Finally got a chance to see a part of the world that i have been excited about for years. Lots more to show here soon, but i can’t say enough about the food, the architecture, the beaches and the general laid back lifestyle here.

Model trains have always been fascinating to me, partly its the extreme form of proto-nerdiness (these guys were geeks before there were computers) and partly it is the historical reproduction that inevitably comes from needing to build a lot of scenery for your train to run around.

A few weeks back my fascination was stoked to a full blown excitement after a visit to the Golden State Model Railroad Museum in Richmond CA. It is a 10,000 square foot warehouse that has been turned into a massive series of Californian railroad vignettes with extremely accurate details. Places like the Oakland Docks, the Sacramento Railyards, Towns like Truckee, Colfax, and Tehachapi, and lost to history locations like the Alameda Mole, the Key Route Inn, and the Oakland Central Terminal - the grand Beaux Arts style station that is currently abandoned.

Even if you don’t think Model Railroading sounds interesting, the place is worth the price of admission simply for the incredible detail of the miniature buildings and landscapes. Next time you are in the hood take the detour to get over there.

Alana and I finally made it out to Alameda to take the tour at St George Spirits last weekend. The distillery started in emeryville in the 80s making eau de vie but has since branched out to make just about everything in their giant hangar in Alameda that used to belong to a fighter squadron. They have a decent tour, though if you are fairly knowledgeable it is a little basic. The guide told a great story about a recent experimentation with tequila and the difficulty of cutting up the agave that involved machetes, broken wood chippers and chainsaws.

After the tour we did a tasting of just about their whole portfolio, including: pear eau de vie (with 15lbs of pears per bottle), raspberry eau de vie, kaffir lime vodka, mandarin blossom vodka, buddhas hand vodka, 2 kinds of black tea liqueur, 2 aged single malt whiskeys, a pear liqueur and a raspberry liqueur. Not a bad run for $10.

They are doing an open house next weekend that sounds like it would be pretty cool. So if you get the chance to get over there it is absolutely worth it.

About 2 or 3 miles south of Page Arizona is this meander of the Colorado river called the Horseshoe Bend Overlook. Its about a 3/4 mile hike in from the highway but it’s an absolutely incredible view.

Humorously while there, i met some german kids who thought the overlook was pretty cool, but that they were really excited to get into to town to see their first wal-mart, their idea of the quintessential american experience.

Went to the absinthe class this week at bourbon & branch. This one was taught by Lance Winters at St George Spirits. The class was great and lance was a great host, a funny guy and really knowledgeable.

There is another class on July 29th at 7pm that still has tickets available here.

After the class St George gave us some of their absinthe, but it had to be in a wrapper in order for us to be able to walk out into tenderloin. The only wrapper they had to give us were hot dog wrappers.

Antelope Canyon is one of those places you have seen a million times in photographs, every landscape photographer has a photo of this place. However once you get in there, no matter how jaded you are, it is absolutely breathtaking. It is such a complex space that, as a photographer, you spend the first 15 minutes not knowing where to start there are so many possible shots.

I went on one of the photographer tours, which while a bit more expensive than the other tours it was great as it was quite a bit longer and best of all they cleared the canyon of all other visitors so that we could get the shots we wanted.

Got around to going to Flora in oakland a month ago or so, and was really satisfied by the cocktail menu as well as the talent of the bartenders. The bar menu was put together by Eric Adkins who also runs the incredible bar at Slanted Door in the city. There were several drinks that were particularly enjoyable (including the one pictured here that i can’t remember the name of), but i most liked the Filibuster. Food and Wine has the recipe:

The Filibuster

• 1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 ounce pure maple syrup
• Dash of Angostura bitters
• 1 large egg white
• Ice
• 1 lemon twist

Directions

Fill a cocktail shaker with the rye, lemon juice, maple syrup, Angostura bitters and egg white and shake well. Add ice and shake again. Strain the drink into a chilled coupe and garnish with the lemon twist.

Just finished up this weekend and it is is great. A fantastic overview of bourbon in Kentucky, that has interviews with most of the master distillers at each of the only 10 or so remaining distilleries (many of the master distillers are descended from the family of jim beam). It also has a pretty good guide in the back of many of the available bourbons on the market today. A good initiation into bourbon but still interesting enough to someone that is knowledgeable.

There’s a great exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California right now, The Birth of the Cool. It covers a lot of abstract painting, furniture design, architecture, animation, and has a great collection of record album covers. The paintings are the best part but they also have a lot of pretty cool film from the Eames that is worth the ticket price as well.