This weekend we left our oldest 3 with our trustworthy fiend and babysitter. The kids had a blast with her as usual. Vincent and I took baby Celine and set off for Napa Valley. It was nice to be able to do a little Wine Country with a lot less Whining, if you know what I meanJ Though its so bittersweet, cant wait to get away and yet the moment we do all that can be thought of are the children and how much we love them!
What did we do with our time?
Friday night, highly recommended; we dined at Fume. Everything was great, loved the cheese plate appetizer, but the best by far was the 8 oz steak topped with a butter medallion made of cabernet and blue cheese. Completely mouth watering and brings whole new meaning to the term melts in your mouth. Went back to the hotel and Celine cried half the nightJJ Ahh parents always.
Saturday we started with breakfast at Harvest Café in our hotel, the Marriott in Napa. We were blessed to get 1 night free on our banking points. Though it was so nice to stay closer to the wineries than the original 99 dollar special we had booked in farther away Vacaville, it wasn’t this super posh nice room we were thinking. Should have known when they said they only had one room leftJ It was on the main floor right next to the lobby, yeah, loud, real loud. Sadly it was also pretty small, but hey don’t get me wrong it was perfectly fine, and yes a quality hotel, but for the price they actually charge if we didn’t have points, I had imagined more. I don’t think I would have paid full price for it, it wasn’t too much better than comfort suites in Vacaville. What I did love though was not having such a far drive and the stars I give Marriott are for the help of the staff and the concierge, what a treat; they really know the meaning of service. Another real bonus was the wait staff in the hotel restaurant were better than the wait staff at any other fine dining restaurant we visited while in Napa. If we had moolah, Id stay in Yountville, a little closer to most of the wineries. C.S says Meritage is awesome, but super pricey.
Our first stop, Yountville, La Bouchon Bakery, so hyped up for the experience after the reputation of this place. SO disappointed in the dry dry pastry breads we got. We had the almond chocolate croissant, sticky pecan bun and the Chantilly lace éclair. All were dry as though they were a week old, very very bummed. I think it was on off day and we tried the wrong things. LOVED watching the baker through the bakery window. Learned how to snip and braid. WOULD have loved to stay longer in Yountville near the bakery, lots of cute shops, but we were in a hurry for our scheduled wine tour at Sterling.
Off to Sterling Vineyards to take the aerial tram to the top. Loved this experience and it’s a must for NAPA. Liked the wines, though didn’t love love any of them, bought their last sweet desert wine a Malvasia Bianca. Loved their gift shop and highly recommend the products I found from www.modern-twist.com check them out. It’s amazing what you can do with polymers.
Lunch in Calistoga at Hydro. Wanted to go to flat iron on the recommendation of a local but it wasn’t open except for dinner. He also recommended Hydro and boy we are glad, SUPER CHEAP CRAZY GOOD FOOD. Pulled pork sandwich, amazing, take me back to N’awlins, it was as good as the best po boy I had there. In fact we are definitely willing to drive to Calistoga just to get one of these again.
Shopped at Mud puddles shop in Calistoga. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86525318243 Bought Therese a really fancy little sweater for the fall. Met the owner, Elizabeth and she was a doll. About my age, a mom of 2, and a local, enjoyed swapping stories with her and she gave me some good recommendations. If you get up there and love kids clothes please stop in, very cute little clothes shop. She has done a great job with her selection of items.
Thanks to Elizabeth’s recommendation we decided to go ahead with the Castello di Amorosa winery next on our agenda. Good friends M and R mentioned it but when we called for a tour the Castello said no kiddos. Even though Celine is just a baby they wouldn’t budge, so we were bummed, but Elizabeth said, oh you don’t need the tour package to see it, and you can bring your baby up there if you aren’t on the tour, so we did just that and it was really pretty. I have to say though, having been to Europe so much in my 20’s, I find it very hard to oohh and ahhh at a replica that is only 5 years old. I go for the falling apart historical buildings, so it was hard to change my mood. Still they had a nice wine selection and we went ahead and purchased a Fantasia wine. Nice sweet desert wine. Again, not the red Cab or Merlot we went out to find but hey…
That night we had dinner reservations at FARM in Napa. I do recommend the restaurant but have a few bones to pick with them. Ok, I’m no food critic, oh wait… I am, yes I am. The flatbread appetizer was very pretty, but pretty…tasteless. The after dinner Cheese plate was a let down. FARMS cheese plate only had one item on it that we loved and that was the famous cowgirl creamery cheese from Petaluma, always a winner. The fact that it was paired with a sweet pecan raisin bread was a real let down. We like a little crunch and there was really none to be had on the plate save 2 candied walnuts. I’m allergic to most nuts, so didn’t work well with me. I love a little trio of breads for those that like soft and those that like crunch, gives you the chance to really go to town with your cheese. No quince paste here, but there was a nice dreamy apricot spread resembling quince. Again, soft pecan bread didn’t pair well with it. Ok snob snob snob, you never knew did you? Actually we are just so miserly that if we are paying big bucks for dinner, we really want it to be worth it, and FARM was just a good restaurant, not a great one as I had hoped. Fume out smoked it by far!
Sunday morning Mass in a nearby parish where we ran into an old friend of the family, what a pleasure. Then back to another excellent breakfast at hotel, again superb service, better than the ‘oh so posh’ FARM! No I’m not bitter.
We decided to take full advantage of having a hotel with a concierge, and we asked them if they could recommend a scenic drive that was favored by locals, and boy did we get one. I feel I have a new appreciation of Napa. I told Vincent about 5 times; pinch me, I’m back in Croatia. I was completely transformed back to my most favorite places on earth and it felt, magical. I could cry even writing this. I can smell the HOPS of Medjugorje back lane morning paths as I write this. I bothered Vincent all the way home to move us to Napa immediately!!! But then I thought of my close friends in San Jose and couldn’t come to terms with it…well not completely…
We stopped at 11 a.m. for the final Vineyard on our trip. We decided to visit MUMM Napa Valley winery for its famed sparkling wines. Note to self, even with breakfast on your tummy, 11 a.m. wine tasting hits the spot…in a not so appealing way. Though Linda, our wine expert of the day was as lovely as it gets, we didn’t settle on any wines here, though if you are in the market for an interesting sparkler the Cuvee was nice, as well as the red Santana.
Now for the real awaited experience which if you only take my advice once, this is it, my favorite all time burger stand in Napa. Now, I’m not a big big burger fan, so the fact that we stumbled upon this place a year ago and it still wakes me at night with an insatiable appetite… enough said.
You must order the Western Bacon Blue Burger. Even if the ingredients seem not so appealing, for instance I NEVER thought Id like blue cheese, WRONG. Bacon, Blue cheese, a fabulously large Walla Walla sweet onion ring, BBQ sauce, just to mention a few items found in this hidden gem. This burger has so much going on in one bite. I think it’s the only time I have ever eaten at a public restaurant and hit the table several time saying “OMG,” and “man this good” in between other loud grunts and sighs. Embarrassing but what can I say this Burger is amazing. This place next to the Oxbow market was formerly knows as Taylors EAT, but now is simply called GOTTS roadside. GUESS WHAT I see it is also in the ferry building in San Fran, and I’m sure it’s good there too, but oh Napa, Oh Bacon Blue, ahhhh…
Oxbow Market, a must see, fresh meats, seafood, chocolate, but the best of all Kara’s cupcakes, get the red velvet. Not overly sweet, but it gains the name velvet in my book.
Off for home, happy to get home, 5 minutes after sitter leaves we are yelling at the kids with tears in our eyes, when did parenting get so hard? FIAT FIAT FIAT.
Hope you enjoyed my snob review, ignore the grammatical errors.
What did we do with our time?
Friday night, highly recommended; we dined at Fume. Everything was great, loved the cheese plate appetizer, but the best by far was the 8 oz steak topped with a butter medallion made of cabernet and blue cheese. Completely mouth watering and brings whole new meaning to the term melts in your mouth. Went back to the hotel and Celine cried half the nightJJ Ahh parents always.
Saturday we started with breakfast at Harvest Café in our hotel, the Marriott in Napa. We were blessed to get 1 night free on our banking points. Though it was so nice to stay closer to the wineries than the original 99 dollar special we had booked in farther away Vacaville, it wasn’t this super posh nice room we were thinking. Should have known when they said they only had one room leftJ It was on the main floor right next to the lobby, yeah, loud, real loud. Sadly it was also pretty small, but hey don’t get me wrong it was perfectly fine, and yes a quality hotel, but for the price they actually charge if we didn’t have points, I had imagined more. I don’t think I would have paid full price for it, it wasn’t too much better than comfort suites in Vacaville. What I did love though was not having such a far drive and the stars I give Marriott are for the help of the staff and the concierge, what a treat; they really know the meaning of service. Another real bonus was the wait staff in the hotel restaurant were better than the wait staff at any other fine dining restaurant we visited while in Napa. If we had moolah, Id stay in Yountville, a little closer to most of the wineries. C.S says Meritage is awesome, but super pricey.
Our first stop, Yountville, La Bouchon Bakery, so hyped up for the experience after the reputation of this place. SO disappointed in the dry dry pastry breads we got. We had the almond chocolate croissant, sticky pecan bun and the Chantilly lace éclair. All were dry as though they were a week old, very very bummed. I think it was on off day and we tried the wrong things. LOVED watching the baker through the bakery window. Learned how to snip and braid. WOULD have loved to stay longer in Yountville near the bakery, lots of cute shops, but we were in a hurry for our scheduled wine tour at Sterling.
Off to Sterling Vineyards to take the aerial tram to the top. Loved this experience and it’s a must for NAPA. Liked the wines, though didn’t love love any of them, bought their last sweet desert wine a Malvasia Bianca. Loved their gift shop and highly recommend the products I found from www.modern-twist.com check them out. It’s amazing what you can do with polymers.
Lunch in Calistoga at Hydro. Wanted to go to flat iron on the recommendation of a local but it wasn’t open except for dinner. He also recommended Hydro and boy we are glad, SUPER CHEAP CRAZY GOOD FOOD. Pulled pork sandwich, amazing, take me back to N’awlins, it was as good as the best po boy I had there. In fact we are definitely willing to drive to Calistoga just to get one of these again.
Shopped at Mud puddles shop in Calistoga. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86525318243 Bought Therese a really fancy little sweater for the fall. Met the owner, Elizabeth and she was a doll. About my age, a mom of 2, and a local, enjoyed swapping stories with her and she gave me some good recommendations. If you get up there and love kids clothes please stop in, very cute little clothes shop. She has done a great job with her selection of items.
Thanks to Elizabeth’s recommendation we decided to go ahead with the Castello di Amorosa winery next on our agenda. Good friends M and R mentioned it but when we called for a tour the Castello said no kiddos. Even though Celine is just a baby they wouldn’t budge, so we were bummed, but Elizabeth said, oh you don’t need the tour package to see it, and you can bring your baby up there if you aren’t on the tour, so we did just that and it was really pretty. I have to say though, having been to Europe so much in my 20’s, I find it very hard to oohh and ahhh at a replica that is only 5 years old. I go for the falling apart historical buildings, so it was hard to change my mood. Still they had a nice wine selection and we went ahead and purchased a Fantasia wine. Nice sweet desert wine. Again, not the red Cab or Merlot we went out to find but hey…
That night we had dinner reservations at FARM in Napa. I do recommend the restaurant but have a few bones to pick with them. Ok, I’m no food critic, oh wait… I am, yes I am. The flatbread appetizer was very pretty, but pretty…tasteless. The after dinner Cheese plate was a let down. FARMS cheese plate only had one item on it that we loved and that was the famous cowgirl creamery cheese from Petaluma, always a winner. The fact that it was paired with a sweet pecan raisin bread was a real let down. We like a little crunch and there was really none to be had on the plate save 2 candied walnuts. I’m allergic to most nuts, so didn’t work well with me. I love a little trio of breads for those that like soft and those that like crunch, gives you the chance to really go to town with your cheese. No quince paste here, but there was a nice dreamy apricot spread resembling quince. Again, soft pecan bread didn’t pair well with it. Ok snob snob snob, you never knew did you? Actually we are just so miserly that if we are paying big bucks for dinner, we really want it to be worth it, and FARM was just a good restaurant, not a great one as I had hoped. Fume out smoked it by far!
Sunday morning Mass in a nearby parish where we ran into an old friend of the family, what a pleasure. Then back to another excellent breakfast at hotel, again superb service, better than the ‘oh so posh’ FARM! No I’m not bitter.
We decided to take full advantage of having a hotel with a concierge, and we asked them if they could recommend a scenic drive that was favored by locals, and boy did we get one. I feel I have a new appreciation of Napa. I told Vincent about 5 times; pinch me, I’m back in Croatia. I was completely transformed back to my most favorite places on earth and it felt, magical. I could cry even writing this. I can smell the HOPS of Medjugorje back lane morning paths as I write this. I bothered Vincent all the way home to move us to Napa immediately!!! But then I thought of my close friends in San Jose and couldn’t come to terms with it…well not completely…
We stopped at 11 a.m. for the final Vineyard on our trip. We decided to visit MUMM Napa Valley winery for its famed sparkling wines. Note to self, even with breakfast on your tummy, 11 a.m. wine tasting hits the spot…in a not so appealing way. Though Linda, our wine expert of the day was as lovely as it gets, we didn’t settle on any wines here, though if you are in the market for an interesting sparkler the Cuvee was nice, as well as the red Santana.
Now for the real awaited experience which if you only take my advice once, this is it, my favorite all time burger stand in Napa. Now, I’m not a big big burger fan, so the fact that we stumbled upon this place a year ago and it still wakes me at night with an insatiable appetite… enough said.
You must order the Western Bacon Blue Burger. Even if the ingredients seem not so appealing, for instance I NEVER thought Id like blue cheese, WRONG. Bacon, Blue cheese, a fabulously large Walla Walla sweet onion ring, BBQ sauce, just to mention a few items found in this hidden gem. This burger has so much going on in one bite. I think it’s the only time I have ever eaten at a public restaurant and hit the table several time saying “OMG,” and “man this good” in between other loud grunts and sighs. Embarrassing but what can I say this Burger is amazing. This place next to the Oxbow market was formerly knows as Taylors EAT, but now is simply called GOTTS roadside. GUESS WHAT I see it is also in the ferry building in San Fran, and I’m sure it’s good there too, but oh Napa, Oh Bacon Blue, ahhhh…
Oxbow Market, a must see, fresh meats, seafood, chocolate, but the best of all Kara’s cupcakes, get the red velvet. Not overly sweet, but it gains the name velvet in my book.
Off for home, happy to get home, 5 minutes after sitter leaves we are yelling at the kids with tears in our eyes, when did parenting get so hard? FIAT FIAT FIAT.
Hope you enjoyed my snob review, ignore the grammatical errors.
2 comments:
Awesome! I felt like I reading one of those travel reviews.
Thanks so much Eileen for sharing your story and time in Napa. It warms my heart that you two were able to spend some time like this together. Thanks for all the details. Wonderful! Keep it up. God bless!
Post a Comment