The Epic Haiku Post

Rockapella West Coast Road Trip

August 28-31, 2015

Epic Haiku Post

I promised Haiku

From our PellaPosse trip

Hope you enjoy it!

-------

August 29, 2015

rockapella says 

I've reached platinum status

Super fan upgrade

 · 

Road trips are more fun

With Pella posse members

Sherry had coffee. ‪

Ghirardelli chocolate and ice cream outlet. 

Didn't stop. Sadness 

Kinda scary when

The driver suddenly gasps

False alarm thank God 

Sunshine! Moonlight!

Singing along with the record

Practice for tonight 

"Taco Night" is on

Guacamole on her jeans

Sang this in my house 

Rental's a hybrid

How do you turn this thing off?

Oh duh push button

Great day for road trip. 

Nice clouds brilliant blue sky. 

Rest stop photo op‪

  

Driving in NorCal

Center lane equals slow lane

When did that happen?

"More than a woman" 

Scott Leonard singing Bee Gees. 

Auditory bliss.  

Much Rockapella 

in Sherry's playlist but we

Skip holiday songs

· 

Flirty flirty eyes

Rockin' out to new EP

No red lights to run 

  

Sherry is hungry

Yikes this could be dangerous

Not at Donner pass. 

Great memories here. 

Pegs glorified Ham & Eggs. 

Fred's not on Facebook

  

Chipotle for lunch

Finally here in Reno

Waiting for Cindy

"Why is it Aztec?"

Karla says, "It's Chipotle."

I feel so dumb now

At Reno airport. 

Waiting in the cell phone lot. 

Have you landed yet?

· 

And now we are three. 

"I can't contribute to this".

Cindy tells us lies. ‪

An outdoor venue 

Means seats in the sun for now

Hiding in the shade

· 

Like the Britt center. 

Where Kevin sang of the birds

 in the giant hedge 

  

Musical chairs time.

I'm taking the front row seat.

Bring on the Pella!!!!

Before the show must:

Figure out where Fred will be

So I can visit 

The opening act. 

The silver dollar chorus.

 A barbershop group‪ 

Barbersharp quartet

Easy for you to say that

Bananas plantains

The comstock Cowboys. 

This Western swing makes me want 

to get up and dance.

Johnny Cash let's sing

Can't hum with your mouth open

Ring of fire named Sue

Look up and we see 

Fred and Steven in the wings

Sherry and I smile ‪

Tally me banana 

The nice man just gave us some 

free barbershop fruit 

Action shots of Fred.

If he knows not of these pics

Is his soul stolen? 

One more Pella show. 

Such magical harmonies.

 How I love these guys.

----

August 30, 2015

· 

Only a teacher

Would find her escape thinking 

Up poems all day  ‪ 

Love the new EP

Makes the road trip much more fun

So this is Living ‬ 

Debriefed at Denny's

Sherry tries to write it down

Or we will forget 

Early morning walk

Hard to find motivation

We still rocked it, though.

On the hotel wall 

others would see trees but I 

see my initial‪

Glasses from Ryan. 

Orange shows my Jester pride. 

Thanks so much bass man

Diehard fans in front

See Steve start a video

We wave right on cue

· 

Bottom left corner

We just noticed video

PellaPusher waves

Goodbye to Reno

Dropping KP at airport

Napa valley bound

‪

Disappointed that

Weff has yet to write Haiku

Poem challenge fail ‪

 I'm not a poet.

I thought that you would know it.

Does it have to rhyme?

When taking Beg Girl

Back to her seat, remember:

The door may be locked

Second day in row

Hotel decor matches me

Curly redheads rock

This is the good life

And it's all you'll ever need

Love you FFE 

"How deep is your love" 

Rockapella's Scott Leonard, 

how we love his voice‪

We pass Nyack road

"Let's get away from it all"

Comes on. How perfect

I fly home today 

So you must help the posse

Write some more haikus 

Tentatively touch 

The door of bathroom stall

Is someone in there?

Friends waving goodbye 

Must write haikus without me 

What a great weekend  

Writing more haikus

I need a stenographer

Missing you, Karla!

gate B seventeen 

Please Mister Please is playing 

over in my head‪ 

· 

No third show for me

But this will get lots of play

In my classroom. Thanks 

Haikus are better

With Sherry as co-writer

We make a good team ‪ 

*So jealous of you

Been way too long since I've heard

Rockapella sing*

On board my flight home. 

Had much fun with my posse. 

Last haiku for me‪ 

Naan fortune teller

Where is good Indian food

Tell me what I like

Wished for food and wine

Yummy food, then wine tasting

Napa is my jam.

Wine before Pella

Sherry, is this really wise?

Danger looms ahead.

Now a drunk haiku

Anyone want a peanut?

I think I've lost it.

 · 

City Winery

Used to be Opera House

Still Rockapella

Hug the guys for me

All travel safe tomorrow 

Hi to Fred of course

Drunk girls at the show

Emerald and amethyst

Cathy not a gem

*Cindy (no name) is

speaking in haiku, you see

I do not know why.*

Accepted challenge 

Rockapella Road Trip Posts

We have lost our minds.

Headed to bed now

Hope to see many haikus

When I wake in morn'

Not done drinking yet
Applebee's Angry Orchard
Can't help it. Thirsty.

----

August 31, 2015

Little Red Corvette

Rockapella debuted song

Miss Paper Doll, though.

Wake up and it's dark

But Cindy left hours ago

She took her olives

Olives are my treat

Stuffed with almonds and yummy

But not for breakfast

*Celebration treat

Special times with special friends

Olives with candles*

Zombie Jamboree

Calvin didn't want to sing

Watch Sherry next time!

Meet and Greet Moment:

Jeff said Zombie's like VD

Keeps on coming back.

Why are legs so sore

Only a 5K Sunday

Oh, weights day before

Fun posse weekend

Laughs and good times but now work

The end of the road 

Hotel check out time

Dude didn't hold door open

Chivalry is dead.

Wendy pets a dog

Croissants and macarons. YUM!

Happiness abounds.

Garden of veggies

Fancy food for fancy folks

Someday, French Laundry.

Rental car return

Trunk wouldn't open again.

How embarrassing.

‪ 

Landed in LA,

But waiting on the tarmac.

Incredibly bored. 

Hope you all enjoyed

‪#‎PellaPossePoetry‬

It was fun to write.

‪#‎roadtriphaiku‬ done

 Missing Pella already.

Until next time, Boys.

Don't know how to stop

Counting five seven and five

Help! I'm addicted.

One more for the road -- 

My posse is amazing.

Thank you for the smiles!

Five...Seven...Five

___________________

Legend:

Collaboration

KP

Sher

Cindy

Wendy

*people not on trip*

#AutoAwesome

I like this better than my FB Year in Review, because it actually has Rockapella in it.  

From Google+:

Storming the Castello

Napa -- Day 2

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Best Western Inn at the Vines is adjacent to a Denny’s restaurant, where they offer hotel guests breakfast at a discount, or a free slam-type breakfast as part of the hotel room package.  So we had breakfast there before heading back out to St. Helena.  It was still drizzling until we arrived at Castello di Amarosa.

Where's Bro?

I had never been on the castle tour before, and Bro was interested, so we decided to take the tour, which includes admission and wine tasting.  The gal who sold us the tickets thought my shirt was funny (I was wearing the shirt that I bought while wine tasting at Wilson Creek, which says “Drink til he’s cute”).  We discussed the yumminess that is Almond Champagne and the fact that she’s never been wine tasting in Napa even though she lives there.   Bro’s aim was to learn to build his own castle.  My aim was just to see everything that you don’t usually get to see with the General Admssion ticket.   The first room  was a chapel, and our tour guide, Jefferson, told us that the owner Dario Sattui bought the land with the thought of building a villa on the 8500 square foot property.  That vision grew, and over the course of 14 years, we have the castle as it is today, mostly built of hand-made materials.  The stones were brought over from Europe in 170 containers. Jefferson told us that Jon Bon Jovi had a concert in their courtyard.  Ooh, what a cool venue!  

Jon Bon Jovi was Here

 The murals in the Great Dining Hall were hand-painted by 2 gentlemen from Italy.  The chairs were handmade.  

Great Dining Hall

The torture chamber was filled with replicas of torture devices such as the rack and “the hot seat”.  I thought that the spiked case was interesting because he said that they would place someone in there, and the spikes are strategically placed so that they don’t actually kill you.  Instead, they open up the top, and place an animal inside, like a rat or whatever, so that you’re alive when it’s doing whatever it wants to you.  Eeeewww.  

Torture Device

 The tour also included an explanation of the different methods of their winemaking.  The castle is an actual working winery, and there are pipes throughout the castle walls, which lead to the caves underneath, where all of the barrels are stored.

Pipe from Castle Wall to Barrel

 The barrels can be bought as futures, and they store the barrel there.  When you want to take some of your wine out, they will bottle it for you.  It’s pretty cool because you can get a LOT of wine (300 bottles) per barrel, and because it’s wine, the longer you keep it there, the better it becomes and the more expensive it becomes.  So you’re essentially investing in your wine.  We even got to drink some 2012 Cabernet Sauvingnon that came directly from the barrel, to have the same experience as the winemaker when they open a barrel.  

Jefferson Pouring Wine from Barrel

We did get to go into the caves and walk among the barrels.  They even had a little armory filled with suits of armor.  People were taking pictures, and Jefferson offered to take a picture of me with “my son”.  

With Suit of Armor and My "Son" Bro

I didn’t have the heart to correct him because he had been such a wonderful guide.  He had asked me what kind of wine I like to drink, and I told him that my favorite one from Castello is the Il Passito.  He couldn’t blame me at all for that.  :)  When we got to the end of the tour, we were led to a private tasting room and were allowed to try 5 wines each, so Bro and I decided to try 10 wines and share each taste.  We ended up getting the 2009 Napa Valley Sangiovese, which is very smooth.  At the end of the 10, Jefferson offered to give us a splash of the Il Passito as well, and you know I’m not going to say no to that!  I let Bro taste first so that he could understand my love for this wine, and he did.  That just totally made my day to have a taste of my favorite wine without having to open my own bottle at home.  I did drink one this year, so the next one can wait.  Before leaving, we looked at the animals, which included emu, some ducks that were bathing in what looked like feed bins, and a couple of beautiful albino peacocks.

Albino Peacock Strutting His Stuff

We were hungry, so we decided to look for a place to eat in St. Helena.  We parked in a lot that was made of rocks and painted lines on the rocks.  I don’t know how often they hae to paint that lot, but it seems like a lot of work.  

On Asphalt from Parking Lot

While we were perusing restaurant menus, a couple of women sitting outside at one of the restaurants asked if they could take a picture of my shirt because they thought it was cute.  I obliged and wondered if my face was in the picture.  I smiled just in case.  We decided to eat at HImalayan Sherpa Kitchen, which served Indian and Nepalese cuisine. Bro ordered chicken tikka masala, and I ordeed the lunch special of samosas and paroukash with mixed greens and cucumber mint sauce.  The food was very good, athough they didn’t have any yak’s milk with which to wash it down.  They did have a yak on a shelf!

Black Yak

The St. Helena Bath Oil Company was closed for a few minutes, so we went into The St. Helena Olive Oil company.  I asked the store guy to tell Bro about the place because I wouldn’t do it justice.  Bro and I tried some Himalayan Pink salt in order to keep the theme of the day.  I bought 2 bottles of white truffle oil because Linda wanted one, too.  Then we went back to the Bath Oil place so that I could buy my lovely Lavender Sugar Scrub.  I would have tried out the Salt Scrub this time, but they only had the large jars on the table.  

I wanted to continue wine tasting, and we had coupons to use, so we went to Provenance and used our 2 tastings for 1 coupon.  Bro and I agreed that the 2009 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon that we tried was the best, but I didn't buy any because it is available in stores.  (Castello’s wines are only available for purchase through them directly).

We then went to Yountville so that I could go to Bouchon Bakery.

A Pastry Case at Bouchon

 I had heard many good things about their pastires, especially their macarons.  Macarons are currently my favorite sweet thing to eat, so I NEEDED to try it out.  They also had almond croissants, so I couldn’t say no to that either.  I got 3 flavors of macarons:  pistaschio, salted caramel and hazelnut, so that I could share with V when we saw her.  Their macarons are much bigger than the ones I usually get a ‘lette.  Their almond croissant was VERY almond-y.  I was happy.

Mmmmm....Macarons!

We returned to our hotel and I rested for a bit while Bro took a dip in the pool.  We eventually went to dinner at Black Bear Diner.  I thought that the lady serving us there was competing with the people at China Village Inn because she was getting things done so quickly.  I ordered chicken fried steak from the A Little Less menu.  Well, there was a lot on my plate already and I looked over to see a regular-sized meal.  Wow.  It was twice as much main meal as mine.  Mine even came with sauteed vegetables, mashed potatoes, soup (or salad) and a cornbread muffin.  Bro also had an item from the Little Less menu: meatloaf.  He was able to finish his, but I couldn’t finish my plate due to the fact that I ate an almond croissant earlier when we were hanging out at the hotel.

The Black Bear Diner Pose

We turned in for the night after Bro showed me the location of the fitness room so that I could work out in the morning.

The next morning, I did get up and walk on the treadmill.  The gal that joined me there later was doing some kind of circuit-type workout, which made the guy on the cycle next to me look at her every time she did a leapfrog-type move along the mats.  I was just glad to get my workout in.  I was also glad that I wasn’t the one that dropped one of the weights loudly.  Bro and I had our breakfast at Denny’s (I made a Egg McMuffin out of my build-your-own slam), and we checked out of the hotel.   We said goodbye to Napa and headed for San Francisco to pick up V from the airport.  She had been having a difficult time getting there from Seattle, so she had much venting to share with us.  At least we were all together again, giggling as usual.

I love my family.

Nom Nomming in Napa

Napa -- Day 1

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Warning: This post is full of food porn, so don't read if you're on a diet or if you're hungry.

I woke up and went downstairs to walk on the treadmill for awhile.  A guy was on the other treadmill and told me that there were no towels.  I joked that he would need to use his shirt.  After he left, another guy came in and was doing different stuff, and kept walking in back of me (the room was kind of small).  It didn't bother me.  I guess I’m just not used to that behavior while I walk outside, which is my usual routine when I’m not at Zumba.  Bro and I had breakfast downstairs and the guy that had been walking back & forth behind me was there.  We did not make eye contact.  We hadn't made eye contact in the fitness room, either.  I could be a spy.

Our Vantage Point at Greystone

We made our way to Napa, and I waved at the Peju winery as we headed straight to the Culinary Institute of America, where we had lunch reservations at Wine Spectator Restaurant at Greystone.  We were seated near one of the cooking stations, but we couldn't see much.  Bro ordered a Moylan's Kiltlifter Scotch Ale, and I ordered a 2012 Charles Krug Sauvignon Blanc once I figured out what I’d be eating for lunch. Bro found a Goonies skull formation of holes in his bread, but the picture I took does not do it justice.  I ordered a roasted farm chicken  (sous vide) with crispy potatoes and English peas with Morel mushrooms, and Bro ordered the blue cheese cured strip loin of beef -- medium -- with watercress.  Bro’s meat was 2 pieces, stacked, and one was medium rare and the other medium well, which, he guessed, just evened out to “medium”.  

Bro's Steak

My Chicken

We both enjoyed our meals, and then we ordered dessert.  I would have ordered souffle because the other table’s souffle looked yummy, but then I found out that it was coconut, and we decided to order cheesecake instead.  The server advised that it would not be like a real “cake” cheesecake, and we were intrigued and ordered it anyway.  It turned out to be, like, from a tube, and it was delicious. It included fresh local strawberries and the "crust" was a brown butter graham cracker powder.

"Cheesecake"

We then walked around inside CIA for a bit so that I could visit my hippo corkscrews.  There weren't any bats visible outside, so I couldn't show them to Bro, but I still tried to look for them even though it was sprinkling.  

I didn't feel like walking around wineries in the rain, so we decided to go to the Napa Welcome Center and obtained some discount coupons for a few wineries.  I wanted to go to Morimoto’s to show the menu to Bro, and they had a dessert / pastry section, so I bought a cute little Yuzu Meringue tart.  I came very close to ordering the sugar cookie mustache, but I figured that I only wanted to take a picture with it, and preferred to buy something that I wanted to actually eat that was different than the usual pastry.  It came in a cute little box, too!

Yuzu Meringue Tart

We checked into the hotel and rested for a bit.  After 3 straight days of drum corps, it was strange to have an evening with no actual plans.  We were already going through some drum corps withdrawal, especially SCV withdrawal, because we won’t see their show in person again until August.  

I wanted to introduce Bro to Gott’s Roadside.  He was very pleased to meet this establishment.  He ordered a Western Bacon Blue Ring burger, and I ordered a Wisconsin Sourdough Burger and onion rings.  

My sourdough on left, Bro's Western on right

We walked around Oxbow Market for a while and discovered an organic ice cream place called Three Twins.  I had a “Teensy” scoop of the Chai Tea flavor, and Bro had the same size of  Rice Milk Horchata.  Both flavors were delicious!  Bro was even thinking of a way to bring some home, but changed his mind later.  We returned to the hotel and called it a day.

Enjoying organic ice cream

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Last week, I met up with Linda at the AMC at Westfield Santa Anita to watch the TCM Event Series showing of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", presented by Fathom Events.  Thanks to technology, I actually made it there in time, because Linda had sent me a text message saying she was there early.  I had just arrived at home and was about ready to cook dinner, having completely forgotten about our tickets.  So off I went, and on the way, saw that they were still filming at the parking lot of the Santa Anita race track (they're filming "The Lone Ranger" there).  Cue Sherry daydreaming about Johnny Depp.

Anyway, while we were sitting on a bench in the theater lobby, a woman walked by with a stuffed bird on her shoulder.  Funny and creepy at the same time.  I've seen "The Birds" many times on my TV.  Anyone that knows what has happened around my house lately with the fauna probably wonders how I'm brave enough to watch this movie at present.  But I do like this movie a lot, so there you go.

• Before the film itself, Robert Osborne had clips of interviews with Tippi Hedrien, Suzanne Pleshette and Rod Taylor.  I was digging Tippi's cool birds broach, then she mentioned that Hitchcock gave it to her when he told her she'd be starring in this movie.
• I like seeing all of the Bodega Bay scenes, remembering when I went there on the Girls Trip to Napa.
• The restoration of the film is beautiful.  I wish I had money for the Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection on Blu-Ray.
• Do you know that in the attic scene, prop guys were actually throwing real gulls at Tippi?  She was not warned that this would happen.  Yikes!  I watched that scene and cringed.  She was really shaken up after that, as most people would be.
• When Melanie (Tippi's character) was playing her joke on Mitch, I felt like her antics were pretty much like a stalker.  So I called her Stalker for the rest of the movie.  Linda agreed and did the same thing.
• That shot of the first bird attacking Melanie was done in one take.
• There were several moments where I was really tense, but didn't realize it until the scene would be over, and I had to shake out my hands from all of the clenching.
• All of the seagulls made me think of the gulls in "Finding Nemo" (see title of post).
• Dude, that woman would have thought that I was evil too, what with the hawks hanging out at my house.
• You know what's REALLY creepy about this movie?  NO MUSICAL SCORE.  Just silence.  And birds tweeting.
• So, really now.  WHY the heck were all of the birds attacking the people?!?!  Eerie.

Already Missing Sonoma

Girls Trip to Napa

Days 4 & 5: June 22-23, 2009

Monday morning was kind of sad, because it was time to leave. We checked out of the Fairmont, and they printed our boarding passes for us at the front desk (Thanks, Kevin!). We drove to San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge/Hwy 101 then got lost a little bit before getting back on track. It was a nice little detour, as Mo explained to us how her father worked in San Francisco when he first immigrated to the USA, at Fisherman's Wharf.

View of Golden Gate from our car

We arrived in Burlingame at our friend Charlie’s house, and said hi to wife Jackie and his kids, Ryan and Jessica. Their house has a cool atrium in the middle, and a nice kitchen with flat grill. Jessica was playing with a doll that another Apache alumnus gave her, Masa, who had just visited them last week. Masa lives in Japan, and arrived in San Francisco without an Asian doll, which is what Charlie & Jackie had been asking him to bring. APPARENTLY, dolls in Japan are mostly white, and the closest he could come to was a French/Japanese mixture. The Barbie clothes fit her, though, so at least she can change clothes, unlike the Disney dolls, which are bigger than Barbie and therefore do not fit into her clothes. If anyone out there finds an Asian doll that is NOT Mulan, let me know, OK?

Lo, Sher, Charlie, Ryan, Jessica & Mo

Jackie stayed behind to watch the kids, and Charlie brought us to lunch at Bay Watch Café, where I had to have breakfast, of course: a nice scramble of spinach and sausage and cheese with eggs. Yummy! Chao waxed philosophical, just like old times. You know how people don't change that much once they find themselves? I have a feeling that Charlie found himself in a past life or something. He just doesn't change, and we love him all the more for it. Of course, if he had never changed from being a jerk, we probably wouldn't be so appreciative of the not-changing, but, thankfully, Charlie is as great and funny a guy as always, and I'm really glad that we got to spend time with him. Of course, it's kind of weird now. Instead of talking about high school crushes or whatever class we were talking about, Charlie and Mo talked about being anesthesiologists and they talked with Lo about being parents. It's not weird that they talk about it as much as it's weird that it's THEM that are talking about stuff, and not some strangers that I don't know. I can't believe how much we've grown up (well, at least THEY all have), and that we can still be such good friends that we can open up about our lives even after not seeing each other for a very long time. Are these the same wacky people that I went to Magic Mountain with back in high school, running around like wacky teenagers? Are these actually the same people in that group prom picture senior year? Wow. We had no idea back then what it would be like a couple of decades later. So different, yet still the same. Like the way Charlie still drives cars the same way he did back then. ;)

After going back to Charlie's house and saying our goodbyes, we drove to downtown Burlingame to meet up with Mo’s cousin Ashok and his wife Ani at their cigar shop. I met a nice old man who didn’t want me to smoke. But the Moonterrace cigar that Ashok recommended, with bourbon & vanilla flavors, was perfect. I just can’t have one for a really long time.

We shopped in Burlingame and I bought clothes on sale at Ann Taylor Loft, and a wooden Hippo bead from Potpourri. After walking out of Potpourri, we almost got caught jaywalking as we took a couple of steps right in front of a police car. Luckily, though, we saw him before actually going into the actual street. The police were present everywhere, giving parking tickets and such, so if you're ever in Burlingame, don't forget to feed the meters!

We drove back to Sunnyvale to meet Krina at her place, where she stated that she discovered that her 9 bottles of wine were equal to all of the rest of us combined. Well, if she hadn't already had 3 waiting for her when she got to Chateau St. Jean, then she and I might have been pretty even. Geez, I don't know when I'm drinking all of this wine, but it will be fun and tasty!

We went back to SJC and said our goodbyes and thanks to Krina. I continued my streak of pulling an Eremita all day with the spilling of corn nuts in the airport. (I had spilled coffee in the room in the morning and water at lunch). KLUTZ! While we were up in the air, we looked in the SkyMall catalog for the crazy garden sculptures that we discussed with Morgan, and I showed the gals my pics from trip.

Lo and I said our goodbyes to Mo, and picked up some Quizno’s for our drive down to Wildomar to extend her vacay away a little bit. My parents were happy to see Lori and catch up with her, since it had been quite a long time since they were able to talk. After a good night's rest, we went to the casinos in Temecula on Tuesday morning.

Our first stop was at Pala, where they are doing a lot of construction, and had just opened a new buffet restaurant, which had a great selection (King crab legs! Big ones!), and we played there a little while, too. Afterward, we tried our luck at Pechanga, where I did have better luck, but didn't win all of the $ back that I had lost at Pala. Oh well.

Since I had a flight the next morning, I needed to get back home, so I brought Lo back to the reality at her house with all of those boys (William included), and finally got back to change out my luggage and sleep in my own bed. For one night. At least I was home!

Next up: Tempe, AZ