Napa - Day One

We made it!  We're finally on vacation!  We left the house around 6:30 yesterday morning.  We left the car on base and had a friend drive us to the airport.  After one little snaffu (Dave didn't clean out the pockets of his jeans before we left the house and had to surrender his favorite pocket knife) we were through security and ready for breakfast!

We ate at Bonfire at the bar.  The bartender, Dee Dee has been there forever and is a riot!  She told us when she went to visit the Coppola winery she asked where Nick Cage was and did they have any boxed wine?

 

The flight was mostly uneventful, just like we like them.  A little turbulence and some very squeeky brakes on landing and we were in Sacramento.  After the slowest de-planing I've EVER encountered we picked up our rental (a nice little leather-trimmed Regal) and were on our way south!

The weather was strange yesterday.  Sunny one minute, then raining and we even got some hail.  Still better than home because, well, we're here!

Our first stop was Valley of the Moon.  It was 2pm by the time we got there with road construction and traffic.  We tasted some great wines we hadn't tried before and, well, they were having a sale, and we are wine club members so we get an additional 25% off, so our first case is on its way!  Belinda and Sheila, more Cuvee de la luna is coming!  I even got a little Christmas shopping done there.

From Valley of the Moon we went to Kunde.  We like their wines but you can't get anything but their Chardonnay in the Twin Cities.  We've been lucky enough to get some of their Cabernet through Wines till Sold Out but we never see it in stores.

Len was our host for the afternoon.  He was great.  He pretty much poured us anything we wanted and there were some great wines including a blend called Red Dirt Red.  The result?   Another wine club!  We'll be going back to Kunde at some point over the weekend for their 14,000 foot tasting!  Can't wait for that!

We had so much fun with Len that by the time we left it was 4:30.  We got to Kenwood 5 minutes after they closed!  Bummer!  Cafe Citti was also closed until 5pm so we decided to head up to Santa Rosa and find our hotel.

The hotel is nice enough, not fablous, but nice.  We have a patio and the staff is great which I guess is more important than an oppulant room!  Their wireless leaves A LOT to be desirted however.  Especially if they are going to charge ($9/day) for it!

We wanted to walk to dinner but Johnny Garlic's (Guy Fieri's restaurant) was more than a walk.  Our server, Brenda was great.  She suggested her favorites on the menu and I picked one, the Chipoltle Shrimp and Hot Links.  OH MY GOD was this good!  Dave had meatloaf with mashed potatoes, also delicious! 

We HAD to have dessert so we ordered the bananas foster.  Yea, that was terrible too (not!).  We got some Christmas shopping done here too!

Today we'll be heading to a special tour and tasting at the Niebaum-Coppola estate and that dinner I've been waiting for since Thanksgiving at Hurley's!