Napa Valley: Day 3

Ahhhh! Day 3 of our Napa trip: the day that someone else planned...and the day that I enjoyed the most. One of my close friends from college and her husband {Joselyn and Grant} live in San Jose, so they met us for our third day in wine country. They offered to plan this day, and I more-than-willingly handed over the reigns!

This recap may be a bit different than Day 1 and Day 2. It's funny how I have the most photos from this day...but the fewest relevant photos. I guess I should just be grateful that we didn't lose the {borrowed} camera. Given the quantity of wine we consumed, that is a miracle!

We started our morning with breakfast at Gott's Roadside Diner in downtown Napa. Our first winery stop was Grgich Hills Estate. 

KU Girls in California

Our second stop of the day was Provenance Vineyards. 

We went to V. Sattui picnic grounds for lunch. This place was a bit of a circus, but it had lots of food options and the weather was perfect...so the good outweighed the bad. After lunch we stopped at Trefethen Family Vineyards. 

Trefethen had significant damage from the earthquake...

While they're waiting on engineers to determine if this beautiful historic building can be saved, they've created a temporary tasting room in the fanciest tent I've ever seen {complete with chandeliers}. I think it was at this stop when the wine really started to take over, as you can see from the pictures that follow...

Apparently Linds and I thought we needed to be carried to the car on this dolly.
Obviously we didn't make it very far before I fell off.

Love this pic...Love these girls!

The final winery of the day was Domaine Carneros. Yay for more bubbly!

Joselyn & Grant Annen

Chris & Lindsay Shepard

Our tasting guide brought this BIG bottle of bubbly for a photo prop when he found out it was our anniversary.

Cheers to our final glass of bubbly. And it appears I'm really starting to lean at this point...

I'm not sure who took these, but we did get a few a pics of the beautiful scenery surrounding us at Domaine Chandon.

The final pic of the day actually turned out pretty good...

...but apparently it was quite a process to capture a good one!

We had dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni. Once again, I have no photos to show for it, but that's probably a good thing since I decided to have french fries and Fiji water for my entrée. Not kidding. I wish I was. Everyone else ordered like normal adults and seemed to really enjoy their food. And I highly recommend the french fries!

And that's a wrap...our anniversary trip to Napa fully recapped! If you're planning your first trip to Napa Valley and have questions, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to send you our schedule...and a google map of a bunch of wineries...and maybe even a spreadsheet! 

Thanks for the memories, Napa Valley!

Napa Valley: Day 2

I willingly got up at 5:00 am on our second day in Napa because we were scheduled to be picked up at 6:00 am for a hot air balloon ride...and then we got a call at 5:30 am cancelling the balloon ride because rain was coming in to the valley. I was sad. But I got over it after I slept a couple more hours.  

After having breakfast at Oxbow Public Market, our first tour/tasting was at Domaine Chandon.  

Domaine Chandon is beautiful...absolutely gorgeous scenery. The rain kinda prevented us from enjoying the beautiful views, but I did get a couple pics:

Domaine Chandon's tank room, which contains more than 100 of these HUGE containers.
Each tank holds enough bubbly that you could drink one bottle EVERY.SINGLE.DAY for 103 years!

The barrel room at Domaine Chandon.

The next stop was Cakebread Cellars. 

We stopped at Rutherford Grill for lunch. It's part of the Hillstone Restaurant Group {Houston's}, so the menu was familiar. 

Hungry guys...{im}patiently waiting for lunch!

I was a little "wined out" by this point, so I was excited to have a Diet Coke.
Ryan and I shared the French Dip...it was delicious!

We felt like drowned rats by this point, so we went back to the hotel to freshen up and just hang out for a bit. It was Halloween, and there was a contest among the various departments of the hotel for the best pumpkin carving. Pretty impressive pumpkin art...

Although I have no pictures to document it {oops!}, we went to Mustards Grill for dinner. Ryan and I split the famous pork chop {per the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"}, and it did not disappoint. 

Looking for the recap of Day 1 in Napa Valley? It's right here.

Still to come: Day 3 in Napa Valley

Napa Valley: Day 1

Let's talk a little bit about our anniversary trip to Napa Valley. You may have observed that I have a bit of a Type-A, control-freak personality...but I'm actually kind of opposite of that when it comes to vacations. I don't like to be on a strict schedule while on vacation; I'd rather do whatever we feel like doing whenever we feel like doing it. However, that mindset doesn't really work for a vacation in Napa Valley. Sooooo...I did what any Type-A, control-freak would do:

• Consulted {begged} anyone and everyone with any knowledge of Napa Valley to determine which wineries and restaurants we should visit.
• Created a spreadsheet with all of the recommendations.
• I must admit that the spreadsheet I created was pretty much useless {essentially just a really long list that we had no idea how to narrow down}, but then we were gifted a spreadsheet from a true Napa expert that designated the wineries into three categories: "Highly Recommend," "Great If You Have Time," and "Skip This Trip." {When Ryan saw this fabulous spreadsheet, I believe he said, "Wow...there really are other people in the world that are like you!"} Anyway, thank you to my dear friend Sabrina for saving my sanity with that amazing spreadsheet full of detailed notes!
• Created a google map with all potential wineries and restaurants to minimize driving/travel time.
  

I'm not going to lie...the planning part was pretty stressful for me. I wanted to make sure we had reservations/appointments to fill our time, but I didn't want our schedule to be so tight that we'd be constantly hurrying to get to the next place. We solved this by scheduling just one or two tours/tastings each day and then filling in with nearby wineries that do not require appointments/reservations. We had a solid schedule outlined before we left, but it definitely had flexibility. I am so glad we did it this way...if we had over-scheduled ourselves, I'm sure I would have ruined all the fun by being a drill sergeant the entire trip just making sure we got to each and every place ON.TIME {I don't do late!}. Moral of the story: plan ahead, but leave some flexibility in your schedule. 

Whoa...are you still with me? Sorry about all that endless babbling! Moving right along now...

We left Dallas early in the morning and arrived in San Francisco at 9:30 AM, which left the whole day open for F-U-N.

Our first Virgin America flight...
and now we never want to fly any other airline!

Leaving San Francisco en route to Wine Country

First stop: Fremont Diner for lunch. This was a fun stop for lunch in Sonoma. We sat outside on the patio to enjoy the beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery.

After lunch, we drove into Napa and checked into our hotel {The Westin Verasa}, and then we walked around to check out the downtown area. We passed by a tasting room that is now serving ladies...Phew! 

We continued walking and stopped by Taste at Oxbow to sip a little wine.

Linds was napping, so I had two dates at Taste of Oxbow

Next up: cave tour and barrel tasting at Del Dotto Vineyards {the St. Helena location}. Hands down, this was our favorite winery! It's an absolutely beautiful place...the tour is amazing and includes some fabulous wines {big cabs}. Word on the street is Del Dotto has heavy pours...I wouldn't disagree!

Posing with our very entertaining tour guide

The day we arrived happened to be Lindsay's birthday, and she chose Cole's Chop House to celebrate. Excellent choice! It was beyond delicious...amazing food and exceptional service! 

Happy 33rd Birthday, Linds! 

Bananas Foster for the Birthday Girl...to share with us!

Coming soon: Day 2 in Napa Valley