Blown Away

Weekend Recap: San Diego was amazingly fun!  We actually kicked off the weekend in Irvine at Bacchus, a wine cellar.  They recently got a chef (well recently since I'd last been there) and the flat breads were awesome.  Emily and I kicked things off with some sparkling wine, and Matt enjoyed a beer.  We watched a big of the Giants game while we ate, and it was a really nice evening.  Sam worked late and then grabbed a bite and a drink with the Ortho department, so he met us later.

Saturday, we drove down to San Diego while listening to the Carrie Underwood album Blown Away.  I have to say, I'm not typically a big country music fan, but she is amazingly good.

We checked into the W Hotel downtown, and grabbed a bite to eat at the new Counter in the Gas Lamp.  How cool is this, they actually have Adult Milkshakes with alcohol in them... Sam tried the coffee one which is made with Kaluha.

We took advantage of the tasty bar in the lobby and pregamed the concert a bit.  Then Matt introduced us to this cool Ubber App where you can hail a town car.  We used it on the way to the concert and were pleasantly surprised to see a LIMO pull up.  What?!?  Matt said that he's never had that happen before, but we enjoyed our good fortune and journeyed to the concert in style.

Emily and I definitely were enjoying ourselves at the concert.

I have to say, Carrie puts on a great show.  Her props are unbelievable, and she had great costumes and her voice is as good live as it is on CD.  This was one of my favorite parts of the show- she and the band got into this floating plexiglass thing and floated over the crowd while they jammed.

And she is very humble and sweet, made sure to tell us how much she likes San Diego several times during the performance and even told us to drive home safely.

After the concert we checked out a neat dueling piano bar.  Definitely another high point!  And we capped off the night with a town car home.

Sunday morning we met Matt & Emily in the lobby and took an impromptu detour to Temecula.  We had missed out on Ponte during our Wine Tasting trip with them in January 2009 so Emily and I did a little tasting while Matt and Sam hung out.

I bought a great bottle of Cream Sherry for the holidays when my family is in town.  It will take a LOT of resolve not to drink it before they get here.