Final Day in Napa

After a late night out we were moving very very slow our last day in Napa.We started out as always with a wonderful breakfast.  We had a fruit, yogurt and cereal dish for our first course and a French toast for the second course. yummy!

We started our wine tasting day with a Wine Tasting class at Goosecross Cellars.  Due to the fact that we were all tired it was very hard to concentrate in the class but I did walk away with some new knowledge and figured out I had been holding my glass wrong the entire time.  

Here is the entrance into the winer.  Very pretty!

The class was conducted in the winery owner's back yard with a set up of tables and chairs.  It was such a nice setting!

I promise I am awake here!!!

After Goosecross, we hopped in the limo and went to Robinson Family Winery. The winery is run by a couple and their three grown daughters. The son-in-laws and grand kids also help out. It is very small and the owner's father was an Air Force officer so they treated us with extra attention since we were all military spouses. We started the afternoon with a tour of the cellars at Robinson. These bottles of wine are hundreds of years old. 

After we checked out the cellar and caves, we headed up to the family's back yard where we sat down and had lunch while we tasted their wines. The property at Robinson was very small, but very nice.  We sat down with the wine owners daughter for a very relaxing lunch and wine tasting.

After Robinson, we visited one more winery, but not worth any mention or photos. For dinner, we ate at Bouchon, a very famous French restaurant in Yountville.

We ate outside on the patio.

The menu wrapped around the napkin.

The yummy bread!

My drink was delicious!

Regan's drink came in this cute little metal kettle. She had a ginger beer with vodka. Very unique!

Erin and I had a grilled cheese sand which with a fried egg on top. very tasty but way more than I could eat.

Regan had a dish of duck and Lisa had muscles.

After dinner, we called it an early night because Erin and I were leaving very early the next morning. Lisa and Regan stayed  one more day since they didn't have kids to pick up from the grandparents.

I have to say that Napa is the perfect place for a girl get away!  The scenery was beautiful, the weather perfect, the wine was amazing and I am glad that I got to experience it with the girls!!!

Swimming with Lauren

Sadly today was our last day to have Lauren as our sitter.  Since the fall last year we have been using Lauren 1 or 2 days a week to watch Ava for a couple of hours so I can run errands, go to doc appointment, meetings or just a quite lunch with friends or the hubby.  Starting next week Lauren will be student teaching an unavailable durning the day.  Ava is going to miss her so much and so will I but hopefully she can come over in the evenings from time to time.  Also Lauren will be getting  married in less than the month.  We are so excited for her and Justin and look forward to being there on her big day.

For her last day to watch Ava I went to get my hair cut and then had to go to a Battalion Civilian Appreciation Luncheon on post.  It just so happened that the Luncheon was held at "The Landing"  Which has the pool and Splash Park out back.  I signed Lauren in and her and Ava got to splash around the pool all afternoon.  Ava even went down the big slide!!!  Lauren was able to capture some fun moments with the camera.  We sure are going to miss you Lauren!!!!

Ice cream cones before the pool

Miss Lauren

See the slide behind Ava and Lauren?  That is the slide Ava went down.  As long as your 3ft tall you can go down it and a life guard catches you at the bottom.  

Lauren said she loved jumping off the side

Napa Still Continues with Day 3

Since I didn't take as many pictures as my friends I am basically copying their pictures as they blog.  Also my memory as not as good as theirs so I am so glad they remember some of the names of the places we went.

I 

Day three in Napa started with wonderful breakfast of  parfait of fresh fruit and yogurt for our first course and then a egg souffle with salsa and a corn muffin on the side. This was my favorite breakfast by far!

Before the limo arrived we decided to venture out to Artesa on our own.  We wanted to go there because it sits on top of a bulff and usually has amazing views.  On this day however it was very overcast and chilly.  We brought cardigans with us and made the most of the morning by visiting anyway.  Artesa was very modern and  set up  a steep set of stairs to get to the entrance. 

  This is us leaving

At the top of the stairs is a series of water fountains that cascade down the stairs and into an infinity-type pool at the bottom of the hill. It was a very pretty setting.  I wish it would have been more clear because we would have gotten some amazing photos!

On a good day you can see San Francisco from the winery , but as you can see on this day we were lucky to see across the fields.  

Artesa wasn't one of my favorites.  The wine was ok but the service was snobby.  We did however meet some great people from Ohio and New Jersey!

After Artesa, we went back to the bed and breakfast to wait on the limo. Luckily before we arrived in Sonoma at VJB winery the sun was out.   Ben, our driver,  set up this tasting for us at VJB to have a pool side tasting at the owners house complete with lunch.  What an amazing experience!!!  They had a private table set up for us pool-side and treated us like royalty. It was amazing.

What a way to spend lunch with friends!!! It was truly one of my favorite experiences while on our trip.  Ben knocked this one out of the park!!!

The food was presented so pretty it was hard to mess it up.  Once we tasted how good it was we cleaned the plate with no problem.  The wine was amazing as well!

The service was outstanding. Josh , our server kept the wine coming and treated us like royalty. We ended up sitting by the pool at VJB for several hours and even got to meet the owner.  We ended up taking home 12 bottles of wine between the four of us and they offered us a 30% discount. They were so generous and so gracious.

The family dog, Isn't he the cutest!

VJB was a once in a lifetime experience.  

Next up was a stop at Deerfield Ranch. This winery was totally underground. It was a different setting for sure. As we drove up there were large metal sculptures of animals that 

lead us to a cave like entrance.

And this is what it looked like right inside the door.

This was the tasting room. Very casual and comfortable.

We headed back to the bed and breakfast, changed clothes, stopped into the wine reception and then headed to Uva for dinner. It was a local restaurant know for its live jazz band, homemade pizzas and tasty martinis. Everything was so delicious!

After dinner, we headed to a local bar in downtown Napa.  The DJ played old school 90's music so we had a great time dancing and being goofy!  It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!!!