July 4th/Napa

Sorry I haven't been posting much... when things are busy I don't have time and when things are slow, I have nothing to write about. However, we had a fun filled weekend...

David and I were able to spend the past weekend in Napa with my parents and Aunt Nat and Uncle Dan. Micah stayed home with Mimi and Bubba (extra thanks to them for that). We were absolutely spoiled the whole weekend and had so much fun. I don't have the pictures yet because I need to get them from my sister so I'll recap the trip and add pics later. I'll warn you that this is pretty lengthy and detailed recap so sorry if I bore you...

Friday we arrived in San Francisco around 11 and drove to Napa. The usual short and nice drive ended up taking us 4 hours because of all of the holiday traffic. Urg, that was annoying. Don't worry though we still made sure to stop at In-N-Out burger on the way, even though that made us miss our first winery appointment. Luckily, they rescheduled us for later and that ended up being my favorite stop the whole trip. Once in Napa, we headed straight to Chateau Montelena for a "library tasting". Great wine and loved getting to hear all the history. We then headed to Fleury Winery (which was supposed to be our first stop but remember we had to get our In-N-Out burgers). Fleury was so much fun. It is a small production winery and the people who work there were so great. For the tasting, we sat around a big table in comfy chairs and listened to relaxing music as we tasted. Sound relaxing? It was. It wasn't until that point that we felt like we were on vacation (due to all the traffic and rushing around). We even got to try their brand new Sauvignon Blanc which they had just bottled the week before. By far, my favorite wine of the trip. We then headed to The Chanric Inn to check in. This place was awesome. It is run by too guys (Channing and Ric) who are super nice and take their job very seriously. Every morning, we were served a 3 course brunch that was AMAZING. Ric is a professionally trained Chef who is super talented. If you are ever headed up to Napa, we highly recommend staying here. Here is a recipe they have on their site for one the meals they served us (this was course 3 on our last day). We ate dinner at Brannan's grill that night which was very yummy.

Saturday morning David and I woke up early and headed to our couple's massage. It was great, to say the least. David even enjoyed it which is surprising because massages usually weird him out. That day, we went to Del Dotto Vineyards for a cave tour (very cool and VERY tasty wine straight out of the barrels) and then we stopped in Plump Jack for a little tasting before heading to Meadowood for a croquet lesson. When you see the pictures you will now understand why we were wearing all white (apparently required for croquet). There are quite a few competitive people in our bunch so this was really fun. That night we went to the Louis Martini winery for a 4th of July barbeque. It was fun, however, it seems that Californians don't quite know how to do barbeque like Texans do. We enjoyed a fireworks show later that night from the porch at Chanric.

Sunday was our "educational" day. We started out at Cakebread for a "sensory evaluation". This was really neat. They taught us about all that goes in to making wine as well as the different things you can taste in wine. We learned all about alcohol content, acidity, tannins, etc. It was very informative. From there, we had a yummy lunch at a place I can't remember. It was the best burger I've ever had though. I really am not that obsessed with burgers, although this post makes it sound like I am. We then went to ZD for a quick tasting. From there, we went to Joseph Phelps for more learning. This time, we learned about the different smells in wine and how you really are supposed to swirl your wine and smell it and then do this slurping thing to get all the flavors. It was really interesting and I won a prize there so that was exciting. It was just a bottle opener but it is way cooler than the one we have. That night we had dinner at a little restaurant in St. Helena called Cook. I was really skeptical when we first got there because their menu was very tiny but it ended up being the best meal of the trip. Their chocolate cake was oh my goodness so tasty.

Monday we had our yummy brunch and then headed for the San Fran airport. It is annoying that with the 2 hour time difference and a 4 hour flight, you really do have to have an entire day for travel coming home. Needless to say, we had a blast and hope that we get to go back again someday! Hope everyone had a fun 4th!