Vacation. Amazing. Sigh...
This trip couldn't have come at a better time. Graham starts school next week. I weaned Emma last week. My half marathon is done and our MOPS year is underway with our leadership training event taking place the day before we departed. I didn't realize just how much I needed this trip until, well, until we were on it. Graham told me last night (though not in these exact words) that his favorite part of the trip so far has been having me back. I didn't realize how stressed out I was until I got away from it all. My doctor (if I could find one) I'm sure would prescribe me regular vacations to keep my blood pressure in check now that we've seen the affect they have on me. I mean, my biggest worry the past four days has been whether we'll make our dinner reservations on time. Seriously.
Our trip started on Sunday morning when my parents came by to pick up the girls and drive us to the airport. I (rather tearfully) put Isla to bed the night before, telling her I was a little sad to be leaving her and her sister. She, ever so matter-of-factly, told me, "But, you'll come back!!" So true. :)
We made it to our gate without a hitch (though I did have an airport worker spot me in the crowd and bring me kleenex after we said our goodbyes to the girls....) As it turned out, there was heavy fog in San Francisco so our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. No worries! We were on vacation so I enjoyed the extra time to blog and listen to our church's sermon online.
We successfully landed in SF and then after 3 phone calls and a 45 minute wait, our shuttle to our rental car finally arrived. We are proudly sporting a Kia Soul this week. Yes, please keep your jealousy reigned in. We drove through down town SF enroute to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Enjoy the car shots! We are touring SF on the last leg of our trip so didn't get out to see the sights but snapped pictures as we drove. Below is City Hall (I think...)
A cool roof top
I'll be honest. I was a little giddy to be driving over the Golden Gate!
Ah ha! The residual fog - the culprit for our late arrival into the city. So cool!
Once out of the city, we stopped at the nearest In N Out (tradition) for a burger, fries and shake as this was going to be a foodie trip after all. The Sonoma Valley greeted us a short while later and we were suckered into our first winery stop at Jacuzzi. It turned out to be a good one as the tasting was complimentary (a rarity!) I was at the peak of a nice head cold which made wine tasting...umm...interesting.
We headed toward the Napa Valley Marriott, our home for the next 3 nights (thanks to priceline) which turned out to be a great location. The views along the way were gorgeous!
After enjoying their complimentary wine hour in the courtyard, we readied ourselves for dinner at Oenotri in downtown Napa. We didn't have reservations so our wait was quite lengthly but we passed the time by wandering the cute streets, stumbling upon a rather loud outdoor festival (which we soon realized was all in Spanish and we were pretty much the only non-hispanic people there - still down know what that was all about!) On a random whim, we decided to shop for sunglasses, something I haven't own or worn since EIGHTH GRADE. People always pass out when they hear that. But, we live in SEATTLE and I somehow have maintained a pretty good life without them. But, I gave in and bought a pair for 5 bucks, as many of my friends will be relieved to learn.
Back to dinner....we shared a salad of Stonefruit & Figs with Almond-Mint Condimento and Arugula - yum! I guess we sort of went with a fig and arugula theme because we followed that with a woodfire pizza of Figs, Gorgonzola Dolcelat Te, Mozzarella di Bufala, Cream, Black Pepper and Wild Arugula. It was all fabulous and put us into a wonderful sleep coma once back at the hotel. A very good first day!
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