Ever since moving down to southern CA in 2024, we haven’t been back up to the Sacramento area. We really missed the food and decided to make a trek up to our old stomping grounds (both Sacramento as well as the Napa Valley area, another favorite place to visit when we lived up there) in early 2026. After living in the Sac region for so long, we had some “go to” places that we wanted to hit up.
After landing at SMF and collecting our rental vehicle, we made our way over to Davis to have some lunch before the drive out to Sonoma. The first restaurant to check off our list was Mikuni Sushi. While it is now a chain with 10 locations, it is still quite good and relatively affordable sushi and other Japanese fare. Knowing that our dinner that night may be somewhat heavier, we ordered accordingly and had some sashimi, rolls and nigiri
After lunch, we walked over to Pachamama to grab some caffeine for the slightly over an hour drive to Sonoma. They had some seasonal drinks and I had one that was like a “Fireside mocha,” which was quite tasty. Also the toasted marshmallow was a nice touch.
Our room at the boutique B&B in Sonoma (Inn at Sonoma) was ready early so by the time we arrived we could check in. I had stayed at one of their sister properties (funny enough the parent company is called Four Sisters) while working down in southern California. This place was just a few blocks from Sonoma Plaza.
We had a little bit of time to kill before dinner and decided to do a little bit of a hike at the Sonoma Overlook Trail (I had discovered it when I was researching a bit of the area to see where I could run – fit in a run later in the trip). The trail had a slight incline and took about 40 minutes of casual meandering to get up to the top. At the top we spotted a family of deer that were grazing and of course keeping an eye on us. Before heading out to dinner, we partook in the B&B’s free wine and cheese hour
For spring break (well not ours but the nieces/nephews), my sister had mentioned taking her kids to Chicago (to check out colleges for the oldest). We decided to sorta tag along (they were flying to the East coast and then driving to Chicago whereas we would just fly into the city). D had never been so I thought it’d be fun to show her around the city, and also I wanted to visit my alum, Northwestern University.
I found a decent deal for flights on Southwest but that also meant flying into Midway (at least the flight there was direct). From Midway, we grabbed a taxi into the city to our hotel, Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile. We had previously stayed at the Intercontinental in NYC and figured we’d stick with them – cost was comparable to other places. The location was fairly ideal in that we were in the River North neighborhood right on Michigan Ave, which is also known as the Magnificent Mile.
Chicago is definitely an eater’s town and we had planned much of our meals prior to arriving. We didn’t plan far enough ahead to get reservations at a steakhouse that we wanted to try, Bavette’s. Given Chicago’s history as the center of the country’s meatpacking industry we knew we had to get steaks at least once. D had read that you could possibly get a walk-in table at Bavette’s, especially on a Tuesday night. After dropping off our luggage we walked over to Bavette’s. We put our names on the wait list but eventually found a spot at their downstairs bar (which also serves a full dinner menu). I started with a couple of fresh oysters and we shared the mixed greens and apple salad. They’re also known for their hand-made sourdough bread so we got some of that. I will say that the bread and butter was a highlight of the meal. For our main, we shared the Dry-Aged Bone-in ribeye (20 oz 42 day dry aged) along with a side of broiled asparagus. For drinks I had a Rittenhouse Rye Old Fashioned and a Cognac Sazerac. Both very good.
On the walk back we stopped at CVS to pick up some things and happened upon the Wings of Mexico, a permanent art installation by artist Jorge Marin in the Plaza of the Americas. We grabbed some pictures here. I had seen people posting pictures of this but didn’t know the backstory.
Last month we made the trek to Houston for my cousin’s wedding. This turned out to also be a huge family reunion of sorts since all the cousins were converging for the family event. I hadn’t seen a couple of cousins in maybe 10+ years?
We flew into Houston early on a Saturday morning as the wedding reception was later in the day on Saturday. We also happened to fly out with both my sisters and one of the nephews. After arriving, my sister had rented a car and we drove the 40 ish minutes towards our hotel. On the way we wanted to grab some food for a late lunch (turned out to be prescient as they ended up not serving dinner until a bit later into the reception). I had a couple of cuisines that I wanted to try while in Houston: BBQ, TexMex, Vietnamese food.
We stopped at Lopez Mexican Restaurant, since it was on our way to the hotel and we were a bit pressed for time to get changed and get to the reception. Here I was able to try Chile con queso (shared with everyone), and then I tried their Ocampo (Two cheese enchiladas, a beef taco guacamole salad, and a chile con queso puff). Being from CA, I wasn’t looking for authentic Mexican food but wanted to try some true Tex-Mex so was happy we were able to try this.
After checking into the hotel, we rapidly changed and then headed over to the reception at Lam Bo Ballroom. This was a mixed Vietnamese-Chinese wedding (which actually was pretty similar). There was a very elaborate (and loud) dragon dance to start things off. And then instead of starting with food, they started with some speeches as well as some dances. While this was happening, they did start to bring out some food. Prior to all this, there was a cocktail and Hors d’Ouevres hour. We had adjusted our seating so we could hang out with some of the cousins that we haven’t seen in a long time so it was overall a good time. It was hard to speak too much though because the sound volume was very high with the speeches and music.
The whole idea that started this trip was a simple conversation from a year ago with my cousin on joining her for a dinner. She mentioned that she’s in NYC every year for her husband’s work function and always thought of skipping out on a boring work-related dinner where all the people did was talk shop and enjoy a delectable meal. As this year’s work event got closer, D and I checked in with the cousin and she said that dinner was a go if we wanted. So we booked our flights and hotel stay for NYC for October. We actually went in October of last year for my friend’s business grand opening.
This time we flew out of LAX and took a direct JetBlue flight to Newark. We landed around 7:30 pm and caught a cab into the city, which took about an hour. After dropping our bags at our hotel in Midtown East at the Intercontinental New York Barclay, we walked over to PJ Clarke’s for a much deserved drink and late dinner. This bar/restaurant opened in 1884 and is particularly known for having a good burger. D had the burger and fries while I had classic fish and chips. To drink I had a Smoky Old Fashioned while D had the 1930 (Elijah craig small batch bourbon, lime juice, st. elizabeth allspice dram, simple syrup, angostura bitters, orange peel).
We stopped for a night cap at the hotel bar (we had a $30 credit for each day of our stay).
The following morning I woke up and headed to get bagels for us while D got ready for the day. I went to our normal spot, Ess-a-Bagel, (that we went to the last 2 times) as it was just up the street. By the time I got there (around 10am?) the line was out the door. Luckily it moved relatively smoothly and I got our bagels and a coffee for D (I had a coffee with the hotel room’s Keurig).
This time it was a bit of a disappointment. The bagels themselves and their crumb didn’t seem as chewy as normal (maybe a little dense). I kind of wonder if they’ve grown too much that quality control isn’t as good because they’re so busy.
We wanted to check out Harlem and Sylvia’s (one of the oldest classic southern fare food in the area). To get there, we walked down to Grand Central Station and hopped on a subway to head up to 125th street. I’ve found that every neighborhood in NY has their own feel, from midtown to LES to Chelsea to Brooklyn.
Harlem was very musical – lots of music just everywhere. The two places we had looked up were Sylvia’s but also Red Rooster (Marcus Samuellson’s place that he opened up in 2010). They were actually just down the street from one another. We settled on Sylvia’s and had some yummy food. I had the lunch special which was a fried chicken leg with some collard greens and D had the chicken and waffles. Both were very good.
We also walked over to the Apollo Theater, a classic institution for music, comedy, and other performances.
When we were planning our flights for the cruise, we found that making a stop in Copenhagen on the way back from Bologna was just as cost effective as if we tried to book directly from Bologna (we would still have had to layover somewhere). Our early afternoon flight out of Bologna brought us to Copenhagen around 3:30 pm. From the airport we took a train into the city center and made a short trek to our hotel (Axel Guldsmeden Hotel). The hotel had many green initiatives to try to reduce their carbon footprint and be more environmentally friendly.
Since we didn’t have a ton of time in Copenhagen, we dropped our stuff and immediately headed out the door to do some exploring before our dinner reservations. The biggest change, a huge welcome one, was the weather. We left southern Europe where it had been 90+F with humidity to a high of low 60s F and drizzly/rainy.
We didn’t have a ton of time before dinner so headed east northeast toward Strøget, which is an area with stores and restaurants. Along the way we passed by Tivoli Gardens, which is an amusement park and the inspiration for Walt Disney to create his parks. Just past this we arrived at City Hall Square, which had a cool fountain and a nice picture spot of City Hall.
We then walked through the shopping area and hooked back around toward the hotel to make our way to dinner. Along the way we also passed by Wallmans Cirkusbygningen (Wallmans Circus Building) and stopped for a picture at Saint George’s Lake (Sankt Jørgens Sø).
D had made reservations at a restaurant called Maple Casual Dining, listed as a place with homemade food in a casual, cozy setting. This description was spot on and they had both yummy cocktails as well as delicious food. Ironically the main was a steak from Colorado.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep as we had an action packed morning prior to checking out and heading back to the airport by noon. We had planned to check out at least one bakery since they are well known for their pastries (hence the “danish” pastry that is popular in the US). D had found one place that was well known called Hart Bageri. Right across from this location was a coffee shop that I had been recommended (my cousin is a big coffee person). We woke up early, got ready and went to both Hart Bageri and Prolog coffee, which was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. This was in the opposite direction of the sights we were planning that morning but overall I found Copenhagen proper to be a very walkable city. There were also tons and tons of people on bikes everywhere with many bike lanes/lights set up.
After some delectable pastries and coffee, we made our way to Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). This castle was built by Christian IV during the Dutch Renaissance and served as the royal residence until the early 1700s. Now it is filled with many historical artifacts along with the crown jewels. We wandered through the Castle and then went into the basement/armory area where the jewels were kept along with weapons and wine.
We then made our way to Nyhavn, which is a 17th century waterfront and canal area with colorful building facades. Lots of tours were at this location taking pictures. We took some quick pictures and moved on, passed by a large square, Kongens Nytorv and The Royal Theater’s Old Stage. A quick pick me up at Coffee Collective and then a stop in Illum Department Store. The prior day we had also stopped at the flagship Hay House (a great place for interior designers).
The sky opened up as we started back toward our hotel as check out time was looming and we also had to make our way back to the airport for our flight back to the States. We were able to quickly dry off and then take a train back to the airport (we initially got on the wrong one but at least we had time to get on the right one). We had a layover in Paris before flying back to LAX (it was interesting as it was July 4th so there were fireworks going off all around us as we made our final approach and landed).
And that concluded our almost 3 week Europe trip. Definitely a good time in our first big trip post-COVID.
StewsCat 