Pictures from Napa Valley

I'm back from my little blog hiatus--my cousin Jennifer is in town visiting, and we've been so busy drinking wine, eating great food, and seeing the sites that I've been absent from the internet entirely.  She's still here, and we're headed out in a minute for a day of seeing some of my favorite San Francisco spots, but I wanted to pop in to say hi and post some pictures from our time in Napa yesterday:

at Cakebread, home of my favorite wine of the day (a 2006 Cab)

Jennifer at our first stop, Baldacci, a charming little family owned winery

me in front of Raymond with some awesome construction going on in the back ;)

cousins in the swanky Raymond lounge

Napa

We had a perfect Napa day: visited four wineries, shared tastings so as not to overdo it, and had lunch at my favorite spot, Tra Vigne Pizzeria.  To finish an already incredible day, we drove over to Cari and JJ's for dinner, where we grilled out over some more wine and laughs.  It's been wonderful having my cousin--who is like a sister--out here; I don't want her to go home!

Friends don't let friends drink alone

When my friend Annie called asking if I wanted to head up to Napa with her yesterday to pick up her bi-monthly shipment at Domaine Carneros, you better believe I was all over that!

(I mean, let's be honest . . . pretty much any excuse to spend the day in Napa is good enough for me.  Dentist appointment, day-long meeting, funeral?  Sure, let's go taste some bubbly!).  I am so lucky to live just 40 minutes away from one of the most beautiful wine countries in the world.  And even though I can't afford to become a member at all of them (like I wish I could) and get shipments of new, surprising, incredible wine several times a year . . . I still love going up and tasting at some of my favorite spots as often as I can!

We started the day off right (with lattes) and then continued it right (with girl talk) on the way up to the winery.  Domaine Carneros looks like an old castle or something, and it sits atop this magnificent hill overlooking rows and rows of grapes.  We each got the sparkling tasting, and they were all so good, I couldn't even decide which was my favorite!

post bubbly flight & feelin' good

After purchasing the best truffle I've ever had in their store (orange mimosa . . . See's Candies, get with the program!), we popped across the street to the chic winery Cuvaison, where we were met with a knowledgeable sommelier (who blogs about wine here) who served us up a very fine (and slightly random) tasting menu.  I came *this close* to caving and buying a membership, but ultimately figured that buying myself expensive gifts right before Christmas was probably an unwise plan.

Our wine guy doubled as a photographer:

at Cuvaison!

After Cuvaison, we figured it would be self-destructive to taste any more wine without a meal, so we drove to downtown Napa and had some food (and another glass of wine) at one of my favorite spots, The Bounty Hunter (which I blogged about in April here).  They have a very impressive wine wall . . .

I'll take one of each!

Annie had some ribs and I had a roasted vegetable sandwich and we both had a blast! ;)  We figured we should call it a day after our third stop, and so we finished the day off right (with another latte) and headed home where, continuing the day's tradition of deliciousness, I proceeded to bake Andes mint chip cookies.

Love it!  Anytime anyone wants to spend the day up in Napa Valley, I'm your girl.  And now I'm off to watch my Saints smash on the Bengals!  Happy Sunday :)

Too much Napa + concrete floor = busted grill!

Lordy.  So, bright and early Saturday morning, Anna and I drove up to Napa to meet my daddy, who was in town for the annual culinary conference at the CIA in St. Helena.

I couldn't quite capture the CIA in all its glory--it is such a gorgeous building!

We stopped at the conference and picked up Daddy, then drove to the house he and his colleagues were staying in . . . I don't think I can adequately describe its splendor, so here are some pictures of our weekend crib (owned by San Francisco fashion designer Rebecca Beeson):

lounge area/formal dining room

pool & hot tub--see the stone hot tub at the far end of the pool?

chicken coop where you could fetch fresh eggs every morning

looking out from the back patio the morning we left

I'm clearly not kidding when I say that this place was palatial.  It was 5600 square feet, complete with every luxurious amenity you can think of, pomegranate & Meyer lemon trees, a garden from which we picked vegetables, spans and spans of land, and a sprawling industrial kitchen overlooking the exquisite wine country landscape.  Unreal.  

Daddy fed me an heirloom tomato sandwich and some choice Gewurztraminer before we headed out to some wineries.  He kindly served as our guide and chauffeur.  First stop (after Cakebread, where they were kinda snobby and told us we needed an appointment) was Sequoia Grove, where they totally hooked us up with some fancy reserve wine:

Daddy and me outside Sequoia Grove winery

After which we continued onto Provenance, where dad slept in the car while Anna and I went into the tasting room!  We were just tipsy enough to buy a bottle of expensive Merlot before heading out and back to the house, where we poured some of our newly bought wine and got into the hot tub.

Somehow, between not eating much all day (no dinner is always my downfall), drinking a few too many pours of vino, and dehydrating ourselves by lounging in the hot tub, things took a turn for the crazier (by this point, my dear daddy was long asleep, leaving Anna, his two colleagues, and me to our mischief).  My share of the shenanigans was perhaps the greatest, because I ended up tripping and falling onto the majestic concrete of our palace and busted up my grill!

not good, y'all

But thanks to my lovely & talented dentist, Dr. Ann Donnelly, DDS, my smile was officially back to normal as of today at noon:

would you believe she did it on my lunch break so I didn't even have to get a sub??

But it was totally worth the chipped tooth and punchout lip, cause I've never seen anything like this place in my life.  The wineries were delightful, the weather was perfect, and we even stopped at the BCBG outlet on our way home, where I bought a darling winter sweater.  

Now, returning home to a flooded apartment was a different story.  YIKES.  At least the Saints crushed the Panthers yesterday (like there was any doubt)!  Hope your weekends were just as fantastic as mine!

Hellooooo wine country weekend!

Summergirl

It's Friday and I'm abuzz with excitement for these things:

1. Halloween Babies!

Here are some of the babes in my life in their costumes.  Some have slacked on sending me photos, so there will likely be more to come, but here's a start.  Even if you don't like babies, there might be something wrong with you if you don't think they're cute in costume. ;)

MILO & JUDE: THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG

which came first?

ARIA:  THE ONE YEAR OLD COWGIRL

doesn't my bestie's baby look natural in her western gear?

FREEMAN: PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON

He lived by the sea . . . 


MATILDA:  THE CHEF

my oldest friend's 2 year old daughter, Matilda, cooking up a feast as a chef!

SAMMY:  LIL PUPPYDOG

ruff ruff!

and just for good measure . . .

LEON: THE UNICORN

he's not technically a "baby," but he is a puppy and he's my nephew!

2. My weekend digs!

Hello, California wine country!  My daddy's in town for an annual culinary conference at the CIA in St. Helena (have you seen it?  the school itself is gorgeous), so my roomie Anna and I are driving up first thing tomorrow morning to tour some wineries, eat some of Dad's gourmet food, and stay here.  Sweeeeeeet 5600 square foot luxury Napa villa!  First stop?

from

Hope y'all have weekends that are just as splendid--and here's to the Saints beating the Panthers on Sunday!

TAKE a Napa!

"When you're tired, you TAKE a Napa, you don't MOVE to Napa!"

--Carrie Bradshaw, in one of the greatest episodes of Sex and the City ever: I ♥ New York

The high school where I teach has a funny sort of block scheduling in which we skip one period a day. On Tuesdays, we skip 5th period (the last class of the day that I teach), which means that I am technically done teaching by about 11:30. Usually I stick around and work in my office, meet with students, sometimes meet with teachers/my nonprofit/etc . . . but today, I went to Napa!

I'd ordered this pretty BCBG dress from the outlet store, but since I am never home during the day (I live in Oakland/work in San Francisco), it got returned to the Napa store. Which gave me a lovely excuse to head up to the wine country this afternoon! It took less than an hour to get there from work, and when I got to BCBG, not only did I pick up my original dress (which I've designated for this Saturday's PROM!), but I found the perfect LBD and two sweaters for $9 each. WHAT?!

Wanna see??

hello, glittery prom dress! (BCBG Runway, on clearance for $39!)

hello, adorable silk little black dress! (BCBG, on clearance for $39!)

It was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day in Napa, so when I was done at the outlet, I had one thing on the mind: vino. Um, who goes to Napa and doesn't drink some wine? No one, that's who. So I drove five minutes to downtown Napa and stopped at this adorable wine bar/tasting room called Bounty Hunter where the bartender gave me a few too many tastes--"this one's from an oak barrel, this one's from a steel barrel . . . see if you can tell the difference!" (I poured some out, btw)!

Everyone there was so nice and friendly that I just had to buy three bottles of wine. ;) Since it was happy hour, they gave me a 20% discount, so it was all quite the steal. I stopped at the coffee shop on the corner for a soy latte on my way out, and 45 minutes later was in my apartment in Oakland.

All this in a Tuesday? Damn, I love California.