Travelin' Tuesday: Napa & Sonoma

I don't know if I can speak for everyone on our trip, but I have to say that our time in Napa and Sonoma was the best part of our Cali visit!

After our short, packed 2 days in San Francisco it was really nice to relax in wine country.  We drove in Sunday afternoon and checked into our B&B - Old World Inn.

Old World was a great find of Corinne's!  Chris and I have stayed at B&Bs before, and this one was very similar to the others in that we had a great room and delicious breakfasts.  Old World was walking distance from Downtown Napa which had some fabulous eateries for dinner.  After checking in, we checked out our surroundings and then actually ordered pizza and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine from the Safeway across the street for dinner. 

Monday morning we were up bright and early for breakfast before being picked up for our Sonoma Platypus tour.  Our tour guide, Sam, was so informative as we headed from Napa to Sonoma to pick up the rest of the tour guests.  Sam let us know that our 4 stops would be some of the smaller more charming wineries with owners that Sam knew personally.  Our first stop was at Ravenswood which you may have seen in your local grocery store.  

 Our tour was led by the owner, who took us through the various fields of grapes, telling us about the history of winemaking, letting us taste the grapes from the vines and explaining the upcoming harvest.

 I think there were 8-11 different tastings along the way including one right out of the barrel.

After wrapping up here (and buying a Moscato for my brother), we boarded the bus and headed to our next stop Nicholson Ranch.  This place was gorgeous with spectacular views!!

   

After a tasting inside, we headed out to walk around the property learning more about wine before heading down into the caves.

not really getting anything from the barrel

I'm amazed by the amount of barrels down in the caves!  Once our tour concluded, we headed back upstairs to enjoy our tour included lunch.

It was a little downhill from here, not because our stops at Homewood and Anaba were bad (they were just fine), I just think it was the amount of wine already consumed along with the tasty lunch and being out in the sun for so long that just made the group a little bit more tired.

Once the tour was over, and we were dropped back off at the Old World Inn, I gladly took the option to nap before we walked into downtown for dinner.

Tuesday, we were on our own and made plans as we went starting off with morning sparkling wine at Domaine Carneros Winery.  

Gotta make use of the beautiful backdrop

Chris learned a lot about Champagne and Taittinger through his elective class, so this was a place of interest for him.  From there we headed to my favorite Castello di Amorosa.

We opted for the full tour which included a walk and tasting down in the caves!

After picking up a couple of bottles of their famous La Fantasia we headed back toward Napa with a picnic lunch stop at V Sattui Winery.

Dinner Tuesday night was back in downtown Napa, before packing up and heading back to San Fran Wednesday morning.  We hit up one last winery stop on the way out of town (Viansa), and couldn't complete our California trip without lunch at In-N-Out - more so for Corinne and Dave who have never eaten there (we now have them in Texas).

We spent Wednesday night in San Francisco before flying out Thursday afternoon.  Overall, I think this was one of my favorite trips and I really think it was because we got to spend the time with such great friends! 

Travelin' Tuesday: San Francisco

What a way to bring in our 30s!
 

We flew out to San Francisco for a wonderful 7 day trip with my longest friend Corinne and her husband Dave.  Corinne and I started to plan this trip back in January and I think the guys were very happy to just go and enjoy!   

Our time in San Fran was pretty short, we flew in midday on Friday, drove to Napa Sunday - Wednesday, spent Wednesday night back in San Fran and then flew home on Thursday.  

Due to a changed flight plan, Chris and I got in 3 hours earlier than Corinne and Dave.  We walked from our hotel near the Embarcadero Center to find Pizza Orgasmica which turned out to be a pretty popular place.  Once Corinne and Dave made it, we decided to take a walk to the piers and check out the area set up for America's Cup.

We spent the night bar hopping before grabbing a bite to eat across the street from AT&T Park where the Giants were playing the Pirates.

Saturday was a fun filled day with a combo tour of the city and Alcatraz.  We booked with Tower Tours and had an amazing time, getting to see so much in a pretty short period of time.  Some of our stops included City Hall, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge and we also had the chance to drive by and see other areas like Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square and the crooked Lombard street.  

In front of City Hall

The famous painted ladies

On top of Twin Peaks

Getting our fill of Golden Gate Bridge pictures

Once the city portion of our trip was completed, we were dropped off near pier 33 to grab some lunch and then board the ferry for our tour of Alcatraz.

We did the audio tour, which was included with our ticket price, and I think we all found it very informative.  There was so much that I never knew about the history of the prison, I would highly suggest this tour!

The bar spreader that one inmate used in an escape attempt

The holes left from 3 inmates that dug their way out with spoons from the kitchen and were never heard from again.

After the tour wrapped up, we decided to walk around Ghirardelli Square, pick up some souvenirs and grab a drink at a pub with a view. 

Thanks to some great recommendations, our dinner that night was at Epic Roasthouse.  Our table had a fabulous view of the light up Bay Bridge and the meal was by far the best of our trip!!  Both couples ordered a side of mac and cheese and I think we all would have licked the plate if we could, it was that good!

Sunday morning we picked up our rental car, checked out of Club Quarters and decided to make a quick pit stop on the way to Napa.

The ride up was a bumpy one, but the majesty of these trees was breathtaking to view. 

A stop for lunch in Sausalito and then we were on our way to Napa and Sonoma!

Cotton Anniversary

The traditional gift for the 2nd wedding anniversary is Cotton.  While Chris and I didn't gift each other anything tangible this year, we do have a wonderful reminder of our cotton year!

How perfect is this?  Earlier this year the Texas A&M Aggies (where I went to college) participated in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX.  I wasn't lucky enough to score any tickets but did watch the awesome game on TV.  My parents surprised us with this lovely framed picture as a belated anniversary gift.  One of my mother's co-workers took the picture which my mom had framed at Michaels. So thoughtful!!

In other news, Chris finished his busy spring semester and has begun his last (better be advisors or we're going to have some words) 4 electives for the summer.  As a break in between sessions, we took the day off and signed up for the lunch wine tour over in Grapevine (similar to the night one that we took back in 2011).

It was a great break from our regular routine and has us even more excited about our trip to San Francisco and Napa in a couple of months!  Should be a lot to celebrate in August!

If you're married, do you stick to the traditional anniversary gifts?  We did for the first year, but I'm not so sure that we'll stick to it in the years to come.

Two Years

Our second married year is now in the books!  Our anniversary was on Tuesday, but with Chris out of the house at 5:30am for work and not back until 9pm from class we didn't really celebrate until Saturday.  I couldn't let Tuesday go by without doing a little something so that night I picked up some creme brulee from Brio that we enjoyed after his class ended.

Hey Brio - Where's the caramelized sugar??

We didn't exchange gifts this year as the theme was "cotton" and we still have new bedding and bath towels from the wedding that we have not even opened (I can't wait to get them out of storage once we finally, knock on wood, start the house hunt this summer!).  Instead we gifted ourselves a couples massage Saturday morning (under cotton towels, so that's close - right?)

 and then headed out to the Melting Pot for dinner.

Our favorite drinks

Where we finally got our caramelized sugar fix with our dessert fondue!

I have a feeling that our next year is going to be a memorable one, so I can't wait to see what we have accomplished by the time year 3 is complete.