Vacation - Day 4

Saturday, September 21st

The day started out with breakfast in the hotel before heading out to Rutherford Hill for a tour and tasting at 11:30am. The drive up Silverado Trail was beautiful but there were ALOT of runners today as there was some sort of marathon happening. So now you have alot of wine drinkers and alot of bikes on the road...Not a good combo!

The use of caves for wine storage is a tradition as old as the art of winemaking itself, yet they are extremely rare in Napa Valley. Knowing that caves provide an ideal environment to nurture and protect wines as they age, Rutherford Hill was one of the first wineries in the Napa Valley to build a cave post prohibition.

Carved deep into the cliffs behind the winery, the caves of Rutherford Hill are regarded as one of the most extensive wine-aging cave systems in America. Tunnels, galleries and passageways, extending for nearly a mile, contain over 8,000 barrels of select French and American oak. The caves provide a unique, natural environment that enhances the wine-aging process. They naturally maintain a year-round temperature of 59 degrees and a consistent humidity level of 90%.

 After the tour, we headed in to Yountville for lunch at Addendum.

True to its name “addendum” is an addition to the restaurant Ad Hoc family.

It is a small shack behind the restaurant that serves boxed lunches to go Thursdays through Saturdays.  For $16.50, guests have a choice of either our famous buttermilk fried chicken or barbeque pork, two of the most popular items on our menu.

After lunch, Ken and Kim dropped us off at Conn Creek for a "Blending Experience".
Kim and her mom had both done this before and we couldn't resist doing it based on Kim's recommendations.

The blending experience include a  Napa Valley AVA overview led by a wine educator, a guided walk-around barrel tasting, instructions on blending techniques and strategies, a bottle of our own designed custom blend and a tasting of Conn Creek's current releases.

The AVA Room Barrel Blending Experience provides guests a rare opportunity to learn about, taste, and blend wines from the many distinctive regions that make up Napa Valley — one of the most famous and diverse wine growing regions in the world. Better yet, we invite you to play winemaker for a day and take home the fruit of your labors — literally.

 

Doug and I each made our own blend. We will be trying them within the next year.

I can't wait to see how we did compared to some of the wine-makers we visited.
Anyone want to join us for that special tasting?

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Ken & Kim picked us up after the Blending Experience

and we headed back to her mom's house in Yountville.
Pat and Doug cooked up some spanish Paella.
I wished I had taken photos of the beautiful food and outdoor table.
It was all quite beautiful and delicious!

It was a great day that ended sadly...Ken and Kim would leave around 8pm
to drive to San Francisco to take the red eye back to Tampa.
They gave us a parting gift of Round Pond oil for our anniversary.
We will experiment with this real soon.
Doug and I depart for home tomorrow afternoon.

It was a great vacation! Ken/Kim "Where should be go next?"

Vacation - Day 3

Friday, September 20th
Our "33rd" Wedding Anniversary

 

We left the hotel and headed for Napa Valley. We were running a little behind schedule so decided to take a short cut "Trinity Road - Oakville Grade - Dry Creek Rd".   It turns out this road is 7.94 miles of narrow, winding roads with little to no guard rails....a few hair pin turns and a one-lane bridge.

We should have driven down and taken the interstate down and across. It might have been longer in miles but would have been faster in the long run.  I was driving and had to pull over shaking a couple of times. I definately needed a drink when that drive was over.

No guard rails!

 Steep grades (up and down). 
Our 4 cylinder little car was maxed out on power on a few of these
and I didn't think we'd make it to the top! 

Just when you thought you were half way!

Nope 5 more miles to go!

Hair Pin turns!

We arrived in Yountville and went to visit Kim's mom who had rented a house for a few months there this year. Once Ken & Kim arrived, we all loaded in to the car and headed to the Free tasting at Duckhorn Winery at 10:30am where Doug and I are wine club members.

 

Then we were on to Round Pond for a 12:30pm tour of the olive mill and a tasting of olive oils and red wine vinegars paired with food and wine.  We learned about olive cultivation, harvest, and the artisan methods of olive oil production at the estate mill. During the tasting we learned how to properly taste olive oil. The food pairings were gourmet bread, cheese and fresh organic produce and chicken from their estate garden.  I never knew that olive oils could be so different!

 The sugar cubes in the red wine vinegar are how you taste it.

"Just don't suck on the sugar cube too long...because it will disintegrate!"

After RoundPond we drove up the street to Honig for a 2pm complimentary tasting.

Kim's mom is a wine club member here.

It is was a great perk to have friends and family of our friends with free tastings as well!

Yay! Another free tasting!

Honig Winery: http://www.honigwine.com/

We enjoyed our tasting out on the patio.

The wine was awesome and it was a great experience!

 

We still have one more appointment today at Paraduxx Winery @ 3pm.

It is the sister winery to Duckhorn Winery. So yes another FREE tasting today!

We enjoy the outdoor seating under the shade of the trees, sipping our wine.

 Paraduxx closes at 4pm so we felt rushed to get out of there.

Kim's mom made a suggestion to go to Lucy's Bar & Restaurant at the Bardenessono Hotel & Spa.

It was a lovely place to relax after a bustling day of wine tasting.

Then we were on to Ciccio's for dinner.
We ordered an assortment of appetizers to share and enjoyed two bottles of wine.
http://www.ciccionapavalley.com/

Then Ken (our wonderful DD - which we needed by the end of the day)
drove us to Fairfield,CA to check in to the hotel.
Homewood Suites - Fairfield,CA

Very spacious rooms with a living area and kitchenette.

 

Vacation - Day 2

Thursday - September 19th

 Today would begin our wine tasting in the Russian River Valley. Our first stop did not open until 11am so we had plenty of time to explore (aka...get lost driving the back roads of the Russian River Valley). Every road seemed to be called Trenton Road or Mirabel Avenue. Confusing. Doug had to take a work call and with the bad phone reception, Ken stopped the car and we got our bearings using every map we had on hand.

Our first stop of the day was the Martin Ray Winery

 

Established in 1881 as the Twin Fir Winery, the historic site is distinguished as the oldest winery in continuous operation in Sonoma County and one of the oldest wineries in California. The winery was able to stay in operation during prohibition by selling sacramental wines by train to San Francisco and points beyond. Martini & Prati Winery, which was established in 1902, was run by five generations of the Martini family until July of 2003, when Martin Ray Winery's founder and proprietor Courtney Benham purchased the facility. 



The wine tasting was $5.00 per person and included tasting of 5 selections of the Martin Ray, Angeline and Courtney Benham wines.  Our wine tastings were waived since Kim became a wine club member.

 

We stopped for lunch at a Subway restaurant and then headed to our next appointment.
Chalk Hill at 1pm. Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery is located at the eastern edge of the Russian River Valley — south of downtown Healdsburg in Sonoma County, California.

We did the Chairman’s Reserve Tasting

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Tour of the 1300 acre estate, stopping at several vineyards. This experience will include a flight of Chairman’s selection wines. These limited production wines are reserved to feature at this special time, along with a lively discussion about our land’s distinct character, history of winemaking, and unique qualities of our estate. This seated tasting is offered with artesanal cheeses to complement the wines and the conversation. Available by appointment Tuesday through Saturday at 1:00pm.  1 1/2 hours, $50 per person.

After this tasting we had some time so Ken drove us to the Healdsburg square.
Here there are 31 different tasting rooms within walking distance of one another. We stopped at a few of them.

 The first stop was Ferrai-Carano's - Taste 4 wines for $5.00

 

The second stop was Williamson Wines - The "Fridge Foods and Fine Wines" tasting was complimentary.  Williamson Wines paired with foods you might find in your own fridge. This was served at the bar. Our tasting consisted of 6 differnet wines compared with their cheeses/mustards that were for sale. We purchased a Beet Horseradish whole grain mustard.

 

So after 4 "quick fire" tastings we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner at The Farmhouse Inn. Here is the TripAdvisor review on this restaurant. #1 rated restaurant in Forestville.

Here is the link to the menu: http://www.farmhouseinn.com/restaurant-0/menu/
For the main course: Doug had the Halibut, I had the Rabbit, Ken & Kim had the Beef Tenderloin.
The wine selection was a little harder to make as it was 29 pages long. I don't even remember what we ordered.
That ends our time in the Russian River Valley. Tomorrow we drive to Napa Valley!

Vacation - Day 1

Wednesday, Sept 18 

Doug and I flew from DFW to SMF (Sacramento-CA) for our annual anniversary trip to wine country. This trip we would visit the Russian River Valley, Sonoma County and Napa Valley.

The car rental process at the airport was a little messed up. It turns out we were in town the same weekend as the America's Cup so there was a shortage of cars. Originally we were "upgraded" to a Jeep Liberty but Doug went back and talked to the customer service desk and we were finally given something much smaller. We then drove from Sacramento to Windsor (just north of Santa Rosa). It is about 110 miles and took a little over 2 hours, with a stop for lunch in Fairfield.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express around 4pm.  Doug checked in to the hotel while I was on the phone with our friends Ken/Kim planning our afternoon/evening.  Doug came out of the hotel holding two goodie bags, two bottles of water with a big smile on his face. Apparantly we had been "upgraded" to a suite as he reached the highest priority "Premium Elite" status with his long hotel stay during his recent trip to Paris.  Doug called it "Gold Glitter Sparkle"  status.  In addition to the room upgrade, Doug was given special designated parking privileges in the parking garage. The room was very nice and it had a separate sitting parlor which was nice for entertaining Ken &Kim with drinks after dinner.

We settled in and made our way to a local Safeway where we purchased 2 bottles of wine and a 6 pack of beer. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner reservations at Corks. Kim and Ken (our designated driver for the weekend) picked us up at our hotel.

Below are the links to the Restuarant & Tasting Room
http://www.russianrivervineyards.com/?q=corks-restaurant
This is the link for the menu: http://www.russianrivervineyards.com/corks-restaurant/menus

Doug chose this restaurant based on the TripAdvisor reviews. We enjoyed our dinner out on the patio, under the twinkling lights. The food was awesome. Kim and I had the steak, Doug had salmon and Ken had the lamb. The wine selection was remarkable: 2010 Tercini Pinot Noir. This restaurant definately got extra points for ambience!  After dinner we headed back to our hotel for drinks and stories of the day.

Busy Labor Day Weekend

Friday night, Jill and Andrew came to spend the weekend with me.

(Josh went to Houston for the weekend to help his dad with some projects around the house.)

We enjoyed Papa Johns pizza for dinner.

Rented a movie (Side Effects) and planned the rest of our weekend.

Saturday morning, I mowed the yard while Jill and Andrew visited the Ridgepointe Park.

We then headed out for some shopping at Grapevine Mills Mall.

We visited the JCP Outlet store and Burlington Coat Factory outlet store.

Jill found a pair of pants, purple shirt & tie for Andrew to wear to Karl & Audrey's

wedding next month.  Mimi will just need to hem them some before he wears them.

We stopped for lunch @ Steak & Shake.

After lunch we headed to Party City to get the Thomas the Train birthday decorations
for Andrew's birthday party in December.

Then it was home for Andrew's nap time.
After nap we went over to the Hagens for a play date with Kam.

Later that afternoon, we made some fall 'edible' acorns.

They are made with Mini Nila Wafers, Hersheys kisses and a butterscotch chip.

 Jill put the 'glue' frosting on each food piece and Andrew helped put them together.
He did very well following directions.

 This is the finished product!

 Andrew didn't taste them until we were finished
or we would have never got him to help put them together.

We took the chocolate treats to Andrew's babysitter in the neighborhood.

Saturday evening, we visited ToysR-Us and we got Andrew some of his birthday presents.
Saturday nights movie was "Cloud Atlas".
Worst movie of all time! I can't believe we watched the entire 3 hours!!

Sunday afternoon, we went to the Allen,TX to shop at Kirklands and the Home Goods store.
We actually left empty handed.
We stopped at Jills for some tortillas for dinner and then headed home.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing and playing.
Andrew fell and bumped his head.
I got him an ice pack out of the freezer and he kept holding it on his "ouchie".

 It looks like he is in pain, in this photo, but he was playing and trying to keep his ice pack in place.

Sunday evening, we made tacos and watched the movie "Looper".
It was the best of the three we saw this weekend.
After the movie, we started working on the favor bags for Andrew's birthday party.

Since it rained much of the day Labor Day Monday, we stayed inside.
We did venture out on a walk in between raindrops, we did take our umbrellas
~ just in case...... and we ended up needing them!

It was a great weekend!
Andrew learned a few more words: Busssssssssss,  Don't Touch.
He loves saying Hi and Bye Bye
When we were out shopping this weekend. He was always pointing out the window saying
"Cars!!!!!  Bye Bye Cars!!!"