Nearing the End

After seven wonderful days in the fine state of California, our trip has ended with a bang. Our time in Napa has proven fantastic, and we have the pictures to prove it!

First, however, we must share with you the spectacular journey as we left San Francisco. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge is quite a spectacle, and we were fortunate to make the trek in beautiful weather. We stopped at the vista points on both sides of the bridge just to take it all in!

After San Fran, it was time to hit the wine country. We made our way through Sonoma and into Napa County, where we're staying at the Napa Inn Bed and Breakfast. It's a great little place, with wonderful evening wine tastings and amazing morning breakfasts. And it's a short walk to downtown, where we've eaten at Pizzeria Azzurro, Uva Trattoria, and Angele. Each place has been wonderful, with (of course) great wine selections.

Adam and Molly enjoying a barrel tasting at Bourassa

Dan, Molly, and Adam at Hopper Creek

We didn't just eat though--there's wine to be had! On Thursday, we took a bus tour with Platypus. If you ever had to Napa, we highly recommend this tour. They took us and six other couples to four very small, boutique wineries--O'Brien Estates, Bourassa, Elkhorn Peak, and Hopper Creek. We had an absolute blast at each winery. The largest produced only several thousand cases annually (versus some of the larger wineries that will do 100,000 plus per year), and we were able to chat with the very candid owners, operators, and winemakers at each location.

We were all having so much fun that the tour went two hours over! Much of this was due to Dan, our new best friend at Hopper Creek, however. We were his last group of the day, and he used the opportunity to offload his remaining open bottles while we talked about Napa food and culture and played fetch with Chili, his dog, in the vineyard.

And to top it off, completely randomly and without our prior knowledge, we had some friends on the tour with us! Laurie--Adam's former roommate Chris's sister--and her fiancee just so happened to be in Napa at the same time, and also thought to join the Platypus tour! It's a small world, after all...

Silver Oak's Napa Vineyard

On Friday, we decided to hit a couple larger wineries on our way over to Sonoma (just a short drive from Napa) for lunch. We first stopped by Silver Oak, one of our favorite Cabernet Sauvignon growers in the valley. Apart from the wonderful tasting, we learned something we probably already should have known: founder and owner Roy Duncan is a Notre Dame alum. In fact, the school's newest men's dorm--Duncan Hall--is named after him.

After a winding trip through the mountains to Sonoma, we stopped by Chateau St Jean, one of the valley's larger wine producers. There, we sampled some more wine and the company's spread of mustards, grapeseed oils, and vinegars while enjoying the beautiful grounds.

We did lunch in downtown Sonoma at an Irish Pub (got to stay close to your roots, even in wine country!) before heading over the Napa Outlet Mall (such deals!). And continuing our small world coincidences, we managed to run into another winemaker at dinner on Friday. We ordered a bottle of Renteria Pinot Noir with our meal at Angele (a restaurant with dozens of wine selections), and family patriarch Salvador Renteria was dining at the restaurant in celebration of son (and current business head) Oscar's birthday! The sommelier sent them to our table, and we were able to briefly meet the family to add a personal touch to our wonderful dinner.

In all, we've had a terrific vacation to California. We'll provide a few more posts over the next couple of days with some final thoughts, pictures, and videos, but in the mean time: cheers!