Over Christmas, my sis-in-law asked my Mom and I if we would be interested in joining her and her Mom on a girls trip to Napa for her 40th...I mean 29th... birthday. It was a pretty simple answer but there were lots of logistics to work out. The biggest hurdle being everyone being available the same weekend that I was actually in the USA. The second being having someone to watch the kids. It must have been meant to be because we were all able to make it! Let the fun begin. Thanks to
Grandma and Grandpa Sperling for watching the kids.
Traci and her mom Annette arrived in Oakland an hour or so before Mom and I and they kindly waited for us at the car rental area. Once we were all together it was time to pack up the car and head to Napa. Unfortunately we left the airport during rush hour. Oakland area traffic is no joke! Eventually we made it to our adorable B&B "The Inn on First".
The next day was our official "wine tour" day and we had booked a limo to drive us around in style. We were told by the hotel owner that occasionally the limo drivers don't know the area well and aren't very informed on wine so I was a little nervous. However, we lucked out and got the rock star of the wine country limo drivers. Bruce was excellent and of course he knew how to work a group of ladies. The limo was always cool and ready to go, he escorted us into the wineries to get us settled (I'm sure to get his kick-back as well), and always knew where to go. He even went to pick up our lunches for us.
Our first official stop was for the Robert Mondavi classic tour. I had read that this was the best overall introductory tour of wine. It was the only real winery tour we did. The rest of the time we just did wine tastings. The tour was excellent and personally I feel as though I learned a lot about wine. Of course, the tasting at the end was the best part.
As I mentioned before, while we were touring Robert Mondavi, Bruce was off picking up our lunch. He then took us to one of the few wineries that allows picnic lunches and we had a nice quiet lunch under the redwoods at Sequoia Grove. After lunch we were back on the road again driving through quaint towns and stopping at wineries along the way. A couple we stopped at just to take pictures and get good views. When Bruce would take our pictures, he would take about 15 of each pose so I may have started having a little fun with it.
Our second to last stop was at Rombauer Vineyards. It ended up being most of our favorite stops because it had a spectacular view down into the valley. Plus our wine guy serving our tasting was very talkative and generous with the portions. The final stop was at Mumm Sparkling wine which was nice to have something a little different than what we had had all day. We were sad to end our wine tour day but it was time to go freshen up for Traci's birthday dinner.
For Traci's birthday dinner, we decided to have something a little more special planned so I booked a nice restaurant "Celadon" and Annette had a special dessert pre-ordered and delivered to our table at the end of the meal. Happy Birthday Traci!
The next morning it was time to check-out of our cute B&B but we had "thank-you" pedicures from Traci scheduled at a cute little spa that morning in Napa. In true Napa fashion, the owner was going around bringing everyone "all you can drink" bubbly. After the pedicures we shoppe and wandered around Napa shopping and exploring.
We eventually were tired of Napa and decided we wanted to see Sonoma and go to at least one winery there just to say we did. Our pick for Sonoma was basically just what was close so we stopped at Ravenswood Winery. It ended up being a great choice! They are sort of an eccentric winery. The wine descriptions were very tongue in cheek which I loved. Also, they had a great Red Zinfandel that we ended up buying some bottles of and shipping home. We left the winery and decided to wander around Sonoma. I did a little shopping and the other ladies did some playing in the Sonoma "State Historic Park".
Finally it was time to head to San Francisco! We were warned that the traffic getting into the city might be bad due to the Giants game going on that evening but it turned out to not be any problem. I was a little bit excited to be driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first evening in San Fran was basically spent just getting dinner and getting a good nights sleep for our early morning tour the next day. Our hotel provided some very stylish robes that Traci and I had to model.
We basically only had one day in San Fran so we decided (or I decided for everyone) to make the most of it and take a super early morning tour. The tour started at Union Square and then continued with a ride on a bus made to look like a trolley car around the city. Our guide was fun and interesting albeit a little cheesy. After a brief tour, we were dropped off at the dock to catch the first boat over to Alcatraz.
The visit to Alcatraz was fun and it was nice being part of the first boat to arrive. In case you are wanting to go to Alcatraz at some point, schedule your tickets in advance! The next available boat was July 30!!! I'm glad we had our tickets and were able to board. The boat ride over to Alcatraz was almost as fun as the tour (not really, but the views were nice).
At Alcatraz we did the audio tour through the prison that gave lots of interesting facts about prison life and told about how the 5 famous prisoners escaped. There was even a guard standing outside one of the solitary confinement rooms that would slam the door and give you a taste of being in "the slammer". I cannot imagine spending 1 hour in there much less 24+! The tour of Alcatraz is not to be missed.
We had a set time we had to leave Alcatraz in order to make it for the rest of our trolley tour. We had a boxed lunch on the trolley and continued on to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fabulous weather day for the views.
When the tour was over, we hopped off our fake trolley and went to get on the real trolley. At this point it was 3-4 in the afternoon on a Saturday and on "Gay Pride" weekend. This meant that the line to get on the popular trolley was long. Although standing in line for 45 minutes to ride a trolley wasn't what we preferred to do, it did make for some great people watching opportunities. We had fun riding the trolley. Traci and I took turns sitting in the seat and hanging off the side. At the end of the line Traci came within inches of parked cars on the side of the road. Just a little scary! Mom and Annette were on the other side so I can't really tell about their ride.
Our hotel had a 5-6 happy hour of free wine and beer so we made it back for some pre-dinner refreshment. Traci had a huge desire to put her feet in the Pacific (Ok, so it was just the Bay but it still counts right?!) Then we headed off to our dinner reservation on Pier 39. After dinner we wandered around the Pier having fun! Unfortunately the sea lions didn't want to hang around to see us.
As I mentioned before, it was "Gay Pride" weekend so the following morning was the parade. Traci and Annette were flying out of Oakland at 10:45am so we knew we had to get out of town early in order to get by all the road closures and traffic issues. We were up and out super early the next morning and decided to stop and get breakfast on the way to the airport. Traci used Yelp to find a place in Oakland. Due to some navigational and driver errors we ended up with a
nice scary tour through Oakland. However, it ended well at a cute little dinner "Little House Cafe" that had delicious breakfast.
Mom and I's flight didn't leave Oakland until 4:30pm so I bought us super cheap tickets to an Oakland A's game. It was a pretty fun way to spend our time between dropping them off and our flight.
Thanks for a fantastic trip ladies!!
