Northern Cali Trip Recap

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Northern California.  Kid free.

We flew into San Jose, CA and stayed with a friend for a few days.

We love Santa Cruz, and spent a day there pretending we were on the Titanic.

We met our friends Tom and Martha in San Francisco for our drive to Napa.  Rainbow over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Super.

Our first night in Napa we had a 7 course meal at Morimoto. Holy crap!  I've never been so full, but it was crazy good.

We did some wine blending at Joseph Phelps.

Then we did a tasting at Caymus.

They treated us like royalty at Beringer.

Doug had a tea party at the C.I.A.

We found the world's best coffee!

Seriously heaven!

I helped make wine at Spottswoode.

We got the grand tour at Chateau Montelena.

Just like the wine label.

I crapped my pants 100 times going up a mountain filled with blind corners.  Finally we found the sign for Chappellet.

Well worth the panic attack!  We even got a barrel tasting.

Great Italian dinner and a little more wine sippin'.

A day trip over to Sonoma and this for breakfast.

Williams Selyem was my favorite overall tasting.

 Pax, the wine maker at Wind Gap, gave us an autographed magnum with strict instructions to consume at dinner that night.  Yes sir.

Doug finally found a bottle big enough to make me happy.

The day we headed back to San Francisco was crazy foggy.

A quick walk through the bay area and the Christmas decorations.

And then back to reality.

Oh Napa, you caused me to gain 10 pounds.

This bottle caught my attention and made me giggle.

The fall colors in the valley were gorgeous!  I wasn't really expecting that.

And I found this poster in a store.  The Sisterhood of W.I.N.E.  Women In Need of Excitement.  That just about says it all!

Napa was fantastic.  We ate every meal like it was our last.  We drank amazingly good wine everyday, all day.  It was glorious.  You only live once.  Do it right!