David E.'s Profile

The wife and I love the value and quality of BV wines so we had to make this stop on our trip.  The winery itself was clean and well kept, but nothing extraordinary.  We had a pleasant visit; A-Ok.

Pretty good wine from a beautiful winery sitting on lush, clean grounds with a nice little fountain and great scenery.  A-Ok in my book.

Well I'm not a pilot, and I've never jumped out of an airplane, but that didn't stop the wife and I from stopping in here for breakfast this past weekend.  She had some sort of an egg, onion, potato scramble and I tried the apple pancakes with a side of bacon.  The coffee was strong and the OJ hit the spot.  All in all, a great place for breakfast.

Do note the 'cash only' sign on the door.  As someone who doesn't carry cash I was glad my wife does, or we wouldn't have been able to enjoy watching the planes take off, and the parachuter's landing from this quaint little cafe.

What a great place.  V. Sattui takes the reason which most come to visit Napa, namely food and wine, and delivers it in a quaint, relaxing, family friendly atmosphere.  Their grocery deli offers the perfect snacks to compliment your wine purchases;  probably 50 different kinds of cheese, crackers, flavored oils and sauces, and so on.  V. Sattui make Napa a more pleasant place to visit.

Their chopped lunch salad was very good, but past that they're overpriced, and have a lousy selection.  I had the flank steak and fries for dinner.  The garlic fries were pretty good, but the steak was fatty.  Also they kept charging us 'service charges' on top of required gratuity which we had to get removed each time we ate there (apparently you don't have to pay the 'service charge' if you're a starwoods preferred guest. wtf ever.)

I had a better time at IHOP the next day.

This place is swanky.  Apparently it was built last year and has a sort of 60's decor, but very modern rooms complete with the 32" LCD TVs, XBox perfect for watching DVDs on, cordless phones and alarm clocks with iPod docks.  The beds are killer, as all Westin beds are, and the showers was HUGE and very clean.  

There's a huge pool with lawn chairs, tables and cabanas, and an enormous hot tub.  We were very pleased and impressed.

Our few complaints would be these:  it seemed that valet parking was pushed on you, and if you didn't want valet to park your car, your only other option is to park in the street and hoof it.  Also a refrigerator in the room would be nice for the folks traveling to Napa and buying copious amounts of wine and cheese.

This place rocks.  We stayed in Napa for our first anniversary, and drove up CA-29 enjoying the various winery's along the way until we found ourselves in Calistoga.  After checking out Old Faithful and the local bookstore, Pacifico seemed like the perfect place to stop for a bite to eat.

We were greeted and quickly seated.  There were plenty of people there, but plenty of room for our stroller and baby.  They brought out the typical chips and salsa and took our orders.  I was hot and parched from all the sun and wine of the day, and the waitress happily kept coming with copious amounts of water.

I enjoyed the occasion with a Pacifico beer, it just made sense and the wife had a margarita.  I had the Tres Marias, at least I think that's what it was called; three corn tortillas, one with beef, one with chicken, and one with guacamole and salsa.  This plate was incredible.

It was the perfect place to wind down, and I'd be happy to return.

I took my son to his cousin's birthday party here this past Saturday and we really had a blast.  The museum is a single, long, open room with exhibits neatly spaced apart, with plenty of room to move around in.  The fighter-pilot plane was a hit where two kids can sit in a cockpit and  play with all the controls.  It's quite similar to the San Francisco Exploratorium except on a much smaller scale.  After a bit of playing with friends, the party moves to a private room in the back where Dr. Wow teaches the kids to build their own robot, which they get to keep.  Once done, they get to race their robot against their friends' to see who's is the fastest.  I was very impressed with how clean the place was and how neat it was to have an educational museum such as this in Lodi.  You don't have to have a party to check it out either, prices are listed on their website.

I was impressed when the owner of Alebrijes noted my previous, relatively negative review and e-mailed asking that we give them another shot, so we did.  

This past weekend we went back and took the kids.

First, let me get the negative out of the way.  The decor hasn't changed much; just like the pictures suggest, the bright colors don't seem to be cohesive with the 'Gourmet Mexican' style they're shooting for IMHO.  It looks more like you're at Mazatlan Cafe.

This place has gotten quite popular and while I didn't notice it being cramped on our previous visits, with every table filled, it was a little tight for a group of four.  This seemed to impede the waitresses' ability to quickly get to tables having to walk one-way down the single, narrow path between tables.

Now, that out of the way, they absolutely hit a home run with the food this time around.  We started with the table-side made guacamole and civiche which we knew we liked from our previous visits.  But then I went out on a limb, and rather than getting the typical burrito or enchiladas, I ordered their special: a lemon rubbed halibut fillet served whole beans.  It was absolutely superb.  My wife had a bacon-wrapped jumbo shrimp which was equally incredible.  My son got an enchilada plate which he wiped out.  We polished off the meal with a couple glasses of Merlot.

Very well done this time around, and I'd be happy to return.

My wife and I had a couple massage here this past weekend for my birthday and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Beautiful location and facilities.  When we arrived there was nobody else there.  We spent an hour in one of the outdoor spas, then spent some time in the 'Tranquility Room' before our massages having some granola and water.  The massages were great; we were both very relaxed afterwards.  Then we hit the steam room for about an hour.  The locker rooms had everything you could ask for, including a swimsuit dryer, and steam in the showers.

They let us know up front that the Couples Massage "Package", which additionally included use of the jacuzzi, uber-shower and private patio in the treatment room, would require the additional gratuity, however simply getting a couple massage, still gave you use of the facility all day, and didn't have a required gratuity.  Ultimately we ended up giving them an equivalent tip -- and I'm looking forward to doing the complete package next time!