Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour

We went to the second largest micro-brewery today ... Sierra Nevada in Chico. My dad (a beer aficionado) was perhaps the most excited for the trip, but my mom, grandma and I were all looking forward to the tour as well. We started off at the gift shop and by looking at the impressive antique Santa collection they have, then it was tour time. We got to smell the hops, see the grinder, take a look at the various tanks and learn about the entire process before heading in to see where the beer is bottled and packaged for shipping. The tour finished up with free beer tasting, not a bad way to finish up if you ask me.

Beyond the tasting and tour I was impressed by the fact that they produce most of their own electricity through solar panels on every roof and hydrogen fuel cells and they ship their used barley to farms throughout the state as feed for cows. They also offer benefits similar to what you might get at Google or Facebook including "beer bucks" with every paycheck (redeemable for free beer), an onsite health clinic and free childcare. We were hoping to eat at their onsite restaurant, but the wait was more than an hour, so we headed to Paradise's Black Bear Diner. Of course I had a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and strawberry milkshake. It was a great day trip from Sacramento and hopefully we will go on the tour again and have an opportunity to eat at the restaurant.

A Progressive Christmas

Since we celebrated Christmas with the entire family a few weeks ago in Redwood City, we had a low key Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year. We started off by heading to my grandma's in Lodi on Christmas Eve. After picking her up we headed to take some time to remember my grandpa at the cemetery before heading to see family in Modesto. After great conversation and tasty pizza we headed back to Lodi.

On Christmas Day we slept in, had a scrumptious breakfast and headed to the movies. I was surprised to see a long line at the Lodi Cinema before 10 a.m., evidently lots of people enjoy going to the movies on Christmas Day. We saw War Horse (really good movie) and even got free popcorn since we signed up for the e-newsletter. Once the movie was done we headed back to my grandma's house, spoke with all of the family via ooVoo (like Skype), FaceTime and Tango, played Pinochle and then it was time for Prime Rib and wine. Although I had eaten plenty of cookies already, we piled in the car and went to see more family in Lodi for dessert. The Christmas Tree cake was just what we needed to stay in the holiday spirit and the ice cream helped too.

The day after Christmas we continued our progressive Christmas by heading to Sacramento. I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with a friend at the Esquire IMAX theater in Downtown Sacramento (and got free popcorn again - this time for a Foursquare check-in). When the movie was over we headed back to my parent's house for a tasty dinner featuring pork crown rib roast, roasted vegetables and french bread with pesto. We capped the night off with more cookies and watching the Sacramento Kings beat the Lakers.

Social Life

Sometimes I think I don't have much of a social life, but over the last week I have had an event to attend almost every afternoon or evening. I started off with a happy hour at Claim Jumper on Monday with a business networking group I'm a part of. Tuesday my entire office came together to cook for 17 families who needed a holiday meal through Volunteers of America. Wednesday I helped deliver the meals during lunch, then went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner before checking out Christmas lights in Rocklin with some friends. Thursday I had a lunch with Citizen Voice/Safely Out at Pride Industries in Natomas, I sit on their marketing and communications committee. Friday it was time to discuss the next Placer Business Tweetup over lunch at Freebirds.

Steve Batz | BaysidePictures.com

Saturday I worked on cleaning my house to get ready to have seven family friends over for dinner on Sunday. Sunday my roommate and I prepared a tasty pasta dish for friends and then everyone headed to Bayside for a Christmas service featuring Lincoln Brewster and the Silhouettes from America's Got Talent.

Finally, on Wednesday a group of friends and I went to Roseville's Crush 29 for an elegant Christmas dinner, wine and their gourmet s'mores.
Christmas At Bayside 2011 from Bayside Church on Vimeo.

Christmas, a few weeks early

Since my brother and his family will be in Oregon and Washington celebrating Christmas we got to celebrate Christmas a few weeks early. We also celebrated my aunt's birthday right on time since she flew in with my uncle and cousin from Texas for the day Saturday.

I helped kid-sit on Friday before and after my field trip to Facebook until my parents and grandma arrived. Once they arrived my brother and sister-in-law headed to the Facebook Christmas Party at San Francisco's City Hall (it looked like a spectacular event). Saturday my dad and I headed to SFO to pick up my aunt and her family. Once we we arrived back we celebrated my aunt's 50th birthday with cake, gifts and a few hilarious cards. Throughout the day we continued our family tradition of eating, watched the kids open some amazing Christmas gifts and even watched my nephew do some tricks on his scooter at the local skate park. My aunt also surprised her youngest daughter and my grandma with a special gift ... tickets to see a taping of the Ellen Show in Burbank, needless to say both of shocked and very excited.

For dinner we enjoyed crab cioppino, another traditional meal in my family, as we had at my house last year. The dinner was spectacular, as always, and we followed it up with cheesecake and red velvet birthday cake. While watching multiple episodes of A&E's show "Storage Wars" my aunt also noticed that their best shot to get on a flight with their passes (she's a flight attendant) was out of San Jose at 6:20 a.m., they had been planning on flying out of SFO a little later in the morning. I volunteered to drive since I am oddly familiar with waking up early on occasion.

Today I dropped my aunt and her family off at the airport, got gas in Livermore and then made it to Bayside right as the 8:15 a.m. service was starting. The service featured the fantastic 200+ member Bayside Kids Choir singing Christmas songs.

Visiting Facebook

I barely made it to the Facebook corporate office in Palo Alto before they move to their new office complex in Menlo Park. I have wanted to visit Facebook since my sister-in-law started working there over a year ago, but today was my first chance. After finding a place to park (not an easy feat for the employees, a little easier for visitors), I took the obligatory photo of the address sign and then headed into the lobby to sign in and take more pictures.

The lobby offered a few more photo opps, including a framed Facebook logo that had signatures of various executives and celebrities, a lego sculpture of the Facebook logo, a "HACK" sign (hack is for all intensive purposes Facebook's motto) and a TV screen that shows all of the connections people are making around the world with Facebook.

Once inside the offices I saw the famous wall (and took a few pictures, I practically blend in). After the wall I looked around the office, saw Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and what I believe was the rest of the executive team in conference room surrounded by glass and then headed to get some snacks. Free food is a staple in the office and that was great ... I decided to help myself to cookies, Polar Bear Coca-Cola, Starbursts, etc at one of the snack stations. They also have the new Coca-Cola choose your own adventure machine that can make every flavor of Coke and then some.

While eating and taking pictures I got to see more of the office heading over to the employee cafeteria where I got to speak with Facebook's head chef. He was great to talk with and all I can say is the new Facebook campus will have amazing food options for all of the employees (and occasional guests). Lunch was great and reminded me of the tasty buffets on a Royal Caribbean cruise without the ocean view and without having to pay for a cruise.

Did You Know ... that instead of "Casual Friday" a few Facebook staff believe in "Corporate Friday"?
If your still curious about what the inside of the office looks like, search Google Images for "Facebook + Palo Alto" and you can see pictures that other people took.

An Expansion Tour

 Today I had the opportunity to visit The Meritage Resort and Spa, listen to how the Napa Valley Destination Council is helping to promote the region and walk through the expansion at The Meritage Resort. The conference was a great opportunity to hear what each of the five regions within the Napa Valley is doing to help bring visitors to the area. I recommend visiting The Meritage and Downtown Napa during every visit to the area (both are clients).

After the conference we stepped out onto the Vineyard Terrace for wine and appetizers and headed out to the construction site for a quick tour. The 7,300 square foot ballroom has drywall up, the gym is starting to take shape and Crush Ultra Lounge, a sports bar with six luxury bowling lanes, is also looking great. I cannot wait to see the finished product that opens towards the end of April 2012!

Before heading to my brother's house in Redwood City I had a beautiful dinner at Siena that included Filet Mignon and flour-less chocolate cake (I was nice and ordered an extra one of these to take to my brother and pregnant sister-in-law).

Zoo, Cupcakes, Chicken and Beef

It was an eclectic week of eating. I started the week off at the News10 Blogger Bash that took place at the Sacramento Zoo. The event featured some tasty appetizers from Mendocino County (one lucky attendee won a trip) and cupcakes from Drizzle Cupcakes in Sacramento. Since I was still a hungry and needed to use a coupon before the end of the year @YetAnotherSusan and I headed to Chick-Fil-A Arden Fair for a quick dinner and milkshake after the event. While there we got to talk to the person behind the restaurant's Twitter handle and I even got to take home a mini "Eat Mor Chikin" cow.

After finding out that Five Guys opened in Roseville my roommate and I knew we had to try it. We had both been to Five Guys before, but never so close to home. Saturday night we embarked on our journey to the land of free peanuts and tasty burgers. I got a "Little" Cheeseburger "All the Way" (meaning it has all the standard toppings and condiments), he had the Bacon Cheeseburger with added jalapeno peppers (he likes spicy) and we shared an order of Cajun Fries. The food was good, the free peanuts while we waited were excellent and all of the staff was great. I believe I will be adding Five Guys in Roseville to my regular rotation of restaurants that is growing by the day (In-N-Out, Daphne's, Boudin, The Counter, SmashBurger, Jack's Urban Eats, Chipolte, ...).