Cali-Bound

I'm visiting my sister in Yountville, CA from June 27-July 11. Or so. I can't recall the exact dates offhand. I'm super excited! We're (me, Joleen, and Sunny) going camping in Big Sur (apparently the road through Big Sur is one of the most beautiful in the US). Joleen and I are going on a short backpacking trip around Lake Tahoe. There may be a noraebang-type place that we'll go to. Joleen said she'd take me to the shooting place, so I can fire me some guns. I've always wanted to shoot a handgun. But I have no urge to own a gun and I'm all about gun control. I don't believe the 2nd Amendment entitles everyone to walk around brandishing weaponry. The Napa County Fair is going on while I'm there so we'll make an appearance there. Joleen suggested a bike ride one day where we ride out to a vineyard/winery with cheese and buy some cheap wine and have a picnic. That's our stereotypical Napa activity. AND...



[drumroll please]



Joleen and I are eating at The French Laundry (or 'TFL' as the insiders call it). This is absolute madness, but I just felt like I had to eat there once while Sunny worked there. Guess how much a meal there runs? A grand total of $270/person. Seriously. But the good news is that the tip is included! And we won't be purchasing wine, so I can't foresee it going much over that for any reason. So anyway, how crazy is that??? Dropping $270 for ONE meal?!?!?! At least it's like 10 courses, or something. We're going with one other girl whose boyfriend also works there, so Joleen thinks we might get VIPed...or at least mini-VIPed. Which means special extra food. But I'm personally not going to expect that because...well, it's TFL. They don't even give their employees a discount. And pay them pennies.

In other news...

Since I'm mildly lactose intolerant, I wanted to find some milk alternative. I bought an individual serving size bottle of soy milk, which turned out to be vanilla soy milk (didn't realize that until I got home). I also bought an individual serving size bottle of chocolate soy milk. I have also been wanting to try rice milk, but they don't sell individual sized bottles of rice milk, only big ol' half gallon sizes. I didn't want to buy something that big if I wouldn't like it. But then I eventually found a smallish sized container (about 4 servings?) and bit the bullet and bought it. What are my taste-test findings?

Vanilla soy milk: Ok. Not horrible, but not my fave. I wish I had gotten the regular instead of the vanilla. Maybe next time.

Chocolate soy milk: I really enjoyed this. Yummy. I also liked the vanilla soy milk made into chocolate soy milk by adding hershey syrup. Yum.

Rice milk: The clear winner. I really liked the rice milk. I gotta admit that plain ol' cow milk is best, but not when it gives me severe intestinal distress and gas. So I think I'll be purchasing rice milk from now on. It's definitely more bland than the soy milk...has less of a funky flavor. But it might not be a good comparison since I'm comparing it to the vanilla soy milk, not the regular soy milk.

So there's that info for you all.

The French Laundry. Crikey. It better be good. :)