Napa Valley

I was a little weary of traveling when I went off to Napa Valley for a wedding last weekend. I'm so glad that I dragged my little bum on this trip though. It turned out to be such a blast. P and I drove up in little Charlie very early on Saturday morning (when we got on the road it was about 4:45 a.m.). We drove up, stopping occasionally, and made it to our hotel by 1:00. Our hotel was not very fancy, but it was clean, had a pool, and Elvis had once stayed there. I was happy. We briefly unpacked and then hopped in the pool for some swimming and water aerobics. We ended up jogging in the pool and racing. We had lots of fun laughing and splashing around.

Afterwards we got dressed and walked into Downtown Napa for a late lunch. Evidently during weekend days downtown Napa is a ghost town. We had a lovely lunch at Ristorante Allegria and then walked around the empty streets. We stumbled into the Bounty Hunter, a great wine bar, after a little while and decided to do a tasting. P. tried a white wine flight of wines and I went with champagne (life is always better with champagne). By the time we were done with the tasting (3 each), I was quite toasted. Did I mention we also had wine with lunch? We stumbled to Cole's Chop House for a delicious dinner. I had the most amazing Beef Wellington and stupidly ordered a glass of cab to go with dinner. By the time we'd finished dinner (though I'd only gotten through half of the cab), I was falling asleep. We managed to get a taxi and I promptly passed out.

On Sunday we decided to do a tour of the valley and check out some vineyards. Before we went drinking we went to brunch at an adorable cafe called Piatti. We had some delicious veggie omelets and then planned our strategy. Knowing that we are both lightweights we figured we'd be very judicious about the wineyards we went to. We ended up going to Saint Supery, Mondavi, Turnbull, and Luna. We both got a little tipsy (though we didn't taste at each vineyard and we always shared a flight), but we had a blast driving through the beautiful countryside and discovering new wines. I even joined the wine club at Luna!

We made it home and then got dressed for the wedding. The wedding was at Copia and was absolutely beautiful. The setting was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful, the food was gorgeous, and so were the couple. We had a blast. Monday morning we attended the post-wedding brunch and then headed home.

The drive home was fantastic. We took the scenic route and went to Muir Woods, Carmel, Big Sur, and generally just relished in the beauty that is the California Coast. P and I had a blast and I just felt so privileged to live here and to be able to do this. It was a great weekend. Life is good!



Me and the groom at the wedding.

P. and I at the wedding.

P on the PCH (somewhere between Carmel and Big Sur)