Napa Day 2

Continued from Napa Day 1.

DSC07885This is how she sleeps in her crib, a pack and play provided by the hotel. Baby woke up at 3am on the dot. We stayed up with her about an hour and a half before it’s nap time again. Two hours of napping later, she woke up again. We needed some more sleep, so we dump the baby off with the eager grandparents. Hours later, it’s 10am, and we are finally going to get some wine in our system.

DSC07889In the car, heading out to some wineries. The baby needs to be entertained with youtube baby videos. Such high maintenance.

DSC07892 I wonder what they are doing with the vines.

DSC07895The weather isn’t great, but it’s acceptable. As long as it just kind of drizzles, I am ok with it.

DSC07899

DSC07901

DSC07903
On Silverado Trail, lots of wineries on this road. I had imagined Silverado Trail to be a much smaller road, instead it’s a wide two lane highway with wide shoulders.

DSC07905

DSC07912Apparently mustard flowers are good for the vineyards.

DSC07914
Reached our first winery for the day. They specialize in sparkling wine over here. Nothing but bubblies.

DSC07918
DH and BH heading in first while RL and I stayed in The Dick to change a poopy diaper. This is already poop #2 for today, and it’s not even noon yet.

DSC07919

DSC07923
Happy now that she’s pooped…the baby, not RL. Isnt’t she the cutest thing ever posing next to her purple dirty diaper trash bag.

DSC07929

DSC07932
Tasting room, and you actually order from a server.

DSC07934
Nice view from the tasting room.

DSC07937
Pretty good stuff, we ended up buying a bottle. Now we just need to transport it back to Austin without breaking it.

DSC07939
Moss!!! I love moss!!

DSC07940

DSC07941
There’s an art gallery in the adjacent building to the tasting room. Wine is such a frou frou thing, there are several wineries here that have art galleries attached to them, not that I don’t like wine or art.

20160309_115001

DSC07947
I guess this is where they age all of their sparking wine.

DSC07951Back in The Dick, heading to our next winery.

DSC07954 Here. This place came highly recommended by both Yelp and friends.

DSC07956
Thanks to the rain and the time of the year, not too many people here. This is the beauty of traveling in the low season.

DSC07958

DSC07960

DSC07961 The tasting room and deli.

DSC07962

DSC07965

DSC07966 Tasting area.

DSC07968

DSC07969

DSC07971

DSC07972

We stocked up on lunch items here at the deli, tasted some wine, and got a bottle to drink with our lunch. Usually this is a great winery to picnic outside on their tables, but due to the rain, they’ve opened up the underground wine cellar today for dining.

DSC07977
Not a bad tradeoff to dodge the wet weather outside.

DSC07980This is actually what I looked forward to the most on this trip—wine, food, and family. It helps that PL has been a superb travel baby so far, taking good naps either in her car seat or in her baby carrier.

DSC07982
Finished our delicious leisure lunch and came back out above ground. This is where we would have had our outdoor picnic lunch if the weather was dry. Perhaps next time…

DSC07984
Look, the Napa Wine Train passes by as we get ready to get back in The Dick. It’s almost mid afternoon, we are tired due to being up on and off since 3am. It’s time to head back to the hotel and rest, for everyone.

DSC07988

DSC07989
Caught up to the train.

DSC07991
There’s a certain beauty to the rainy foggy weather.

DSC07996
On our way back to our hotel we passed by Yountville. We made a slight detour so that I can take a photo of this unassuming building. This unassuming building is The French Laundry, a Michelin 3 star restaurant and for a while named the best restaurant in the world. Thought about making a reservation here for dinner(gotta make that reservation months ahead of time), but couldn’t quite stomach the $600 plus(for two) dinner.

DSC07999
No worries, Thomas Keller, the chef of The French Laundry also runs Bouchon, a cheaper priced restaurant, and also an even cheaper Bouchon Bakery close by The French Laundry. The cheapest option for us today.

DSC08000

DSC08001

DSC08002

DSC08003

DSC08006
Eclair filled with chocolate cream with a gold leaf on one end. Was expecting custard filling though. Perhaps blasphemous to say, but we got multiple pastries and macaroons at Bouchon Bakery and weren’t all that impressed. Maybe that’s what we get for not springing for a reservation at The French Laundry.

Exhausted, took most of the afternoon to nap after our two winery visit earlier today.

Side note: I thought that I would have plenty of time to blog while traveling with the baby, since she sleeps so much. It’s been the opposite so far. I’ve been so sleep deprived that any free time I have, I try to nap. In fact, I am blogging this back in Austin at the moment since I was only able to blog 1 out of the 5 days of traveling while on the go.

DSC08007
Again, baby is supposed to fall asleep at 6pm here in Western Time, so another early lunch. We tried to stretch it as much as we can, but it still means we head out for dinner early at around 6pm.

DSC08008
Empty restaurant due to low season. Love it. That or they all know something terrible about this place that we don’t know about…

DSC08009
‘Merica, Fuck Yeah!

DSC08011
Super cute, but getting fussy from being overtired. Someone is always having to constantly hold her and walk around with her. High Main!

DSC08013Roast chicken, yes please.

DSC08014
Yum! We’ve had nothing but delicious food here in Napa valley(other than slightly disappointing Bouchon Bakery).

Tomorrow, we head back into San Francisco. In retrospect, perhaps we should have stayed an extra day here in Napa so we didn’t feel so rushed and could visit a few more wineries. There’s always next time.

To be continued at SF Day 1 Part 1.