Napa Valley, California

Napa, Day 4
For breakfast we went to the Model Bakery in the Oxbow Market. I had a croissant, but I wasn't to happy with it, because the guy cut it half, put it in the toaster and only took it out because Rob told him it was burning.

Napa Vineyards:

Hess Collection - great modern art collection, weed garden, very formal tasting room

Rubicon Estate- formally the Coppola winery, impressive entryway, Godfather memorabilia, boccie ball court, beautiful tasting room and very nice tasting room host

Franciscan-Oakville Estate- served Mount Veeder wines, Cuban crackers to eat in between tastings, tasting host were all over the place and kind of sloppy

Plumpjack Winery- vineyards surround the entire tasting area, has an area outside where you can have lunch, very nice tasting room host

Silver Oak Cellars- large crowds and at this point some very drunk people, tasting hosts were older gentlemen and they were kind of grumpy---possibly because of the drunk people, wines were very expensive

Turnbull Wine Cellars- very quiet, nice and talkative tasting hosts (maybe they were bored)

Cool Pics from the vineyards:
























Once we finished our tasting we went to dinner at Bistro Jeantry with Tenzin and his mom. Surprisingly, I wasn't in the mood to order steak, so Rob ordered the short rib dish. It was amazing. I ordered a special pasta dish with mushrooms that was great. We then went to eat ice cream at Three Twins Ice Cream at Oxbow Market. The ice cream is all organic and they have cone cups for your ice cream.


Napa, Day 3
For breakfast we picked up pastries at the Alexis Baking Company, which is one of Tenzin's favorite place to eat breakfast. We ate breakfast, packed a lunch, picked up Tenzin's friends and headed to Johnson Beach on the Russian River. We rented canoes and paddled down part of the river. We stopped at a small bank on the edge of the River and had leftover fried chicken. We then decided to head back and hike through the Armstrong Redwood Forest. All I can say is WOW, the Redwood Trees are amazing.

We went to dinner at Thomas Keller's restaurant, ad hoc. They only serve a set four course menu, so you sit, they ask if you have food allergies and then they start serving food. Rob may get mad at me for this, but I wasn't impressed. The salad was made of butter lettuce with charcuterie from the Fatted Calf. I thought it was too oily. The main dish was a chicken and shrimp jambalaya that had andouille sausage. Well it only tasted of sausage and I thought the shrimp was undercooked. I wish we could have gone on a night that they were serving steak. The other 2 dishes, were a cheese plate and beignets--you can't really go wrong with cheese and doughnuts.

Napa, Day 2
On Friday night as were driving to the Villa Inn, we noticed a restaurant that had a line out the door (It was probably 1:00 at this point). We decided then, that we would stop at Sol Food for breakfast on our way out. We had the best tostada (toast with butter) and café con leche.

We then went to Tenzin's grandparents house, where we spent the day. Rob and Tenzin built a rope swing off a live oak, while the ladies lounged around by the pool. We then went raspberry picking and walked along the vineyards that surround their property. Larry, Tenzin's grandfather made a fried chicken picnic for all of us. Once dinner was over, we checked into the Napa Valley Redwood Inn.















San Rafael, Day 1
We arrived at 11:15 pm in SFO. We rented a car from Budget, which was a bit of a SS, they had 3 guys working and they probably had 50 people in line renting cars. They also rented our car to someone else, luckily we were able to solve the problem right away.

We drove to San Rafael and stayed in a motor lodge, Villa Inn . The Villa Inn was awesome, clean and had a really cool bathroom.