We had a lovely long weekend in Napa Valley with our friends!  Napa valley, much like the little bits and pieces of the California I’ve seen, is gorgeous.  We only had two full days for tastings, and we tried to not jam too much in.

We stayed at the cutest airbnb of all time.  I say that every time, don’t I!  But this one really does take the cake.  Jacin Fitzgerald had been staying there when I spotted her sharing it on Snapchat and asked her to please send me the listing.   Accommodations are expensive in Napa, which is really putting it mildly.  Everywhere recommended to me was around $500 a night… even the Hampton Inn was around $300 when I looked.  But when I inquired the farmhouse was already rented out, but then she asked if I’d be interested in The Love Shack for $100 a night.  Couldn’t beat that price, and it turned out to be perfect in every way for us.  All of the details, peacefulness, coziness, and the vineyard ten steps away… I must return.  And you must visit!!

We had dinner at the Long Meadow Ranch Farmstead the night after we got in.  We flew into San Francisco and were planning on visiting Domaine Carneros on our way out there, but traffic was terrible.  What took a little over an hour to get back to the airport, took us three to get to Napa.

The next morning we went to The St. Helena Farmer’s market  where we had coffee, crepes, and an amazing contimo biscuit.  These are Aztec Dahlias and some were as big as my head!  They were beautiful!!

Our first stop of the day was Cakebread Cellars where we had a tour and tasting.  

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we picked up lunch at Oakville Grocery and had a picnic at William Hill Winery.  They have adirondack chairs overlooking the vineyard that was a great spot to eat our lunch.  By that time the weather was perfect.  We went on a walking tour of the vineyard and had a tasting.  We got a couple bottles to take home (:

Next up we drove to Stags Leap . We had an estate tour and a tasting.  The estate tour was fascinating and I would definitely recommend it if you love history like I do.  The grounds are gorgeous!! This was probably my favorite winery we visited.

That night for dinner we went to Goose & Gander.  I had really wanted to try to get a table at Bottega since so many people recommended it but they only had odd times available.

The next morning while JB & Anna had their meeting (in the barn at the airbnb!), Bruce and I walked around Napa.  We visited Oxbow Public Market.  I picked up a few gifts to bring back there.  

We then picked up lunch again at Oakville Grocery on our way to Duckhorn.  We had a tasting there and also walked around the beautiful grounds.  

We traveled to Schramsberg where we had a picnic and then a tour.  The tour (done by “simple rimple” as he called himself) was so good.  I learned a lot about sparkling wine I had no clue about.    Our last winery of the trip – Newton vineyard!  We saved the one with the most amazing view for last.  This is also where i LOCKED EYES WITH MARTHA STEWART.  I kept hearing the others on our tour talk about Martha randomly and didn’t think much of it.  But when we kept hearing the room next to us be a little loud someone mentioned Martha again.  That’s when I was like ???  MARTHA is in there???  WHATTTTTT.  So I played it 100% not cool and faked having to go to the bathroom when they were settling up.  We locked eyes, lol.  I did show some restraint and didn’t run up and hug her or anything.  I about passed out and everyone there was laughing at me.  Anyway… Newton was beautiful!!  I highly recommend it. 

That night we went to Archetype which was so good.  Don’t even get me started on the decor!

The next morning we had breakfast at our airbnb overlooking the vineyards.  We stopped at Oxbow market on the way to the airport for another breakfast treat.  I had a donut from C Casa that had JB and I shocked it was gluten free.  Probably the best donut of my life!  I was sad it wasn’t lunch time since Gott’s roadside was right there and I’ve heard their ahi poke tacos are so good.  

On our way back to SFO we stopped in Treasure Island to take in the view.  They just so happened to have a flea market going on which was so fun checking out.  

And no trip to California is complete without In-N-Out (:

If anyone is visiting soon, I am more than happy to send a PDF of our schedule!!

Can’t wait to go back and visit more wineries one day.