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!

California Eatin'

While we were in California for our family reunion, we did a lot of eating. I don't know how California manages to have a health conscious reputation with all this good food around. I swear, I lived in Cali (again) I'd be eating myself silly. Let's start at the very beginning shall we?

We flew into Long Beach Airport and oddly enough, s often as I visit California I had never been to this airport. The interesting thing about this airport is that they don't have sky walks. So, when you deboard the plane you go via stairs straight outside. It kind of reminded me of flying somewhere tropical! Also, the airport itself is partially outdoors which also added to the tropical vibe.

Jill posing in front of Sweet Jill's in the airport. Although I heard great things about it, we never ate there just took a picture in front of it. ;)

Our first stop in California was Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. I thought they only had locations in LA, but they had one in Long Beach so we had to hit it up! Here's Justin about to dive in and and a shot of my plate. The waffles were awesome! They had the perfect bit of sweetness and cinnamon in the waffle mix you almost didn't need the syrup...almost. :)

Look who else ate here--Barack Obama.

Despite our usual complaints of eating mostly Filipino food while we're in Cali the only Filipino restaurant we went to was here, the Salo Salo Grill. We didn't even hit up a Goldilocks or Jollibee which was surprising. Don't know exactly what my sisters are doing in this picture...

One night when we were craving Italian we went to Lupo D'Abruzzo in Cypress. It is a local, family owned spot that served up huge, tasty portions! Judy got this combination platter that offered up a little bit of everything while I ordered the lobster ravioli with cream sauce! Yummy!

 

After chowing down in the OC, we headed down to San Diego's Pacific Beach to do some grubbing there as well. We originally planned on hanging out on the beach, but it was so overcast we decided to do some shopping (and eating of course!) instead.

Here's a picture of Justin and I during our cloudy day at the beach...the sun was finally starting to pop up, but it was already the toward the end of the day...

Here is the shot of the yummy gyro I had at Vanoos Grillette.

Right next door Justin got himself a haircut at West Coast Cuts...

As a shopping snack we went to The Baked Bear, an ice cream sandwich shop. On the left is Justin's chocolate chip cookie with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I opted to get one snickerdoodle cookie and one red velvet cookie with cheesecake ice cream. I really like how you can customize your ice cream sandwich, however, I wish the ingredients were of a high quality. Not to reveal my hidden fat girl status, but I can tell if the ice cream has a lower milkfat quality (as compared to higher fat ice creams such as Haagen Daaz) and the cookies were just so-so (definitely no Mrs. Fields here). I know the prices are reasonable as they are now, but I would actually pay more if it were more high quality, know what I mean?

Our eating adventures didn't stop there! While on vacation we spent sometime in Temecula and got to discover Old Town Temecula! First stop in Temecula, Aztek Tacos for some tasty authentic Mexican food! The taco on your left is a Mexican style carne asada taco. On your right is their quesataco, where the filling is enveloped in crunchy cheese, yum!

Of course we had to get carne asada fries!

Justin and his huge carne asada burrito. California knows its Mexican food!

On another day after a good, long workout my family and I were trying to find a bite to eat. We looked up Havana Kitchen and saw the great Yelp reviews! This place is amazing! I knew I could count on my fellow Yelpers not to lead me wrong!

I had the Cuban sloppy joe which was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. It's pairing with salted kettle cooked chips worked out well as I used my chips to scoop up the excess sloppy joe as "chip dip." Yum!

Both the sister and the hubs got Cuban sandwiches which were delicious. The right amount of meat and condiments--mayo and pickles and whatnot. The bread was excellent and must be authentic bread used for Cuban sandwiches because it had the right consistency of hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

The sides were also good. The empanadas were super flaky and delicious. The plantains and the beans and rice were devoured!

But wait, our meal doesn't end there! My sister got the guava pastry, thinking that she would save it for later, but we ended up eating it on the spot. Just like a cheese blintz with some tropical flavor. Lastly, I had the iced salted latte which totally hit the spot on a hot day. It had the perfect hint of salt, not overpowering. Next time, I'm in Temecula I would love to visit this place again!

Whew! That's a lot of food! After getting back from California Justin and I knew that we had do some damage control, however, with three out-of-state weddings on the horizon I hope it won't be difficult for me to get back on the right track!

Disneyland

Since Monday was our last day in the OC before we headed to Temecula we thought we'd spend our last day at Disneyland! I hadn't been to Disneyland in over a decade (I've been to Disneyworld more recently) so we met up with some friends to join us at the "Happiest Place on Earth!" Many thanks to my cousin, Ate Tima, who was able to score us all Park Hopper tickets which allowed us access to both the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure. I had never been to California Adventure so it was going to be a challenge to squeeze in two parks in one day!

 

Our first stop was, was Adventureland where Justin grabbed a world famous Dole Whip. I had never had one myself, but boy were they delicious and refreshing on a hot day! Also, below is a picture of Justin and I in front of the lake near New Orleans Square. I was obviously having a bad hair day as my bangs had grown out so I pulled them back, thus rocking the shih tzu hairstyle, LOL.

 

 

Here are some more shots of our day at Disney...my sisters waiting for our turn at Star Tours. Their 3D glasses were actually quite confortable I contemplated stealing them for future 3D movie use (but I didn't ;).

 

Waiting in line at the Cars Racers ride in California Adventure.

 

The ride turned out to be super cute and super fun! The right amount of storyline (I had never watched the movie) and actual ride! It was a good thing we went when we did because after we got off the ride they had to close it temporarily!

 

 

A shot of the sisters (there goes my shih tzu hair again...) Why did you guys let me leave the house like that? Look at Justin photoboming in the background...hahaha...

 

Of of the best parts of going to Disney are the snacks! Of course Justin couldn't leave without a turkey leg!

Judy's close encounter with a Storm Trooper. They were wandering around Tomrrowland. Probably up to no good ;)

 

Here's a hilarious shot of my friend and I riding Space Mountain. Look at me, I'm hanging on to dear life. Has Space Mountain always been bumpy/jarring? #ImOld

 

But alas, all good things must come to an end and we had to drop Judy off at the airport to make her flight back home. Here is the only shot my friends and I took together. I wish we had taken more! Whoopsy. All in all, it was a good day and I'm so glad that my friends were able to be there!