Napa Valley

As you may know, I have been in Sacramento, CA for a while waiting for the Seattle Hard Rock Cafe to open in Seattle, WA shortly. It's been torture to be only an hour away from Napa but committed to keep a promise I made to my wife Lea that I wouldn't visit America's Premier Wine Country without going with her first. So instead I would just drive down to Safeway and buy a bottle of wine or two to consume in my little Sacramento Apartment imagining what it would be like to be in Napa.

Saturday night while working I walked into the dining room at the Cafe and was shocked to find my beautiful Bride sitting at the bar waiting for me. She had driven for 2 days straight for a one day booty call...er, I mean to see me. The first...er, well..the second thing I thought to do was to hop in the car and drive to Napa Valley so that's what we did. Here are the photo's...



The Barrel room at Sterling Winery.

The more wine we drank, the friskier Lea got..funny how that happens ain't it?
HAWT-EEEE
Mmmmm, imagine how these grapes are going to taste crushed, fermented and bottled
One of my very favorite white wines introduced to me by my Uncle John years ago was filling the shelves at the Franciscan Estates Winery!
If you are ever in Napa, Mustards is the place to eat!
Ahi Tuna on homemade crackers..scrumpdiddlyumptious.
How lucky am I to get to sit across from this hot babe at dinner?
This Pork Chop might possibly be one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten in my life...seriously.
Yummy
A white wine taste
A red wine taste


I want to come shoot this scene when the light is better.
To get to the tasting room at Sterling Winery you had to ride in one of these cool things.

Ingrid Michaelson

Teaching the audience a bit of sign language here (this means stop clapping by the way)
She was very expressive in a great way throughout the entire performance, whether she was singing or not.

A couple of her fans had Victoria's Secret bags with them, Ingrid showed that she isn't only a musical artist by "enhancing" the bag :)
After all the hooplah, I got in one of the shots, not sure how this pose ended up this way but it was kind of a pseudo dance pose in my awkward, uncoordinated way :) Damn, am I really that fat?
Tonight fans were treated to a seriously kick ass show by the amazing artist Ingrid Michaelson at the Hard Rock Cafe in Sacramento, CA. She took the stage and started with one of my favorite songs "Be OK" and continued to perform throughout the night in a way that had the packed house going nuts. After the opening song, Ingrid seemed almost embarrassed by the huge ovation she received as the crowd was ear piercingly loud!

In between songs Ingrid was incredibly entertaining. She was as funny as any stand up comedian I have seen in some time, not shy to make fun of screaming babies, talk about the thunderous boom felt throughout the Cafe (made by free weights being dropped at the gym next door) by commenting it sounded like monsters having sex behind her, she even threw a few poop jokes in there. I was trying to take pictures but couldn't help but crack up at her humor!

She is starting a 46 date North American Tour followed by some shows in Europe. The dates can be seen here...tour dates. If she is coming to your neck of the woods I highly recommend you go! You will not be disappointed.

She has a new album called "Everybody" set to be released on August 25. I plan to buy it for sure and you should too!

After the show, she signed autographs for fans that waited in a very long time for quite a while. Standing nearby I overheard many people telling her how much her music means to them in many different ways. It must be a humbling experience to have such an impact on so many people and Ingrid seemed to be taking it all in with grace and style.

Once the lines were gone we were able to grab a few photo ops including her donation to the Hard Rock Cafe's incredible Memorabilia Collection by sending a sweater she wore during her latest video in style..you'll have to check out the pic to see what I mean :)

This show was put together within the impossibly short time span of one week by the Sacramento Hard Rock's very talented Sales and Marketing Manager Kim Templeton along side our very kick ass partners at Sacramento's premier radio station The Zone 100.5 FM!

The fine print...as always, these photo's are copyright protected, do not copy them or use them for any use in any way, shape or form without my written permission. Danka!