valentine's day weekend

another weekend passes us by. actually, let me revise that. another beautiful weekend passes us by. 

after what seemed like a very long & cold winter, warm weather finally arrived just in time for valentine's day weekend. 

25 degrees celcius and clear blue skies! compare that to the armpit of sweden...

nicole and i decided to not to work or not to even think about work, and simply enjoy the weekend.  we started off our friday evening with wine and toasted baguette with melted goat cheese & honey paired with a spinach salad topped with cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and champagne vinegarette.  the plan was to enjoy the olympic games opening ceremony, but that turned out to be a real snooze fest, and we both fell asleep on the couch... big surprise!

nicole had picked up a bunch of new wine at bevmo's 5 cent sale. two were south african from stellenbosch & paarl. wolftrap is from the winery boekenhoutskloof and goats do roam is of course from fairview.

i did manage to stay awake long enough to open up nicole's valentine's day gift to me - a wine aerator!

saturday morning was spent playing soccer (calle), and exercising (nicole). for lunch we decided to wake up pete, our beloved bbq, from his winter hibernation.  pete's 2010 premier consisted of marinated carne asada tacos "street style" with corn tortillas, cilantro, onions, avocado, and lots of salsa!  we had one delicious margarita each with our lunch in the sun.

after showering we met up with trevor, lea, stefan & mimi at sol cantina, a new restaurant in newort beach. with excellent food and an even better happy hour menu, this has quickly become a favorite spot. add to this a good atmosphere and a cool decor, with a big indoor fireplace that people can gather around. 

we finished up the night playing pictionary at trev & lea's.

the girls took first place!

sunday was valentine's day and we decided to try new things all day.  we started the day off by taking a different route for our morning walk in laguna beach and then foregoing our beloved zinc cafe to try a new breakfast spot, also focused on healthy & organic foods, called orange inn. if i remember correctly, anna & christian frequented this spot a few times when they stayed a couple of nights in laguna. even though yelp.com ranks this as the 2nd best breakfast place in laguna beach and although we agreed it was fun to try something new, we are certain our next laguna breakfast will be back at zinc's!

we made our way through the busy streets and checked out a few shops.  nicole managed to find this necklace and a cool shirt dress in a small laguna boutique...and since everything was 60% off, and i'm a big pacman fan, and it was [after all] valentine's day, and since i love my wife and don't like to say no to her, i bought them for her.
on our way back to the car we were faced with this tortureous hill. nicole beat me to the top...

we left laguna behind for a drive to hamilton oaks vineyard in trabuco canyon; a scenic drive inland of about 45 minutes.  on our way to the vineyard we encountered motorcycle mania at "cook's corner", a famous biker hangout.  we couldn't resist parking the car and walking through the crowd of bikes and bikers, surely looking like tourists with "klum jr." proudly hanging from nicole's neck. definitely an interesting spot, and if toots & stefan ever decide to bring their harleys to california, this would be a must stop for them. 

once our curiosity was quenched we got back in the car to make our final journey through the winding hills of trabuco canyon....

...until finally we reached our destination!  hamilton oaks is a small vineyard owned by 2 brothers who have been creating wine for twenty years.  most of their grapes are grown in central california but a few humble vines reside in their very own backyard.  the tasting area is made up of two wooden decks atop the garage/guest house.  don't be fooled by the simplicity of the set up, however, as the wines were full of flavor.

we enjoyed a tasting of two whites, three reads and a port wine, and also got to sample their grappa, which they are in the process of getting approved of selling & marketing, as the first grappa producer in california. a little pricey, and a little too much name dropping from one of the brothers, and a little snobby for being such a small winery, but apart from that it was a great experience. sitting under the oak tree, with the sun going down, surrounded by vines, it sure didn't feel like we were just a few minutes away from our house.

for dinner we had planned on making lamp chops, but after hearing some of the other guests at the winery recommend a little local mexican restaurant just down the road, we changed plans and headed there instead.

this was one of those weekends when we realize why we pay as much as we do to live here. when we enjoyed the beach, the weather, the restaurants, the food and everything else orange county has to offer. ice cream in the sun, walks, barbeque's, wineries - all within a few minutes from our house. spending it with my wife of almost 4 years could not have been any better. if we can go skiing and playing golf next weekend, i don't think i could ask for more!