Beattys Overseas

After Easter, we spent the week mainly hanging with the Pray family kids & grandkids, and took a few daytrips worth noting....

John "posing" with the ODC Dance posterMy childhood pal Elizabeth is a professional dancer with ODC, one of the country's leading modern dance companies whose season was coming to an end in San Francisco.  We took my mom Donna's front-row tickets and drove up to The City By The Bay to watch Elizabeth do what she does best.  The performance was amazing.  Truly incredible art, with dancers who made the most incredibly intense & athletic movements look like ribbons floating underwater.  The performance was in 4 parts, with an intermission between the 2nd and 3rd.  Each piece was different from the others, some evoking political or socio-economic themes, while others bore romantic plot lines, or cheerful numbers with music to match.  After the show, we met Elizabeth at the Stage Door to congratulate her on a wonderful season closing in SF. 
Elizabeth, our superstar! P.S. I'm wearing a scarf made by her mother!The good news is that the company now tours the country for a few months, and they'll be coming through New York!  We plan to attend their annual delivery of The Velveteen Rabbit (a very family-friendly show that they perform every Christmas season in San Francisco) in Purchase, New York in a month.  Anyone care to join us??? Our evening of culture in San Francisco was so lovely, and we have our pal Elizabeth to thank for it.  Thanks Liz Biz!

The next day we drove south to the Monterey area, where we were married last February for a lovely lunch at Carmel's "most romantic restaurant," Cassanova's, where we had dined the night after our wedding.  Our lunch was truly impeccable, with the sun shining on our patio table and the staff doting on us, the One-Year Anniversary Couple.  Yummy food, an ice cold Chardonnay and the scent of the Pacific Ocean in the air made for a wonderfully romantic afternoon that we didn't want to end.  So, we continued the fun by driving in to Pebble Beach, along 17-Mile drive to Spanish Bay, a gorgeous oceanside golf club where we perched ourselves on the deck near a fire pit and ordered some drinks.  Soon enough, the benches neighboring ours at the fire pit became populated with other people who seemed to be enjoying an awesome Friday afternoon as well.  We learned that they were all participating in The Pebble Beach Food & Wine, a four-day epicurean event bringing together 50 of the world's most prominent chefs (names like Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Michel Richard, Tom Colicchio, Charlie Trotter and Todd English)
JB lounging at Spanish Bay with the Pacific at his backand some of the top wines (including Screaming Eagle, Roar, Veuve Clicquot and Paradigm).  To hold such an event in Pebble Beach makes perfect sense, as it's a truly magical spot on the California Central Coast, and all the folks we met that afternoon agreed.  We left our new culinary friends (who were so passionately talking about food that my stomach growled) to have dinner at my brother's house, even passing on the invitation to join them for a spot at one of their dinner tables.  Tempting, but it was our last night in the area before leaving to Napa, and the extra couple hours with the family made me so happy.

- Whitney