Celebrating and Wine Tasting in Napa

On April 29, our friends, Dan and Madeline Sego, flew down to visit us for a long weekend. On Saturday morning we drove out to Napa to check out the winery scene.

Our first stop was a tasting at Mumm's (http://www.mummnapa.com/). The weather was sunny and warm so we sat outside on the patio, sipping 3 samples of bubbly and nibbling on nuts, dried fruits and crackers while looking over the vineyards.

Our next stop was Silver Oak Winery, where life is a Cabernet, near Rutherford (http://www.silveroak.com/ ). I played designated driver while Rich, Dan and Madeline tasted various red wines. We watched minibuses and limousines deliver and pickup groups for wine tasting and posing next to the statues on the grounds near the tasting room.

This strenuous activity required a late afternoon nap at the hotel and an even later dinner in downtown Napa.

Sunday morning we drove to Castello di Amorosa winery (http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/). The castle is 14^th century Tuscan style with 107 rooms and winery. There is even a small chapel, Saint Catherine of Siena, where they have Latin Mass on Sunday morning at 8:30am. (We passed on this experience) The winery specializes in Italian style wines. After a self-guided tour of the castle we went to the tasting room. Dan and Madeline selected wines for a case to be sent back to Seattle, plus 2 bottles and we were ready for our picnic.

We drove across to Rutherford Hill Winery and a small picnic area with a beautiful view of the Napa Valley. Wine, cheese, salami, fruit, bruschetta, bread and crackers made up the picnic as we celebrated both Dan and Madeline's anniversary (30 years and growing strong) and Rich's birthday (65 years and growing stronger). Cheers!

Monday morning we drove through San Francisco for a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Unfortunately the clouds and wind were coming in and it was a might chilly. We had lunch in Sausalito to recover those calories we lost during the walk!

In the afternoon we dropped the Segos at Oakland Airport for their flight back to Seattle.

Friday, May 6, was our 27th anniversay. To celebrate we drove to Carmel for lunch and some sightseeing. After lunch at Merlot's, we took the 17-mile drive around the Pebble Beach area. The views were gorgeous. We continued to Monterey and checked out the marina as it has been 10 years since we were here last. We plan to stop here again some time this summer on our way south.