Skip to main content

Amerisleep AS3 Reviews

  My Amerisleep AS3 Unboxing Video (Surprise, my voice is ridiculous!) If I can (just barely) do it, you can totally tackle a bed-in-a-box by yourself. Updated 10/15/22 Amerisleep's AS5 was recently featured as the 'Best Soft Mattress in a Box' by Good Housekeeping , with the panel of reviewers noting: Pressure relief for side sleepers Taller than other boxed mattresses Good customer service    Amerisleep Mattress Reviews  We've been happy Amerisleep customers since purchasing our first AS3 mattress more than 9 years ago. Now we also have an AS2 and an AS4 (the AS3 is still our favorite). Born with chronic insomnia  (even as a baby - my family insists I was a nightmare), the struggle to improve my sleep is my life. My husband, the overly-analytical mechanical engineer, was initially skeptical of a mail-order mattress, but he was quickly won over. 2012: Wine glass test, sans wine. I was fairly confident our brand-new mattress would pass with f

Have You Ever Attended a 'Vertical' Progressive Meal?

Be sure to check out Part Two of this post, Beer + Pizza = Heaven(ly Village)

I'm always insisting to my readers that certain events are worth traveling across the country for, such as the Taos Summer Wine Festival. Well, I finally took my own advice. Three missed days of work, two delayed flights from Albuquerque, and a peppy VW rental car later, I was glad I did. 

The Autumn Food and Wine Festival was on Saturday, September 21st. The Fall Ale Fest was also on Saturday, September 21st.

Faced with a wine festival on one side of Lake Tahoe and a beer festival on the other, I did what any sensible person would do. I drank my wine, then raced an hour south to indulge in bottomless, tiny glasses of beer. When it's a beautiful Saturday at Lake Tahoe (and you have a designated driver), why not attend both?

Now, for this post, you should really be in the beer-and-wine festival spirit. I highly recommend sipping a favorite wine or cold beer while you read. Ah, it's like you're right there with me!

(Many of you are reading this first thing in the morning. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.)

SN and I started our day at the Northstar California resort, where the 34th annual Autumn Food and Wine Festival was in full swing. We had pre-purchased tickets for their Vertical Tasting event. This featured three different red wines from Hartwell Estate Vineyards and was like a progressive meal up the mountain via ski gondola. 

We would return to Northstar California the next day for everyone's favorite event, the Grand Tasting.

Northstar California is known for excellent skiing near Lake Tahoe, but it's a fun resort even when there is no snow on the ground. Actually, I don't ski, so it's even more fun without snow on the ground!

The air was crisp and clean. Not a bad place to spend your weekend, right?

SN and I were a little disappointed to learn about the seminars when we arrived. We'd known there would be presentations throughout the day, but couldn't find any specifics. Our Vertical Tasting event overlapped seminars we would have liked to attend. 

Oh well. We will just have to come back next year to learn the science of distilling and the best coffee brewing methods. I really could have benefited from that Mixology course now though. I think I can probably make a rum & Coke. Does that count?

Wine tasting at Northstar in September
We picked up our tickets and were each poured a "glass" of Napa Valley wine. 

It was technically a reusable plastic cup of wine, but this was actually a nice surprise because we have a million wine glasses and no stemless plastic wine cups. It's going to be perfect for enjoying a drink in the hot tub.

Oh, or for handing to a not-quite-coordinated friend (especially when they've been drinking). We all know one of these people and we love them, but stop breaking my wine glasses.

Use an eggshell as a serving dish
For our first food pairing, SN and I were each handed...an egg. 

Neat, right? We've been to dozens of food and wine events and have never been served food inside an eggshell. It's a genius idea, as the shells create a perfect individual portion with no need to purchase (or wash or store) tasting dishes. I need to remember this for when we host Thanksgiving this year!

Inside each egg was a custard (an egg custard - clever) with blueberries, nuts, and candied bacon.

"Elevate Your Palate" was a theme of this year's food and wine festival and we experienced this in a very literal way. For the next tasting, our well-dressed group of food and wine enthusiasts was whisked up the mountain inside a luxurious ski gondola. 

Northstar California is extremely popular for mountain biking during the summer and you can bet the crowd of muddy young bikers gave us some strange looks. 

I felt like they were missing out. They probably thought the same about us.

Ski lift gondolas at Northstar
Wheeee! See the special bikes-only ski lift? Did you know such a thing exists?

Halfway up the mountain, a rooftop deck was set up with more sips and nibbles. We enjoyed another red wine from Hartwell Estate Vineyards, which was paired with a meatball. None of the wine is available for sale to the public, so we felt quite exclusive.

Next was another trip on the ski lift - not a gondola this time but an actual open-air ski lift, which I've never done before and which was absolutely terrifying but fun. Gondolas were available but I was feeling brave, courtesy of two glasses of wine.

There are no photos because there was no way in heck I was taking my hands off the bar! Also, I was willing my sandals (please, please, sandals...) not to fall off my feet during the ride.

Oh, and some joker sitting on the other end thought it would be funny to try and lift the bar. Hahahaha, I hate them.

The ride went on, soaring over the treetops and ant-like bike riders, taking us all the way to the very summit. You know how they say it can be a little tricky to get off a ski lift? I had so much trouble! 

SN was quick to point out that people only have trouble because they're wearing skis. Whatever, SN.

Food tasting at Northstar
The final pour was waiting for us, along with a flatbread that paired nicely. The wine and food were good, but the real highlight was the view.


Wine with a view in Lake Tahoe
At an elevation of almost 9,000 feet, this was a spectacular place to relax and enjoy a velvety wine. 


Guest at the Vertical Tasting Event
Warm and cozy up top, freezing toes down low. Surprisingly, I was not the only guest who'd worn sandals. Hello, my kindred spirits!

Fruit and Cheese Platter
Northstar California encouraged us to linger and enjoy the view. It's easy to do with an assortment of fruit, cheese, nuts, and crackers. There was more than we could possibly eat and it was appreciated. There were also comfortable Adirondack chairs and cozy tables for 2.

An embarrassing quantity of Brie later, we soon found ourselves riding a gondola back down to the hub of the resort. 

Autumn Food and Wine Festival
There, the open-air marketplace was much more popular than when we'd arrived. 

Northstar Wine Festival
To my surprise, there were vendors providing free glasses of wine and tasty treats. It was like a sneak-preview of the next day's Grand Tasting! You can never have too many of those.

Really, I feel sad while writing this because I don't currently have any Grand Tasting events on my calendar. Let's make this a weekly thing, okay? If anyone is looking for a restaurant idea, this is a great one.

California food and wine festival
Vendors were also selling intricate jewelry, designer purses, kitchen gadgets, and more. Everyone was enjoying socializing and shopping in the sunshine. (The samples of little liquid sunshine probably didn't hurt.)

Northstar Lake Tahoe
Everywhere I looked, resort guests were laughing and having a wonderful time.

live cooking demonstration
We even found time to squeeze in a cooking demonstration. How quickly I forgot about the egg custard, meatball, flatbread, and lifetime of cheese I'd just consumed. Fortunately, there were at least a dozen vendors happy to help ease my appetite.

As much fun as we were having at the Autumn Food and Wine Festival, we soon pulled ourselves away. It was time to attend the Fall Ale Fest on the other side of Lake Tahoe! 

We could have recommended a trip to Northstar California based on this day alone, but this had only been a small event. The next day was going to be the real highlight and we had our tickets ready. 

Sunflowers at Northstar California

Ready to continue your virtual festival experience? We're headed to the wild and crazy Fall Ale Fest. (It felt like Spring Break in Key West!) 

Cheers!

Popular posts from this blog

Cake Mix Pancakes

This reader-favorite recipe is *almost* as popular as my Cake Mix Cookie Bars recipe .  When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Pancake making at its finest. Cake Mix Pancakes Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer.  While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! You pu

10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special.  Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas keep Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls soft, company-worthy, and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks Actually, make that 11 easy ways to improve store-bought cinnamon rolls: you can top them with homemade coffee whipped cream . Yum! Nope, make that 12 canned cinnam

Chemical Peel Before & After

This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Original Chemical Peel Article Considering a chemical peel? I recently underwent my first Jessner peel and thought I'd share my results, post a Jessner peel review, and answer some frequently asked chemical peel questions. (I'm guessing that "Does a chemical peel hurt?" is a biggie!) I'd been planning to order an over-the-counter peel when we were in Iceland , but my computer led me a different direction. I decided to do this on a whim after Groupon greeted me one morning with a great $40 chemical peel deal. Now, I can read your mind. You just gasped in horror and thought  You trusted your face to a  discount  chemical peel?!  You're wondering w

Sharing Funny Memes

Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  https://www.kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html You know those people who have nothing better to do than browse through memes for hours at a time, many of which are in poor taste? Yeah, I'm one of them. Oh, except I actually do have so much to do and absolutely should not be scrolling through memes. Just try and stop me. Covering everything from working to cake, here are my Top  Funny Memes from the last week: More Funny Memes to Make You Smile: The last one was created by yours truly. Kitty Deschanel - now a source for funny dog memes AND original memes! Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html

Hello Fresh Complaints

Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it.  Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. The fact that there are so many Hello Fresh complaints online does seem suspicious. Update:  Google is totally filling my site with Hello Fresh ads now, ugh. Also, since posting this  Hello Fresh complaints  article yesterday, I've already received this message from a reader: "I did order from Hello Fresh previously and was not charged what I was originally told (or thought I was told). Also, the food from them was anything but fresh and they refused to do a refund, only doing credit - even for the overcharges! So basically I ended up being out of money thanks to them." My main complaint about Hello Fresh has to do with their promotional rate, which seems like it is set up to be intentionally misleading (more on this below). Despite so many people complainin

Window Seat Idea - Dream Home Inspiration of the Day

See it? Waaay at the back of the photo?  I like how the window seat extends past the window all the way to the wall. How about you? If that's not your style, how about one of these lovely window seats? I'll seat you, my pretty, and your little dog too. How perfect would this be in a home office? I'd swap out that wimpy rug with a larger one.

Christmas Memes and More

Inspired by the popularity of my other memes posts, Funny Memes and Dog Memes , I have a new collection of memes for you to enjoy. I waste my life on the internet so you don't have to. Bookmark this post because I'll be adding to it as I find new memes for Xmas. Christmas Memes and More Fair warning that some of these are in poor taste. Isn't that usually the funniest meme?

My Instant Pot Explosion!

Like many new Instant Pot owners, I've wondered, How many Instant Pots have exploded?  (Eeek!) I'm happy to report that my research on Snopes and other sites has shown that these do not explode, at least not when used properly. There is a lawsuit between a woman in Texas and the Instant Pot manufacturer, but she admits she had thrown a towel over the steam vent. Do NOT do this.  Still concerned? Consider that on Prime Day of 2018, Amazon sold more than 300,000 Instant Pots. That's more than a quarter of a million sales in only 1 day! If these things were not safe, you would see news stories every day about someone being injured. Still, things can go wrong. We love our Instant Pot, the digital pressure cooker that seems to suddenly be in every home. You can't mess up - just throw in random ingredients and you'll get something yummy every time. It's foolproof. At least, that's how I used to feel about our Instant Pot, until the explosion... Inst