 Erik's Dad bought a Luna hat so of course, we all had to take turns trying it on....

 Family Shot!

After Luna, we headed over to a new restaurant in the area called Cindy Pawlcyn's Wood Grill and Wine Bar. Cindy Pawlcyn is a prominent chef in the Bay Area and this is her newest restaurant.

 The food was classic dishes like chicken, pork chops, burgers...We started with the eggplant fries which were delicious! Erik and I had burgers and those were great! Dessert was the fun part though.

 Erik had a "cookies and ice cream" dish and his Mom had a grown-up milkshake - aka milk shake with some liquer in it.

 We also shared a bottle of wine, also by Cindy Pawlcyn. Apparently, she owns  some vineyards and has wine made under her label "CP wines" - very good!

Well, after our fun day, we headed home. It was a warm, sunny, wine country day!

Family Visit & Sonoma

Last Thursday, Erik's parents came to visit. His Dad was in town for a conference for work and his Mom flew out to join him. We started the weekend by going to Hillstone for dinner on Thursday night.

On Friday, Erik was off and they went to  the Conservatory of Flowers and out to lunch.

 Then, we had dinner at Beach Chalet.

 The next day, we headed out to Sonoma and Napa. First, we went to Gloria Ferrer for some sparkling wine. Gloria is great because you sit down and can sit outside and just enjoy your wine instead of standing around in a tasting room.

It was SO nice in Sonoma - warm and probably in the low 80's. We had a table outside which was great!




Gloria is known for their sparkling wines and the one I had was delish!







We walked around the  grounds a little bit to see the cave where they store wine. After our tasting, we stopped at a little deli for sandwiches and they had the best TURKEY JERKY. haha. It was amazing, I want to drive back up there just to buy more.

 

 After Sonoma, we headed out to Napa....



 

A Devilish Halloween!

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Hudson

On Monday night, the Tres Amigas went out for our monthly dinner. We went to Hudson in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland.
 

We shared a bunch of plates including:

Spicy cauliflower, capers, garlic, breadcrumbs

Grilled Haas avocado, ricotta salata, Hudson hot sauce

Caesar salad, torn croutons, Grana Padano & classic caesar dressing

Roasted red pepper pizza, spinach, garlic, burrata

Fontina, crimini mushrooms, spring onions, and thyme pizza

Everything was so delish. Our server was a little off though. She was very attentive at first and then we probably stayed an hour later than we should have because she was MIA.

When we got out of dinner, it was POURING rain. I was so glad I drove to work and to the restaurant so we did not have to get on the train in that weather.

The Giants also made it into the World Series so the bar area of the restaurant was packed with cheering fans. We don't really follow baseball but we will probably watch the series just to see who wins. My company HQ is also in Michigan so I have some co-workers who work in Oakland with me who are thrilled to see their hometown vs. their new town!