"Where do you keep your finest cheese?" Adventures in Napa Valley

Ashley landed in San Francisco at about 9:30 and her only request was that I not be late in picking her up. Naturally, when she called to tell me that she had made it I told her that I was at T.G.I. Fridays splitting an appetizer with some people I had just met. Annoyed, she told me to get there as soon as possible. Little did she know that I was actually spying on her from the other side of baggage claim, watching her become increasingly frustrated with my tardiness. When she saw me she took a double take before realizing that I am the master of all pranks and that she is nothing but a FOOL! I mean seriously, I would not be caught dead at T.G.I. Fridays. In fact, one of my worst fears is that I would live in a place where the only social outlets would have menu items that are accompanied with adjectives such as “Extreme” or “Rockin”.

Out of focus, but that's Ashley waiting

I am pretty sure that they had to get a forklift to get her bag off the plane cause she had packed so much stuff. I have been gone for 3 months but I could have packed 1/3 of my car into this monstrosity… I mean she would only be out west for 10 days. 

Exhausted, we pulled into Napa just before midnight and went to check in at the luxurious Travel Lodge Hotel. When we got to the room, I realized that there must have been some sort of mistake because instead of two queen size beds (as requested) there was a single bed, a recliner and a hair dryer that looked like it had been stolen from the Millennium Falcon.

After moving to a new room, I gave Ashley the socks I bought her and we called it a night.

The next morning we woke up to find that the power had gone out in the middle of the night. Ashley grabbed the first shower so by the time I got in I felt like a polar bear taking his first dip of the spring. Since the entirety of downtown was without power, all plans of eating a unique breakfast went out the window. Luckily, the local IHOP was open for business.

I had booked two spots on a wine tour that we found online. It said that we would be in a group with up to 10 other people so we were surprised when we showed up and the only other two in our group were our age. After a quick introduction, we realized that our day was going to be awesome. Summer and Vincent came up from Amarillo, TX and had been engaged for about 7 months. Vincent had just gotten back from Iraq a few weeks earlier so they were both ready to party.

Our tour brought us to 5 different vineyards where we got to taste 5 or 6 different wines each. Our first stop was Flora Springs vineyard. I could go on and on about the different wines and post excerpts from my tasting notes but I won’t go there. Honestly I just like to drink wine, so we will just go ahead and toss a blanket statement on this on. It was fun.

After Flora Springs we went to Alpha Omega where Ashley talked the guy into pouring us “Bonus Round wine” and with our 2nd winery under our belt we headed to lunch.

Next we visited V. Sattui Winery where we grabbed some stinky cheese and headed to the tasting room. After being tricked into trying the white zinfandel, I poured out my first glass of the day (I hate that stuff). Before my mom passed away in 2006, she left me with some wisdom. Don’t date a girl who drinks white zen. Instead, befriend her and teach her the glories of red wine & once she converts, ask her on a date.

Liz, Mom & Me

FYI – my mom was a total badass. It really sucks for those of you who never got the chance to meet her because she was an amazing woman. She was a lover of red wine, the Episcopal Church and cooking. She was actually a part of a wine tasting club called “The Knights of the Vine” where she vowed to never drink water again but only wine.

After V. Sattui we boarded the bus and had a little picnic while in route to Black Stallion winery.

Snacktime

By this point we were all feeling the effects of the wine so we had a little photo shoot.

Our last stop of the day was William Hill where we found a cork tree, which we decided to climb. The vineyard did not approve of this.

On the way back to where the bus picked us up, we decided that 5 winery’s was not enough and that we needed to try and squeeze one more in. Summer really wanted to hit up Castello di Amorosa where the Bachelor was filmed so we hopped in their sweet Chevy Versa and headed north to find the castle.

The Versa

We got there just in time to catch the last tour and wine tasting. The castle was really cool but we laughed when we found out how old it was (construction started in 1994).

For dinner we decided to find a place in down town Napa since we couldn’t get reservations at French Laundry, which is supposedly the best place in town. They have a set menu that costs around $250 bucks a head (before wine) and reservations fill up months in advance. We ended up at a place called Rotisserie & Wine where the food was out of this world. We basically sat up at the bar and had the bartender order for us.

Old Vine

The next morning we decided to head towards the Champaign Caves in Sonoma but were stopped short due to the roads being flooded. Instead we started our drive towards San Francisco.