Day 2

The trip story continues!!  On Saturday morning, Mark and I woke up extremely early CA time as we were still 2 hours ahead.  What do you do when you are the only ones awake at 7 am, why, go for a run of course!  All I wanted to do while I was there was to run in cool weather and look at beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately, once we left the grounds of the hotel, we were in the middle of the burbs.  Not much to see that wasn't that much different than what we could see at home.  Well, except for the trees and cool air.  After a couple of miles, fatigue set in and I realized that wasn't in the mood for a run.  How nice that we could stop and have breakfast at this little place!

Oatmeal was my choice, except it was gross.  I ended up finishing off Mark's breakfast burrito!  He's so sweet to share!

Sorry for the inappropriate coffee shop name :)

After returning back to the hotel we took some pictures of our surroundings.  This is the vineyard right across the road from where we stayed.

Mark and I recorded videos each day and texted them to the kids so they could see where we were at.  I will refrain from sharing them here for fear of public embarrassment.  However, we did take pictures of things we thought the kids would get a kick out of, like this little gnome.....with pierced ears?!

After returning to the room for a quick shower, I headed across the courtyard to my massage.  It was just what I needed.  I could not have been more relaxed and listening to the fountain outside the room put me in a trance.  I think I would be fine with having that exact same massage every morning before going to work......and a three hour nap to recover from it.  :)  After the massage, Mark and I headed to the hot tub!  Perfect!  

Around noon, we left Vintner's and toured the winery across the road.  A nice little family that was heading out for a weekend of camping lived there.  They had a great little set up and it was our introduction to wine tasting.  We are not connoisseurs, by any stretch of the imagination, funny actually that we made a trip out of it because we rarely drink wine to begin with!  Very educational I must say.

Leave it to me to only take pictures of things, not related to vineyard or winemaking. :)  

After that we grabbed a quick bite in Downtown Santa Rosa and hit the road on to Calistoga so that we could make it to Pope Valley Winery by 5.  So we cruised the town and did an olive oil tasting and of course I feel in love with basalmic vinegar infused with blood orange and another one infused with basil.  I also had to have some grey salt and some applewood smoked salt.  Hello?? Olive oil people?  How did I end up with vinegar?  Go figure.  It just arrived at our doorstep today, which I'm really excited about.  We just had them ship it to us.

We also stopped in at a little place where we were told it was also for olive oil, but it turned out to just be a crazy group of people, sampling wine.  I like the place though, very different than your traditional winery.

Talk about recycling.....

The hubby

Once we ducked out of that place....they were trying to get us to sing and play instruments???  We hit the road to Pope Valley Winery where our friends Diana and David live.  We met Diana last year when she came down with several cases of wine to serve at an event that Mark helps pull together.  We hit it off and just swore that we would come to visit.  So, when our plans came together, Mark called Diana and asked if she could clue us in on what to do.  More about that later, but we were super excited that she and her brother invited us out to their place for a private tour, tasting and dinner.  It was just perfect!  Completely laid back and peaceful, I felt as if I had known their family forever.  I cannot wait to return and am looking forward to them coming down this fall.

 These two pictures, the one above and below are from our drive over to Pope Valley.  I made Mark pull over so I could take pics.  I need to work on the contrast and boost the color, but I'm hoping to frame these.  It was gorgeous!

Caprese Salad!! Yummy!!

They restored this old winery that had been there since 1897. 

This David taking us on the tour.  The whole thing is in a cave!

The previous pictures are from the Blacksmith's shop that they left in tact.  Very cool to learn the history behind this place! 

Mark, Diana and David.....I'm beginning to wonder if I was on this trip??? ;)

I also learned that if you are going to have a vineyard in Napa, it is imperative that you have a lab, a chocolate one!  :)

I will have to conclude there as I could keep uploading pictures all day.  Ridiculous!!!  I haven't even gotten to Sunday yet, which was our busiest day, so ignore if you are photo-ed out. I may have gone overkill on today's post!