Napa Day 7...

I cannot believe I am already typing my last blog of my amazing Napa trip!  I knew this week would fly by and boy has it!!!  Today was no exception in the fantastic days that Libby and I have experienced on our vacation together!

We got up and lazily got ready, fighting gut issues, slight hangovers, and basically just our bodies not enjoying the vacation as much as we have.  But we rally, force down a bit of breakfast and off we go!

I had to take a shot of what I looked at every morning.  These were such peaceful starts to the day.  A cup of coffee, sitting outside listening to the quiet whispers of the morning in a beautiful location.

We arrive in Sonoma right on time for our Sonoma Bike Tour.  We opted for the Self-Guided Tour that included lunch, a map, and any help we needed along the way.  The bikes were typical hybrids with little pouches for all our crap, free water bottles (that say “I bike for Wine” Love!) and helmets.  We got the run down, signed our life away, ordered our lunch and off we went.

As soon as we started were instantly thrilled we did.  It felt so good to actually do something active.  Libby and I are both very active people and were actually missing the feeling of doing some sort of exercise.  The walk a few nights before was nice but this was a bit more.  We got a little turned around right off the bat.  The map was good but not great, there was a few areas that were a little fuzzy.  We snapped a few shots then called “Holly” our gal for help.

She got us back on the right track and off we went.  We both were going on and on about the beauty of the area, the huge sprawling landscapes, the amazing homes, the vineyards, just gorgeous!  I seriously want to move up here and live in this particular area!!!  I would be out and about on a bike or walking every single day!!!  We rode along enjoying the ride and found our way to our 1^st stop which was Gundlach-Bundschu Winery.  At this point the sun was starting to beat down, my empty belly was getting pissed, my slight hangover was kicking in and the “casual rider” option we had chosen was starting to sound like a fucking lie.  Ha ha!!  Up a ferocious hill and we found ourselves at the winery finally.  The clientele that was arriving seemed snooty and rich and annoying and I was starting to get quite “hangry”.  We decided to not bother going into the winery and ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to find our turn off.  I was useless at this point because I was blinded by heat and hunger but Libby found our way.

As we rode through the hilly portion of our trek I laughed at myself thinking of my cyclist friends and how much they would shake their heads and laugh at me.  I was shouting this to Lib and we laughed and groaned and ached our way through the beautiful portion of our ride.  That’s the thing – the beauty completely out did the pain.  You could not, not enjoy this ride.  It was a bit more difficult than we were planning yes – but stunning.

We made our way to Buena Vista Winery.  This is where we had planned our lunch stop.  See, how it works is the bike folks bring your lunch to your chosen winery at a certain time.  A cooler will be there with your name on it and bam – lunch is served.  This is all I could think about at this point.  We parked our bikes, realized we were too early for lunch so decided on a wine tasting while we wait.  This turned out to be one of my favorites to date!  We had a gal named Amber (Named after the Amber Beer) who not only understood us bike tour nuts and immediately gave us water, but she was super knowledgeable and awesome with the wines and gave us the entire history of the winery!  It’s the oldest in California.  Started by a self-proclaimed Count.  She told us how he moved here from Hungry, tried to start a winery in Wisconsin, finally came out here and opened the winery, told us about the history of the building, his entire life story, including how he died by getting eaten by an alligator – no shit,  and interjecting this with our wine tasting.  I fell in love with the Pinot Noir and Zinfandel which I purchased and Lib actually tasted a Sherry wine that she loved and bought.  The other cool thing about this tour is if you buy wine you text Holly and she picks it up for you!  Amber also filled me in on the character actors that portray the count and his daughter.  I made a mental note to look for work here when I move!  Ha ha!!  We thanked Amber and walked outside to find our cooler!

It was so awesome!  Our lunch was in there, extra cliff bars, more water, some candy and all the extras we needed.  Libby and I hungrily sat down and devoured our lunch.  It was freakin amazing!

The "Count"!

She just had to climb the tree

I text Holly a huge thank you and told her to come get our wine and off we were again.  We opted to skip the 3^rd winery on the tour since it seemed a long road and not easy and lolly gagged our way over to Ravenswood.  I was excited to do a tasting here since I was familiar with the name.  We walked in and were helped by a lovely older man who ended up giving Libby a couple of free tastings of white and I purchased a Zin taste.  They were all so yummy and of course I bought one.  I also got myself a little half carafe because I’ve been wanting to get one and this one had the nifty Ravenswood logo on it.  We text Holly we had another pick up and we were on our way.

She was always taking pictures of the trees

By this point we were feeling pretty good, laughing, buzzing, and happily sweating through the bike ride.  We landed at our last stop – Sebastiani.  This is another name I’m familiar with.  It was a more corporate feeling place but the grounds were gorgeous.  We shared a tasting, nothing of note, and wandered around a bit taking some shots.

 I would like to point out that this was a shot that took work.  I put my camera on a post and on the third attempt with my 10 second timer got this shot!  I really wanted one of us riding together!

We headed out back through the beautiful landscape and neighborhoods and back to the bike shop.  We thanked the staff, took our wine and off we went.

Now at this point Lib and I are realizing it’s the end of our trip.  We decide instead of going out let’s stay in and BBQ steak like our night one.  We swung by the grocery store and got a few things then back to our condo to get settled.  Lib BBQ’d the steaks and I made a fruit salad and side of rice.  I popped open the Chardonnay I purchased from Rutherford Ranch and we were set.  We sat out on the patio with some piano on the iPod and toasted to a fabulous week. 

We of course both got emotional and shared our love for each other and toasted many more times.  Our dinner was amazing and we finished it off with a cupcake each from our favorite Kara’s.

 This week has truly been an amazing experience.  What has made it even more special is I shared it with my best friend.  As we get older time gets more precious.  We look at things different, we are grateful for more, annoyed with less, love more, and hate less.  I love it.  This has come out this week.  It was a true testament to the exceptional friendship I have with Libby.  Our week could not have been better.  I came in so excited with expectations of an amazing week with my amazing friend and that’s exactly what happened.  We spent too much money, ate too much food, drank too much wine and regret not a single moment.  We vacationed like you should!  Our week was filled to the brim with great things to do but not too packed that we didn’t relax here and there.  We ate some ridiculous amazing food and drank some fantastic wines.  We shared stories, talked, and bonded even more.  I’m of course sad this week is coming to an end but I am grateful for every second we had from morning until night.  I can honestly say that this is one of the best, if not the best, vacation I have ever taken in my life.  I am so happy and bursting with gratitude!!

Tomorrow we go back to reality but Libby I love you and our week together has been the perfect girls week away!!  I will be back here for sure! 

Napa Day 6...

Today we were up and about but lazily started the day since our tour we had booked at Castello di Amorosa wasn’t until 11am. We did our usual up, shower, coffee and made breakfast – a routine I’m getting to love and will hate to see come to an end, but this morning my compadre locked us out.  Whoops!  She found a maintenance man and they (after quite the struggle and laughs as I just sat and continued eating my breakfast while they battled the door) let us back in (actually broke us back in quite easily I might add).  We finished getting ready and off we went.

We got to the castle a bit early and were immediately blown away by the sites.  It was a friggin castle!  My friend who recommended the place had said “You have to check out the castle built by a crazy vinter”.  I am so glad we did.  It was absolutely stunning!!!!    The story behind it is this guy went to Italy and was so bummed the castles there were all run down.  He decided to build an authentic castle here.  It took him over 20 years to build!  The tour began with our guide named Mark.  He was very cool with an awesome deep voice and off we went.

Outside the castle

The view coming up the drive

Our tour guide Mark

The great hall was magnificent.  The artist Fabio Sanzogini painted the entire thing!!!  Apparently Dario Sattui went to Italy in search of an artist and found this fellow.  He came back and painted the entire Great Hall.  Gorgeous!

The view from the castle wall

I liked the contrast here of the old skool castle door and the modern wine vat!

We then went down underground where ¾ of the castle is built.  We went through tons of barrel rooms – so friggin rad and through a library where he keeps all the original wines, old wines, old wine bottles, etc in little caged off rooms!

This is one of the many caged libraries of old wines and bottles!

The armory

Libby found one her size

We then went into the torture chamber.  Um ya – torture chamber.  They guy has a legit Iron Maiden and all kinds of the old torture devices.  This is where the “crazy” started running through my head.  He even had an actual dungeon!!  Really dude?  But so rad of course.  I could not get over how cool the underground portion was.  So authentic!

A legit Iron Maiden.  Eeek!

Just walkin through the coolness!!

After the tour we ended up in one of the big barrel rooms and did an actual barrel tasting.  So good!!!  It was one of their Cabernets. 

We then strolled through some more cool underground barrel areas then he took us to his bar.  What was super cool was there were all these little bar areas set up underground that the tour guides each had.  So our little group (of about 15 or so) had our own bar and Mark was our wine dude.  Our tour included a tasting and it was well worth it.  We had plenty of wines to choose from and Libby got to do an entire white tasting and I a red.  So rad!  Lib actually bought a couple of the whites and I bought a Primitivo and a Blend.  I got an extra taste of the Cab and we were set.  We chatted with a nice older gentleman touring by himself who was from the east coast and shared some hilarious wine stories with us.  We laughed, drank and I still was totally tripping out on the fact were in in an underground portion of a castle!!!

After we were done we tipped nicely and checked out.  We found some animals of course and made our way out. 

 Then we got my jumping shot!
Yay wine!

By this point we were pretty hungry so we decided to stop at the next place we found.  Unfortunately this was a horrible greasy spoon.  My BLT was ok but Lib’s food was awful.  It wasn’t as much as I wanted to eat so this would limit my tasting later.  Blergh.

We hit the road again and arrived at Chateau Montelena.  This was a recommendation of my friend because of its pretty ponds and gardens.  So glad we stopped!  We didn’t even go into the tasting room but instead wandered the grounds of the winery.  There was a huge lake and beautiful gardens.  A few Asian themed bridges and nooks.  We took plenty of photos and found ourselves just staring off into the lake at one point enjoying the serene nature of the place.

I think we started out in to this serene sight for a while

On the road again.  Our next destination was Stags Leap Winery.  I had wanted to stop here for sure and after a very hard time finding the place we finally did.  Cameron was a nice wine dude but a little pushy when it came to stuff.  I enjoyed the wines for sure but felt a bit rushed.  If the Cabs weren’t so expensive I so would have bought a bottle.  He poured me an extra taste of a yummy bolder Cab (I think trying to get me to join the wine club) I paid and was about to leave but he had me taste yet another Petite Verdot.  I mean how could I say no.  Such good wine, but a little too pricy for me.  Also got some lovely side of the road shots.  I loved the flowers along side the vineyards.  This was everywhere!

We swung back at the condo to freshen and drop off our goodies then back out again.  We headed into downtown again planning to have dinner then validate our groupon for a chocolate and wine taste.  We wandered around looking for a place and landed on Napkins.  The food was decent but the service was awful!!!  We were just about to leave because the entire song of Hotel California had played before someone helped us but they finally came out.  We opted to stay and it was fine but seriously – crappiest service ever.  Lib’s chicken was good and my shrimp linguini was decent. 

We saw a concert in the park which we crashed for a bit and wandered a bit downtown again.

Lib learning the Cha Cha

Off to our Chocolate and Wine tasting and Vintage Sweet Shoppe.  We tasted 5 wines pared with chocolates.  Oh. My. God.  Two of my favorite things!!!  It was just the right amount of sweets and a chocolate covered strawberry was our pallet cleanser.  Um hello! So good!  The wines were ok but the candy was so yummy!  I ended up buying a box of the Cabernet Truffles we tasted.  Yum!!

After this we realized it was still a bit early to head back to the condo so we headed back over to Oxbow Market for a drink.  I was hoping to see the darling Italian waiter from earlier in the week but alas no.  We sat at the bar, ordered some wine and a meat/cheese plate (I was still hungry) and had the perfect topper to the day.  On the way over I actually broke down and cried a bit while talking to Lib about the week because I am so extremely grateful this has even happened!  We have had such a truly amazing time and nothing has sucked!  I mean with the exception of the shitty hotel in San Fran and the nasty greasy spoon today – everything we have done has fucking rocked!!!  I cry all the time now a days but I’m seriously just truly happy.

Of course I ate again.  Fattie.

We also found out that the cupcake place we traveled to San Fran for is in OXBOW MARKET!!!  No regrets going into the city – but seriously – the same place!!!!???  Hilarious.  We bought more cupcakes and headed back.

We had intentions of drinking more and Jacuzzi tubbing it but exhaustion has won out.  We have a bike ride tomorrow then it’s all over!  I knew this week was going to go fast but damn – I wish I could slow it down.  It has been such an amazing week with my best friend and we have had such an amazing vacation – I seriously could not have asked for a better time!!!

One more day!