Hamburgers & Wine, Santana Row, and San Franciscan Burritos

After finishing up work in Clovis we packed up and headed up to the mountain-town of Sonora, California. The drive was awesome...tons of great landscape and of course vineyards and cattle (see the pictures taken during at pit-stop with a good vantage point). For dinner we drove around Sonora until deciding to try the burgers at 'The Diamondback'. The kobe beef burger was on-point and perhaps the greatest tasting burger I have ever had. Accompanying the burger was a glass of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand known as Vicar's Choice (I would recommend it to anyone who likes wine).

Friday came around quick and it was time to start the weekend off...a trip back to San Jose was the plan. A upscale shopping area, Santana Row (in San Jose), is where the night started. Rosie McCann's, an Irish Pub turned Night-club, was a really fun place - drinking, dancing, and more drinking. We split two visits to Rosie's with a drink over at Roux (a New Orleans style restaurant) - I tried the beer 'Purple Haze' for the first time!

Saturday called for a trip into San Francisco...along the way we stopped for dinner in Palo Alto (close to Stanford University). 'The Old Pro' was the spot...equipped with a wide array of beers, great sports decorations (including a Virginia Tech flag), and a mechanical bull. However, I would not recommend the pulled-pork sandwich. Leaving Palo Alto we went to a 'Gravity' a club in San Francisco which was a blast...however, all the women had migrated to the upstairs lounge...and we vacated the club before realizing that an upstairs existed. Next was a quick visit to 'Temple' which doubled as a classy euro-techno bar upstairs with white tile floors, VIP lounge, and columns and a hood-rat hip-hop dance party in the basement. The stone floors and break-dance competitions made for a fun environment. After calling it quits we made our way to the Latin section of town...for some authentic Mexican food. A steak burrito hit the spot and just topped off a great night and weekend.

The following week was a short work-week comprised of an event on MLK Day in Pleasanton, CA (which was extremely light). Afterwards we drove to Monterey Bay, California. The views of the water along the road were terrific. We set out for some good fresh seafood at a local spot, but due to the holiday it was closed. Hence, we trekked down to the fishing wharf and visited one of the local tourist-trap seafood restaurants. I had some Mahi-Mahi and rice as well as some calamari as an appetizer. It was a pretty solid meal.

Our final stop on our Northern California tour was back in Clovis. We drove through downtown Fresno and saw the home of big time bust David Carr - Fresno State University. Dinner was back at Cool Hand Luke's but instead of the Prime Rib, I ordered the NY Strip and this piece of meat was even more tasty than the previous steak. I also tried bacon potato soup...which was pretty scrumptious as well.

It had been fun visiting all of these sights up north in California but it is finally time to get down South...