Médoc Region, France + Houston, Texas
We recorded this episode while live streaming on Facebook so some of you may already know all about what has happened in this episode. The space-time warp situation at 10K Dollar Day is alive and well. We just spent time at the Outlier Podcast Festival in Salt Lake City, and we loved meeting so many amazing people, some of whom you will hear in some upcoming 10K Saturday episodes! We are also going to be guests on some other podcasts, you can check out our appearance on The Blind Blogger's podcast here! While in Salt Lake City in addition to meeting great people, we also had the best Mexican food of our life at Red Iguana, a recommendation from one of our 10K Saturday guests, Daniel Cilli!
Alison is obsessed with Cheer, the new docu-series on Netflix that everyone in America has already finished binge watching. Lulu is obsessed not with an item, but with the hunt for an item. She is currently on the prowl for the perfect bag. She is pretty sure she will find a husband before she finds the perfect bag. A husband with cargo shorts is just about the right amount of pockets she wants in a bag.
Alison is wishing for the Spanx Leggings that Lulu is wearing. Lulu is wishing not for an item from Philip Williams Posters but is wishing for just the courage to walk in and look around.
Très beau château or "the beautiful castle" is a bit of an understatement when describing the Airbnb Alison found when imaginarily exploring the Médoc region of France. Located in Tresses, just 20 minutes or so from Bordeaux, where most of Alison's day will take place is Château Sénailhac, a bed and breakfast housed in a 19th-century castle surrounded by vineyards. The stunning grounds, courtyard, seven bedrooms, and easy access to wine country is right up Alison's alley. In addition to being able to reserve the whole castle on Airbnb for approximately $3250 a night, you can also book individual rooms for around $200 USD a night in this castle! TOTALLY DOABLE. Side note: don't you think Alison would have been the perfect addition to the cast of Netflix's Wine Country? Cue "Act Naturally", amirite?
Usually a private driver or a luxury car rental would do, but Alison plans to get around her wine trip one a OneWheel device, it's like a motorized skateboard, or one of those scooters with no handles. They teach you how to ride it, but pretty sure one or two glasses of wine in and someone would be having a major accident. Let's say she got extra lessons and promised she wouldn't ride while inebriated, which should be about 1% of the day. Sober, this thing looks like an awesome way to explore, maybe she can purchase one to take home?
Alison's first stop is a visit to La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux’s wine “theme park” with many interesting exhibitions, with audio guides in six different languages, You can also go to the top of the building to take in a 360 view of Bordeaux! They offer many varietals (haha, get it? wine humor? no?) of wine-tasting courses, however they are french-speaking classes, so unless you know a little bit, maybe bring a french-speaking friend with you?
While the wine park certainly provided an experience and thorough education on Alison's topic préférée, a trip to Bordeaux is not complete without visiting a winery. She used WinePaths.com to find Le Cercle Lynch-Bages where you can take introductory tasting classes, learn about different blends, and try your very best to understand and later recall what they tell you about the AOC (appellation d'origine contrôlée - "controlled designation of origin") and the terroir unique to Bordeaux. She's very excited to attempt to recall what she learns, and to take the food and wine pairing class.
Alison heads 45 minutes north for dinner at Château Cordeillan-Bages, a hotel restaurant with 2 Michelin stars, nbd. Grated Burgundy truffle, watercress coulis, and rum foam show up as ingredients in her dishes, if that gives you any indication of how bourgeoisie she feels after dining here. Bougie and boozy, as she also did a wine-tasting and purchased a $560 bottle of the 1999 Côtes du Roussillon Villages, a vin rouge or red wine, her new favorite red wine. Now only expensive French reds will do, no more Trader Joe's three-buck-chuck for her.
Wanting to make the most of her visit, she goes looking for the local nightlife - and comes across L’Empire Bordeaux. It looks like a raucous good time, with girls dancing on tables in what she dubs "edgy period costumes". To dress the part Alison did a little pre-trip shopping on her favorite site, Etsy, and got this antique french dress of lace tulle and ribbon, that if worn with little to nothing underneath would be very, umm, french. Amusez-vous bien!
Lulu is excited to stay at the Hotel Zaza Museum District in their Warwick Apartment, one of their concept suites that at nearly 2,000 square feet, has room to spread out and host a dinner party at the 12 foot table. Shelves full of books, a furnished balcony, and a garden tub make for some relaxing touches to this luxe stay. She books an SUV with private driver through 10K favorite Blacklane, which takes her to breakfast at Bosscat Kitchen and Libations. Lulu indulges in the fruity pebbles french toast with a condensed milk glaze and bacon, the Maui meatloaf with a sunny egg, and washes that all down with a carafe of the rosé bellini. Breakfast of champions!
She's going to need all that to fuel her energy for her outing to the Children’s Museum of Houston whose trademarked slogan "A playground for your mind™" may just be an understatement. With an EcoStation and science labs as well as princess parties and spy games, this is the perfect spot for Lulu to let out her inner child. Wait a minute...“To enter the museum, your group must include a child age 12 or under.” So she flies out Alison's daughter Hannah on Delta, first class. Okay, Alison can come too.
Lulu thought ahead and brought Primo Viaggio Convertible Kinetic child seat for Hannah to be able to ride in the Blacklane SUV. Another pre-trip purchase was a PortoVino purse, the perfect way to discreetly transport two bottles worth of wine wherever you go! Obviously Lulu got one for her and one for Alison. She purchased two bottles of the 2009 Harlan estate red for $1500, which should fill up their purses quite nicely. Then to be even more discreet, she purchased two Hydro Flask Water Bottles with Sports Caps. This way no one has any clue that they are walking around the children's museum sipping wine.
Lulu has a surprise for Hannah, they are all heading back to the hotel apartment to do a Karaoke video shoot! Waiting for them is a Disney princess portable karaoke machine, a 4-color portable DJ lighting set, and a Dyson cool AM07 Air multiplier tower fan, you know, to get the wind in the hair look? Oh and there is a makeup artist from Perfect Pout Houston to get Hannah all dolled up and ready to perform. After their undoubtedly enthralling performance, the famished friends head to Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts for the Double Donut sandwich made up of two glazed donuts, two fried chicken tenders, bacon marmalade.
Now they are going to spend the afternoon doing some toy shopping. Wanting to support local businesses, Lulu gives Hannah $500 to spend, and based on recommendations from this Care.com posting the head out to these five independent toystores:
Hannah is then going to decide where in the city and to whom she wants to give away these toys. To close out their day Lulu found family-friendly Saint Arnold Brewing Company for dinner, it is advertised as a brewery tour you can take kids on. They also make their own root beer, so the ladies all get a round!
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
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