March 12 of 12 (Or: I WENT TO THE FRENCH LAUNDRY!)

Since I moved out here, Will and I have worked to widen our pallet, spending way too much money on food and not regretting it at all. I've already made a post where I come off sounding all snobby and pretentious, so I won't make the mistake of doing it twice, but on March 12, Brandon, Moye, Will, and I made our way up to Yountville to eat at The French Laundry.

Getting the reservations was a bit of an adventure in and of itself. We started calling when the line opened up after their holiday break, and between the four of us called on and off throughout the morning. I finally got through at one point, and then got put on hold, and then disconnected. Arg! But Brandon finally made it through, and the only option was a lunch, Friday, March 12. So we did that, and were all lucky enough to get the day off so that we could go.

Brandon is from the area, so we stayed at his mom's house, which was awesome, since it saved us a hotel bill. We flew up on Thursday night, on a tiny plane (2x2x20) that you had to go outside to get on, and which had actually propellers where the engines usually are. It seemed especially small because we loaded right next to a China Air 747.

We got in, and crashed relatively early.

And now... my 12 of 12 (and the day!):

When we got up, it was a little rainy.

We got ready, and Will and I improvised some Heart and Soul on the piano, while Brandon and Moye went to get the rental car.

And then we were off! The trip took about an hour, and I was awake the whole time! (Though I would fall asleep on the way back, and the other times we went there that weekend, for ad hoc and just general merriment.)

When we got there, we were promptly seated, and spent a few minutes trying to decide whether or not it was okay to take the clothespins home with us.

We eventually decided that we could.

The menu was awesome, and we planned it such that when there were to options, one person from each couple had each option, so that we could try everything.

Lots of amazing courses, though we didn't take pictures of most of them, because Moye is morally opposed to that. Well, except the fois gras. Because it was pretty.

Oh, and the picture of the dinosaur salt! There were 3 different kinds of salt for the fois gras, and one of them was 40 million years old! So we called it dinosaur salt.

The only course which I didn't share/get to taste the other one was the dessert. Because I got peanut butter chocolate, and will had some citrus thing. And who trades peanut butter chocolate for citrus?!

Then we got chocolates to top it off. They were awesome.

Our waiter asked which ones were our favorites, and Brandon and I told him the peanut butter ones (peanut butter chocolate!), and Will told him the cinnamon. Moye was too full to think of a favorite. And he gave us more. (!!!!) And I tried to take an artsy picture with the macro setting on my camera.

After an amazing lunch at The French Laundry, the only really reasonable thing to do is go on Chat Roulette. Moye and I showed off Brandon's Ninja Turtles action figures to some guys from Russia who showed us snow in exchange, some guys from Toronto, and a few other people. We only saw one really offensive thing, which is probably pretty good, considering we were playing around for about an hour.


Dinner (once we were able to make room for it) was this awesome cheese spread on a bagel.

Moye updated her blog with the experience much more promptly than I did.

And what better way to end the day, than a little bit of the UK version of The Office?