The tour continues

There is something about good friends that can play for hours developing new games, using different scenarios, different toys. Tate and Nick never seem to tire of each other. Their newest game was to send the skate board down the slide. Can't say it's something I would come up with, but it was rather entertaining to watch as Farrah and I were bundled up enjoying the rest of the 'skinny girl' margarita;). But I guess you can say the skinny girl was an old toy, new twist !! Hehe






That night we opted for s'mores first, dinner second, maybe not our best decision, but i will reference the skinny girl margarita as being a reflection on that choice


Sticky yumminess


Fast forward a day and who arrives.... Mr. Chris. He popped in late friday night (since everyone was sleeping we said it would kind of be like Santa Claus....). The kids eagerly went to bed and surprise!!

Brian picked him up in San Francisco Friday night. They went to a swanky restaurant downtown (they said the only thing that made them fit in was the fact that they were 2 guys on a dinner date). They came home to a sleeping Sara and a sleepy Farrah (when I fell asleep Farrah texted Brian saying she could relate to life with a sleepy wife as she was bummed I dosed off so early-I blame it on the best couch ever!!).

With this crew all together, the only thing we were missing was Shane! Poor Shane, living the high life as an only child with RaRa


Our morning started with a 5k for Farrah and i while the boys hit Tate's basketball game. I'm gonna give huge kudos to Chris for staying up with Brian and getting up with the kids without any mention of the 3 hour time change. I'm also giving kudos to Farrah who a mere 4 weeks ago decided to bust out her running shoes and get in shape for a 5k. She was hoping to find an exercise routine she can stick with. Running fit the bill and thankfully her body agrees. I was thrilled to jog with her and she hit her 5k goal Saturday morning! She lead the charge right to the end, what a great feeling and I know she will keep it up. Thanks for letting me join you;)

Next the reward, Farrah orchestrated a babysitter for the big kids on Saturday so the adults could tour the napa country side for some glorious wine tasting. Of the three years the McCullough have been in our life this will be the 4th 'tasting' trip. 2 of the 4 I was pregnant. Now I am thankful to participate, glad to not miss this one;)

The first place was V sattui and looking back my favorite of them all. It helped that the McCulloughs are members and we enjoyed our time in a members only room. But the variety was amazing, their wine shipment process rather simple. You can't find their wines in a store, they can only be purchased through their location.


Check your watches ladies, it's 11:30!!


I am so thankful Chris was able to join us for this part of the trip, being a stay at home mom with a family that likes to travel, I sometimes feel like I get to have all the fun while Chris pays all the bills, so joining us was such a treat!!


Drew opted out for the wine tasting and conducted knuckle sucking instead.,, yum right?


We sampled some fabulous wine from tehe menu and even got to taste a wine that technically won't be ready for another 2 years. He used a 'wine thief' to extract some yummy Pinot noir from the barrel. If your liked the wine and could 'gamble' on it being even better in the next 2 years there was the option to 'pre buy' a barrel. It was light and fabulous, but no gambling for us. We are already taking a significant gamble with our household goods.


Here we are imagining this to be the sight of a rehearsal dinner between the McCulloughs and Leadbetters.


After the tasting we enjoyed a fabulous picnic lunch right outside. Please note, this is the last time you will see my sunglasses functioning as sunglasses. They were a casualty of the tasting tour and I believe their final resting place is at Delarushich.


We went to 4 locations and they were each had very different personalities. Stop #2 was Vine Cliff. This was an appointment only location that Farrah and Brian had stumbled upon almost 9 years ago while on their honeymoon. It was fun to watch them walk in remembering some stuff and appreciating the changes the winery had made.


Same delicious wine.


This tour had a more intimate feel. We received a tour of the processing facility





A walk through the vineyards





And a tour of the cellar.


Where the previous winery had 40+ wines to sample ranging from $18-60 a bottle. This particular winery made 4 different wines. 2 chardinas and 2 Cabernet sauvignons. The cost was rather higher as one of them was $150. Yikes right?



Stop #3, another membership location for the high rollers Brian and Farrah. This place is etched in my memory for it's beautiful porch view.


We could sit here for hours just soaking it all in. Wine, atmosphere and friends, speaking of friends, Brian and Farrah ran into some buddies here, barry and jen! They were a hoot and tagged right along with us. With as wonderful and social folks that Brian and Farrah are, I was shocked that we only ran into one set of buddies-but what a small world;)


I just want to remember Farrah's lobster fest story (funny, so does she!)


Beautiful rolling hills


The 4th and final installment and the ritziest one by far. When we hopped in the car we decided to hit the 2nd one on the left. Well that happened to be a VERY ritzy one, Farrah said the tastings would be $100 each. This one was $35. we were hitting our 'sophistication limit'. I mean, who are we really?? It looked like a very 'roman' building. As least we can say 'looked like'. We may not be sophisticated but they got nothing on our travel background;)


Hey there Farrah fawcett. Great lip gloss;). Minty?


After this one we popped home for a brief intermission and to put the kids to bed. They feasted on their happy meals as we got excited for our final stop.

Dinner at Bottega. Another swanky location in Napa. Brian made reservations here several weeks ago as it's the site of a famous chef (michael chiarello) with some fabulous food. We settled in outside while we waited for our table. Farrah looked up in time to notice who she thought was Carlos Santana leaving the restaurant.

As we were star struck from that, out walks the chef to chat with some of his friends that were visiting his restaurant. his buddies were clearly sloshed from too much wine tasting so he turned to us (the hip fun couples) to offer any assistance. Since brian is an amazing chef himself, he was instantly star struck by Michael. He didn't know what to say. Finally Farrah popped in, 'we've been wine tasting all day, can you recommend a good beer?'. So chef Michael finds his favorite Italian beer and brings it out to us, off the bill!! What celebs we are!!

Once we were inside the restaurant and seated, the table behind us leaned in to say, Chris's back end was sitting in the same seat that shared Carlos Santana's back end just 5 minutes prior;).