Well here I am again! Almost a year later to the day back in Napa
Valley where I had an incredibly epic week long vacation with my bestie last
year.
Although there was someone not happy I was leaving...
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| How dare you |
This time I’m with my dear friend Lisa. Lisa and I met while working at Pacific
Symphony Orchestra years ago and developed a great friendship. She’s super into road tripping and we planned
this trip over a slightly tipsy night at a bar in Santa Ana when I was
lamenting to her about how hard it was to find anyone to actually road trip
with me. She went to college up here and
we decided to take a little 5 day vacay and see how we travel together! So – here we are!!
We headed out a little after 5:30am hoping to
avoid some of the LA rush hour traffic, but sadly we landed right in it. It does seem that construction is happening
every fucking where in California so our drive was a bit slower than
preferred.
We opted to stop in Santa Barbara for breakfast
and ended up at Joe's Cafe.
Lisa
got a delicious looking omelet and I opted for some smoked salmon, tomatoes,
hash browns, poached eggs and toast.
Delish! The service was a bit
slow and our brekkie turned into a bit longer of an event than planned, but all
good and cool and off we went.
Along the way we passed the Madonna Inn. Lisa mentioned this is a fun
roadside attraction and we pulled off the next exit to check it out. Um – hello Kitch Heaven!!!!!!
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| It's like a pink Christmas! |
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| The bathrooms are also super pink!!! (Oh and apparently the boys bathroom has waterfalls in the urinals...too crowded for us to sneak a peek though.) |
I have never seen a place so pink in all my life. It seriously looked like the wedding from Steel Magnolias just happened. There was a restaurant and bar that had all copper bartops and tables. The chairs at the bar were the glorious pink floof. The water goblets are exactly what I think I used to see in the shelves of my great grandmas house!!! The place was friggin awesome. I have decided to add this to my bucket list
to come spend a weekend here.
Lots of conversation, music, discussions and
laughing as we cruised up the 101 highway.
Traffic. More fucking
traffic. Ugh!!! We stopped in Gilroy for a pee break and
noticed next weekend there is a garlic festival! OMG!
Did you know Gilroy was the garlic capital??? Um….I think we need to revisit this town.
Off we went again.
We hit more fucking traffic and more fucking construction and the 680
was a damn nightmare with traffic. The
other issue is my damn knees. Um
WTF. Apparently I’m all of a sudden an
old lady and my knees hate driving.
Argh! Anywhoo…after a missed
exit or two we’re well on our way. We
start rolling into familiar territory and I get excited. We hit the 29 and start heading up towards
Calistoga where we’re staying this time around.
Around this time is when the relaxation and real
excitement for vacay hit. We had Old
Crow Medicine Show blasting on the radio, windows down, laughing and chatting,
vineyards surrounding us and bam – I exhaled all the stress and annoyance with
traffic and work and life and fell into vacation mode. We were here.
Northern California is so much more lush and green than back home. So many large stretches of land with just vineyards for miles. I'll never get over the beauty!
We stop on the 29. More f-ing traffic and construction. Seriously? We came to find out later they're doing some kind of re piping and have been at it over a year. Libby and I never made it over this way so it was probably just as bad. My goodness!
We arrive at our destination – Carlin Cottages.
I was a bit wary at 1st,
not quite sure what to expect. We
checked In with a very sweet woman, were handed our key (Yes actual key) with a
shamrock as a keychain mind you, and given our room.
It’s fucking awesome! We have a
bed and a couch that folds into a bed (not a futon!). We have a kitchen and more closet space than
I have at home! So rad!!!!
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| The closer bed is the couch folded out. |
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| Little creepy faded gnomes everywhere! |
The place reminded me of something out of the 60's/70's. Very kitchy and homey. I would totally revisit this place!
We get
settled, unpack and clean up and immediately head out for some dinner. It’s around 6pm at this point.
We are walking distance from downtown Calistoga
and we walked over to the area to find some grub. The downtown area is really so pretty!
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| Pretty stream that ran under the downtown area |
We passed the Saradona Café that Libby and I
went to last year! So rad. But for dinner we landed at Brannans Grill. A cute little restaurant. We promptly ordered our booze - Lisa beer myself a delectable WH Simms
Pinot Noir and were so damn happy. I got
the mussels and clams appetizer which was fantastic and ordered the halibut for
dinner.
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| That would be my delicious pile of clams and mussels! |
Lisa ordered a chicken
salad. So funny side note – when my
dinner was brought it was the chicken dish, not the halibut. This was my 2nd option so I took a
bite and it was awesome. When I alerted
the waiter to the error but told him I was totally cool with the chicken – he
was mortified and said he’d buy me dessert.
Sweet (pun intended). Our dinners
were fantastic. We devoured them over
another round of drinks. Dessert
comes. I order the berry sorbet. He comes back later – again mortified –
they’re out. He ordered us ice cream and
crème brulee hoping that would be ok.
I’m fine with it although worried about the dairy. I still eat it
all. Delish! Lisa helped me out so hopefully I wont die
later. He comes back again – says he’s
bringing us another round of drinks because he feels so bad. Um done!
Bill comes we leave him a good tip –the experience was awesome!
We stumble back to our room happy, tipsy, stuffed
and exhausted. I’m so fucking
happy. Vacation has officially begun!
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