Author Topic: 2011 Summer in the US  (Read 38466 times)

Offline chin

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2011 Summer in the US
« on: 29 July 2011, 14:54:02 »
I am currently in the US of A spending the summer with my family. I am going to post pictures and stories in segments of interest, instead of in chronological orders.

The unfortunate thing is that a few days after I arrived in the US, I damaged my main camera (Sony A900) when changing lenses. I have damaged the aperture adjustment mechanism in the body such that now I can only take pictures with the largest aperture possible, which is F2.8 on my main lens. Fortunately I have a smaller Sony A550 with me and now my main camera.

The pictures taken with the larger A900 are in RAW format, thus I won't be able to post them until returning home. The A550 was set to take JPEG pictures and can be processed with my laptop. I will post some pictures while I am still on the road.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #1 on: 29 July 2011, 15:01:23 »
Today we drove from Berkeley to Napa Valley, and we took a little detour pasting through Point Reyes. We knew that on this small country road are some oyster bars serving local fresh oysters grown in the Tomales Bay.

The place we stopped for lunch is called Marshall Store, which I just found out that they have a web site at www.themarshallstore.com and it is kind of famous.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #2 on: 29 July 2011, 15:03:31 »
Does the big fellow working behind the oyster bar look like the status in front of the store? I asked about it and he said the status was there before he himself got there.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #3 on: 29 July 2011, 15:07:22 »
Most people sit on the road side. But we were lucky to sit further from the road, and closer to the bay, with nice expansive view.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #4 on: 29 July 2011, 15:13:16 »
Some of the food we had. It was very bright and I couldn't really see the picture quality there and then.

I don't usually eat raw oyster but these were very good, and I probably ate more raw oysters during this lunch than all all raw oysters I ate in the last 5 years combined.

For the cooked ones, we ordered Rockefeller which was cooked with spinach, cheese & garlic.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #5 on: 29 July 2011, 15:14:25 »
Some close up pictures of the oysters.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #6 on: 29 July 2011, 15:20:19 »
Today is my "good food day".

We arrived at the Napa Valley in the late afternoon. After a short rest, we went to the Michelin 3-Star The Restaurant at Meadowood in St Helena for dinner. I took the 9-course tasting menu with 8 paired wine. The food was very nice, and I like most of the wines. It was a very enjoyable evening! I will post the menu and wine list later, and some food pictures taken with the iPhone.

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #7 on: 02 May 2012, 00:42:05 »
One problem is not processing the pictures shortly after the trip is lost of stuff (like the menu) or lost of memory (which wine I liked the most?)

Anyway, here are some of the wine  pictures.

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #8 on: 02 May 2012, 00:42:54 »
More wine at The Restaurant at Meadowood

Offline chin

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Re: 2011 Summer in the US
« Reply #9 on: 02 May 2012, 00:43:45 »
More wine at The Restaurant at Meadowood (OK, one of them is not exactly wine.)