Napa Valley Girls Weekend

Every year we plan a girls' weekend so we can get together and getaway. This year we decided to go to Napa Valley! Here's a brief synopsis (with pictures) of what we did!

 

Our day started off with early morning flights into San Francisco. After picking up our rental we headed toward Napa, but our hotel wasn't ready yet. Since I got up at 4am to make our 6am flight I was starving so we went to nearby Fairfield to eat some crepes at Crepes-N-More.

 

I got the chicken cordon bleu crepe which was super yummy. The portion and sides of potato and salad made it a complete and reasonably priced meal. I was stuffed!

 

N. about to dive right in!

 

After that filling meal we strolled downtown Napa and visited some tasting rooms! The first tasting room we went to was Vintner's Collective. Our tasting host, Andy was really funny! He had an incredible memory too! After looking at our IDs just once he was able to recall all of our names, where we were from and our birthdates! But I'm sure you need a really good memory to recall all the wine facts. :)

 

The next tasting room we went to was Bounty Hunter Wine & Smokin' BBQ. This place was neat because they had wine flights with different themes (e.g.: champagne flights, red flights, etc.). We started to get a little hungry so we ordered the BBQ platter the share. It was the perfect amount of food for all three of us and it helped stave off the the wine buzz we were getting, LOL.

 

We didn't want to eat too much because we needed to head to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Morimoto.  I ordered the ishi yaki buri bop, a play off of Korean bimbimbap, but instead of meat, mine was made with yellowfin. Here is a shot of the server making my food tableside. What a neat presentation as the fish cooked in the hot stone bowl. 

 

 

Here's a shot of our decontructed s'more dessert. It was so good!

 

A shot of the three of us in the foyer of the restaurant.

The next day was jam packed so we woke up bright and early and got the day started off right with breakfast at Boon Fly Cafe. Some of the thngs we noshed on include the Boon Fly benedict with spicy jalapeno hollendaise...

 

And the breakfast flatbread topped with fried egg, bacon and caramelized onions. Yum! Not pictured were the Boon Fly doughnuts that were pipping hot and delicious!

 

After our filling breakfast it was on to our Napa Valley Bike Tour. We would be visiting two wineries and traveling approximately 14 miles (!!) via bike. D's bike skills were a little rusty and I had never bicycled on a road alongside fast moving cars. After a while she was riding around like a pro, although the cars still freaked me out a little bit. The first winery we went to was Odette Estate. Odette is a newly opened winery which offered a casual tasting in an open and relaxed setting. The second was Clos du Val where we had our tasting in a private room. Its setting was a little more upscale. We got to sample some some pretty expensive wines at this winery! Below is a picture of our tasting menu from Clos du Val along with this cute dog bed they made from one of their wine barrels.

Here is a close-up shot of the wine grapes  and us with our bike guide, John. He was super knowledgeable and nice. He even invited us to the winery where he does tastings, Conn Creek. He was such a good guide we visited him the next day!

 

 

After a day full bike riding and tastings, we were exhausted and needed to relax so we headed up north to Calistoga Spa Hot Springs to hit up their world famous mud baths! Our day at the spa was complete with the mineral rich mud baths, steam room and relaxation room. We ended our time at the spa with a dip in their mineral pool, filled with Calistoga spring water!

 

Our last meal in the Napa Valley area was at Thomas Keller's Bouchon. Here's some hot and crusty bread for the table!

 

A shot of my rabbit! Sorry it's blurry! Boo!

 

Flatbread complete with fresh truffle shavings on top! Thanks for giving me a sliver, it was delicious!

 

The classic French dish--croque monsieur.

 

And my fresh creamed corn...it was busting with flavor!

 

After eating, we headed to nearby St. Helena do some strolling. They had a really cute Main Street filled with little food shops and boutiques, but we couldn't stay long because someone had a plane to catch!