Our Northern California Vacation

I finally have a free minute to blog all about our wonderful vacation. We spent June 4 - 10 in Napa, Sonoma, and San Francisco and it wasn't nearly enough time!! It's so hard to get back into the swing of things with work, laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking. I am now on a self-imposed detox and diet. Lee and I decided that if we win the lottery, we're buying a vineyard on Spring Mountain in Napa and I'm going to run a little B&B out of the house. The weather was wonderful and I was only cold our last day in San Francisco. I won't bore you with all of the details, but I'll go day by day and let you know what we did. If you'd like to see our pictures, you can click here.

Day 1 - Napa
We arrived in San Francisco around 10am, picked up our rental car and immediately headed north. Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We couldn't see anything when we drove up to it, but once we crossed the bay, the temperature warmed and the clouds parted. We headed north to Sausalito and stopped for lunch at a place called Fish. right along the water. Everything was fresh and delicious.

Then it was on to Napa. We actually stayed in St. Helena at a Bed & Breakfast called The Ink House because there really isn't that much in the town of Napa. All of the wineries and hotels are all north of Napa. Our B&B was made famous because an Elvis movie, Wild in the Country, was filled there. It was really nice, but the rooms were tiny since the house was built in 1884. We dropped off our things and headed to Beringer for a historic tour. By this time, we were getting pretty tired from traveling all day so we went back to the hotel to relax, play some scrabble, drink some wine and topped off the night at Martini House.

Day 2 - Napa (Spring Mountain)

The Ink House had really great breakfast in the morning. We ate and got an early start driving up to the Spring Mountain District of Napa. This by far was my favorite area that we toured all week. We went to Schweiger Vineyards, Barnett Vineyards, Pride Mountain Vineyards, and Terra Valentine. All of them were small and family-run. Barnett had the best wine and the best view. That's us there in the picture on the right. We took a picnic lunch and ate at the top of Pride Mountain. All of those tastings can really make you tired!! Interesting fun fact - Terra Valentine was started by this eccentric guy who invented curb feelers and the rust-proof tail pipe. Why can't I think of this stuff? We spent the rest of the day walking around St. Helena downtown and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Tra Vigne.

Day 3 - More Napa

We started off the day at Opus One. This was probably the most high tech of all of the vineyards we visited and gave the best tour. The wine is super expensive there and in my opinion, it is overpriced. Next stop was Frank Family Vineyards for more tastings and then we went to lunch in Calistoga. Next time we visit Napa, I would like to stay there because was a really cute town. We had a 3:00 tasting at Quintessa so we headed south on the Silverado Trail. This is our favorite wine. A few years ago, we won a 1999 magnum at a symphony party and drank it on our one year anniversary. It's so good. If fact, I guess you could say it's what really peaked our interest in wine.

That afternoon we went back to the hotel and played some scrabble and gin before dinner. Sometimes I found it hard to be on vacation because I'm used to going all the time. It was actually hard for me to relax! By the end of the week I was used to it. That night we ate a really late dinner in Oakville.

Day 4 - Sonoma

Next time we visit the wine country, we're going to spend more time in Sonoma. It's a lot more laid back. We only got to a few wineries and I really wish we'd seen more. In our quick day, we hit B.R. Cohn, St. Francis, Matanzas Creek, Ferrari-Carino, Preston, and Bella Vineyards along with the La Crema tasting room in downtown Healdsburg. Count 'em up - SEVEN . We had a lot of fun at La Crema, but that was probably because we had gone to six wineries prior to our stop there. Every winery we visited was so different. We really like the Matanzas Creek wines so we joined their wine club. We purchased wine from almost every vineyard we visited so it was a giant pain in the butt getting home on the airplane.

We stayed in a darling little B&B in Healdsburg called the Camellia Inn. It was right in the heart of downtown and that evening we had dinner at Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar. If you're ever in the area, I highly suggest it.

Day 5 - Redwoods/San Francisco

We woke up early and headed out to Korbel in the morning. Under normal circumstances, I would not be up for drinking Champagne at 10am... well, who am I kidding - yes, I would be. I would drink it at 6:30am instead of coffee if I didn't have to go to work every day. It was interesting because all week we'd learned about wine being made and this time we experienced champagne making. On our way east, we stopped at Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve. We were going to go to Muir Woods, but I figured you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all and this was closer. At this point, we made our way to coast to drive Highway 1 and I started praying to God and everyone that I wouldn't die. The windy road is about 500 feet above the ocean on this sharp cliff, there are no guardrails, and there are washed-out mudslide areas all over the place. When you pair all of this with Lee's driving and my car sickness, it completely shoots my nerves. Lee does this thing he'll put the car on auto-pilot while he points out something to you in the distance and looks at it at the same time. I totally thought we were going to wind up like Thelma and Louise. Only I wouldn't be holding his hand on the way down, I'd be hitting him and screaming "I told you to watch the road!!!"

San Francisco... I don't really know what to say about it. Wonderful food and shopping... but Dallas has that with a lot less crazy-eyed bums. Lee and I turned down one street and got caught up in a bum herd. We quickly realized we were near a soup kitchen. Anyway, San Francisco happens to be the time when our luck with hotels ran out. I made reservations on-line with Expedia at the Hotel Herbert. Looked cute online. We drove the block once and couldn't find it so we made the block again (which is not easy because we're in Union Square). The second time I spot it. See if you can find it in the picture on the right. See it? Look right above the crazy-eyed bum... there it is! Inside the Betty Boop diner! Not- kidding. There is an elevator inside the diner and you ride it up to the second floor where the manager who barely speaks English lives. The Hotel Herbert is also a residence on Floor 2-5 so when I took the elevator up, I could hear the daughter of one of the elderly residents screaming at her mother to quit calling her "so damn much" and there was a crazy-eyed bum in the hallway. To make a long story short, we stayed at the Hilton in Union Square. After unloading, we walked Chinatown, which is a place I've wanted to visit since I heard about it when I was a kid. Now this place would only be cool if I needed back scratchers and 4 tee-shirts for $10. That night we had an awesome dinner at Kuleto's. Another recommendation if you ever make it out that way.

Day 6 - San Francisco

We woke up early, had breakfast in bed (very fun!), and took the cable cars to the Crooked Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and the Ferry Building. The night before the bartender at Kuleto's suggested a good sushi restaurant in Castro. It was there that we witnessed the craziest bum in S.F. The restaurant was small and it was thin and long. We were at the sushi bar and the man behind us finished his meal and left. It was about this time, a bum walked in the front door, strolled up to the sushi bar and asked for some food like the guy behind the counter is going to throw him some toro or something. then we walks behind me and starts eating the food off the table of the man who just left. They shoo him out and he screams "So let me get this straight!! We can nuke you people, but I can't eat your food?!!". Check please.

We also saw the Painted Ladies (the Victorian houses) and then we bought a riddling rack from an antique dealer in town. Riddling racks were used to remove the yeast from the Champagne bottles before it went automated. Picture on the left. We're going to use it as a wine rack in the dining room. After that, we headed back to the hotel to walk about Union Square and then had our last dinner at First Crush. Yummy.

Day 7 - San Francisco

We felt like we'd pretty much done it all at this point. We went to Coit Tower and Pier 39 to see the sea lions. They are stinky. After a quick bite to eat at the Tadich Grill, we packed our bags and headed for the airport.

And that was it. It was so much fun, so relaxing, and while not entirely bum-free, it was beautiful. I would love to go out there again next year, so it any of you want some wine tasting partners, give us a call!!