California Wineache

What do free flights, a love for wine, and people who would like any excuse to not be working lead to? A trip to San Fransisco/Napa Valley! Would I reccommend it now having gone there? Well if you are someone who gets this far in my blogs, and then just looks at the pictures then yes absolutely! If you want to know why...you'll have to read on :)!

Friday
We took off on an early morning flight which I was super excited for because I was finally traveling with my husband and not for work. AND I finally got to use the bag my mom made for me! Just call her the free Nancy Bradly!

When we arrived in San Francisco, I looked at Nate and go "Totto we aren't in Kansas anymore" ok not really because that would of been so cheesy. Instead right when we stepped off the plan I started singing "In the city, city of Compton...". It was weird but then the entire airport yelled "We keep it rockin'! We keep it rockin'!"

Then the real adventure began...

We headed down to the Wharf. It was gorgeous! We had some fish, of course, and then walked around.

Apparently my kisses are wild! How do you think I got Nathan ;)?

Unfortunately no one had told me about the "Bush Man" or at least that is what I call him. Let me set the scene for you, I was having a nice conversation with my husband and then all the sudden some bush came lunging at me and roared. My reaction was to yell "HOLY SHIT". Apparently if he does that to you, you have 7 years of good luck! In my opinion he needs to trim his bush...

Then it was time to head to Napa for our first wine tour/tasting.

So I left my white trash volcabulary at the Wharf because we were headed to a place fit for Kings & Queens, Castello di Amorosa.

We took a tour of the castle. It was built completely out of materials made from Italy, maninly Tuscany. It was gorgous! They have mid-evil parties there, wine club, and wedding receptions. It took 15 years to build.

They even had a torture chamber for bad husbands!

While Nate was being punished, I found a one night stand ;)!

Humans can not stay at the castle so the only residents are a couple cats, and these goats! It was like being back in KS :)!

We had a great time there!

Then we headed back to San Fran to eat in Little Italy but not before a little needed sightseeing! Look familiar?

Here's another clue...

We then took a picture in front of a random house we thought was Mrs. Doubtfire's! But then quickly creeped on the right door step to get the real deal after looking at house numbers!

Finally we ate in Little Italy....YUM!!

Something to note for future reference though, when it's a Friday night and there is a baseball game at home in San Francisco be prepared for a 3hr drive ;)!

Saturday
We had an early morning, because I had jam packed this vacation! So much to do, so little time! But before we could get our day started, we needed a little breakfast. I have always heard celebs talk about Jamba Juice so I decide when in Rome! IT WAS TO DIE FOR! You can get your veggies/fruit in for the day and they tell you exactly how many calories are in each smoothie. AMAZEBALLS!

Anyhow, now that I got my Jamba Juice sponsorship out of the way, I can tell you about the rest of our day! We headed to Alcatraz Island. Granted this was something Nathan wanted to do not I, but it ended up being really cool and the views were amazing!

Oh and even better, it was Civil War day where people who I PRAY have "real people jobs" dress up to reenact the war!

Nathan and I trying to look like prisoners with 1980's headsets.

We had to literally run to make the boat going back to the island. It gave me a glimpse of what those prisoners felt like running for their lives...that is how bad I wanted to make the boat to keep us on schedule :)!

We had a great lunch at "Wipeout Bar & Grill" and then we tried to hold in our lunch down the windiest road in America....Lombard Street! Pure craziness!

It was then time to head back to the wine country but not before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Was the guy who named it color blind? But what a sight...

Finally we made it to Sterling Vinyards. I thought man...this has to be a great place, the girl in the bathroom is SLAMMED lol! The gondola ride was fun and beautiful. It took us up to the top of the hill to the actual winery.

Though the wine was what the layman would call "crappy", Nate and I still made the best of it and had lots of fun!

We even did some Alison Moore photography! Seriously Ali, whenever we tried to take a cool picture, we would say "I'm going to Alison Moore this" lol!! Hit her up people if you need pictures taken! www. alisonmoorephotography.com

Though the wine at Sterling was sub-par the views were not...

and the grapes huh Nate ;)?

That night we were looking for somewhere to eat along our way back to our hotel. Nate kept pointing out places and I would say "That looks like a day restaurant. I want to look at a night resturant". I then had to explain to him that night restuants were sexy. And still I got the look of "WHO ARE YOU". We finally decided on Pacific Blues Cafe in Yountville. Though definitely felt like a "day resturant", it was DELICIOUS! The Ahi Tuna Tacos were OMG to die for!

Sunday
We called this the "DAY 'O WINE"! What does that mean? It means all wine, all day :)! Our first winery was "Cakebread Cellars".

The wine was amazing and the people running it were even better! FINALLY a place that brought out the big guns with the large glasses and they also knew how to pour! They knew what they were doing....get people tipsy at 10:30am and they are bound to buy bottles of wine that are double what they wanted to spend :)!

The people next to us at Cakebread were talking about how they heard the winery next door was great, so Nate & I didn't go far to get to our next stop....Sequoia Grove!

It also didn't hurt they had a sign out side that caught this red wine lovers eye ;)

We again, had some great wine! And now I finally have figured out what type of dog I want...a Bullmastiff :)! Seriously...isn't he a lover!

Our wine pourer at Sequoia was so much fun to talk to. We found out shortly that the reason we had so much in common was because he used to live in Shawnee, KS. Sometimes it's about who you know, and sometimes it's about where you are from! Being that we were from Kansas, we got to taste some wines that weren't even on the menu. He knew the way to this Kansas girl's heart :)!

He also gave the best reccomendation for lunch! My mouth is watering just thinking about this. We went to Go Fish for lunch. I had the BEST salmon sandwhich of my entire life! And that is not just the bottle of wine we shared at lunch talking!

Should we of called it a day after 2 great wineries and a bottle of wine at lunch...maybe...but that is definitely NOT what happened! Onto PlumpJack for another tasting.

Contrary to how we look in the photos above we do remember that the wine was NOT superb. But the nice thing about going to PlumpJack is that we got to drive through a little of the country side and get some great pictures!

Want to play a fun game? Where's the wino?

We made it back to the highway and found another winery called Hall. Again, someone did some great marketing to catch my eye...

We actually found people that looked just like us there!

This winery had such a great atmosphere. We sat outside, enjoyed the acoustic guitar, and had great conversations.

From there we were on a roll. We were like "ok, we can definitely hit up 2 more wineries." Again, should we of...eh...absolutely if you asked us ;)! So quickly we stopped at Robert Mondavi. They said we were too drunk so they turned us away. OK NOT REALLY! They were "closed" for the day. I screamed "Come on, I'll pay in cash" but that didn't even work ;). So instead we took the opportunity to take fun pictures!

Finally, we stopped at the last winery of the day called Peju Province.

By this time I'm sure our taste buds were coated with a days worth of wine but for what it's worth, we enjoyed the wine.

I also made some short friends there. There were a couple little kids there with their parents for Mother's Day. Maybe they liked me because my IQ was probably at their level by then lol!

Our day ended at Ginza Sushi in Tiburon, CA. It was delicious, much needed, and had a waterfront view!

Monday

Our last stop of the trip...Tartine Bakery & Cafe. Let me just say, the croissants that had chocolate and other flavors in them... MELTED in your mouth! They were so flakly, light, delicious... great way to end the trip!

What are my must sees/do's having been to San Fran/Napa?

• Cakebread Cellars
• Sequoia Grove Winery- If you are from KS ask for the retired Chief of Police that used to live in Shawnee, KS
• Go Fish (Resturant)
• Ginza Sushi
• Castello di Amorosa Tour
• Alcatraz Island Tour
• Visit the Fisherman's Wharf

Nathan and I had an amazing time. We might have even found where we are going to retire ;)