MrAndrewBradley

After a fun men's event at Bayside with Miles McPherson and about 2,500 others, I was off to Orange County for some business meetings. A colleague and I have both been to Newport Beach a lot, but normally we don't have the time to leave the resort (not necessarily a bad thing), but this time we arrived early and took the opportunity to check out Balboa Island and the Peninsula . We enjoyed a fabulous lunch overlooking Balboa Bay , walked along the beach, and then I got to hang out by the pool while reading a new book. As more of our colleagues started to arrive, we finished the night with some great gastropub grub in A&O . As our meetings in Newport Beach wrapped up, we traveled to Irvine for our next set of meetings. Although Irvine lacks a bay front view, it does have the Irvine Spectrum Center , which we took full advantage of when not in meetings. We enjoyed a calorie filled meal at Yard House , while watching the 49ers beat the Vikings and headed to CREAM ...

  It has been a fun-filled (and food-filled) last couple of weeks. I've been to the Oakland Raiders training camp (takes place in Napa), enjoyed some fabulous food at The Meritage and around downtown Napa , including a winemaker dinner with Schramsberg Vineyards . Still in Napa, I also had the opportunity to taste wines at Hall and take a look at some of their famous artwork ... including the crazy jumping silver bunny (not to be confused with Sacramento's Red Rabbit at the airport - same artist though). My parents and I headed to the Bradley Lodge . My mom and I cooked up some tasty dishes, had great wine, and also mixed up some vodka infused orange juice for breakfast. We took a couple of field trips too ... one to West Point where we helped some friends net their vineyards (so the birds don't eat the grapes), before heading to Murphys for ice cream at JoMa's . We also headed east to Lake Alpine Resort for some appetizers and to walk around what is truly ...