MrAndrewBradley

Well Birthday Week 2 (see Birthday Week 1 ) officially came to an end on Saturday, after a marathon of eating out for seven of the last eight days, plus a trip to The Meritage Resort and Spa to attend Flavor! Napa Valley . I enjoyed two complete Thanksgiving meals at Bayside while learning about its plans for 2014 and beyond at its main campus, the North Campus (closer to my house ) and the hundreds of projects it supports in the region and around the world. Then there were dinners out with friends .... Happy Hours at Ruth's Chris Steak House and Mikuni Kaizen , appetizers at Mas Cocina Mexican and I even cooked some tasty pasta with vegetables and chicken to eat for lunch when I was at home. All of that food was amazing, but attending Flavor! Napa Valley's " The Appellation Trail: Tasting Napa Valley " with the team from The Meritage Resort and Spa was simply incredible. The best way to describe it is to think of any "Best of" or "Taste of"...

Honestly, I don't really celebrate my birthday very often, but every so often lots of other events seem to creep up on it and it makes it a celebration that lasts anywhere for a few days to a few weeks. This year it will be a two week celebration. It started last Saturday with dinner at my parents' house (cioppino), cake and gifts. On Sunday we headed to The Melting Pot to use a Living Social deal (and celebrate). Monday I ended up meeting a friend at Chevy's to use my free birthday entree coupon, then I took a few days off from eating out and headed to Napa on Friday. At The Meritage Resort and Spa I enjoyed one of my favorite burgers at Crush Ultra Lounge and they surprised me with a beautiful chocolate cake for my birthday. Later that night I attended a screening of Philomena   as part of the Napa Valley Film Festival at the Napa Valley Opera House . Although I hadn't planned to stay overnight at The Meritage overnight I was able to and wake up to a break...

It's been almost a month since I've been able to update my blog and it has been a busy, crazy, sad and exciting month. It started off with a tri-tip filled business round-table meeting with a few Placer County small business owners who all attend various churches in the area. Then I got news that my uncle's health was failing faster than we thought. Nine weeks earlier he was diagnosed with cancer and given just months to live. My parents had been once to see him and his family earlier, but with that news, we booked our tickets for that Saturday with plans to stay, visit and be with the family for about two weeks. Sadly, he passed away before we arrived, but I will always have the memories of trips with he and his wife, most recently our Pacific Coast Cruise . My mom and I headed to my brother's house in the Bay Area on Friday, where my dad met us after work and we left from SFO to CLT and AGS early Saturday morning. The Charlotte Airport, complete with rocking ch...