Napa!

When Pete and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last June, he handed me a card which read that his present to me was a family trip to Tahoe - the only catch being, it's up to me to plan. Naturally ecstatic, since I'd never been, I set to planning our little holiday - only to have to put the brakes on our adventure when a major hiccup occurred with our rental and I had to switch gears, focus on a replacement tenant, get paperwork done, one out, house repaired, one in.

In the meantime, as I'm slowly falling apart physically (separate blog entry... but good news, I don't have lupus - yes, at times it was that kind of summer) my mom walks in to Alex's room as I'm standing on the top step of a 7 foot ladder attaching sticky tack to the back of tiny little glow in the dark stars and affixing them to the ceiling and takes a good look at me, unshowered, hair in messy ponytail, bags under eyes, and tells me, as only a mom will, that I look terrible.

No Sh-t.

Stress from dealing with a broken lease, finding a new tenant, Alex's forever refusal to sleep a single night through in his own bed, too many trips to doctors' offices to figure out why my hands are shaking and why I can't sleep and why I have so much concurrent nervous energy and fatigue simply started to wear on me. I knew that.

So kinda uncharacteristically and out of the blue, she asks whether Pete and I wanted to go away for a week, just the two of us, for some R & R.

Um, yes. Sort of. A week was way too long to leave Alex, so we discussed, figured 3 nights was a good middle ground, and since it was just the two of us, we'd postpone Tahoe when it's a family trip, and head up to Napa instead. For the last couple of years I've been mildly obsessed with a property called the Carneros Inn, which I had seen on a luxury travel show on Bravo, and it just so happened that one of Pete's associates just returned from a weekend getaway from the very same spot and said it was fabulous.

They had availability. We booked a cottage. Jet Blue LB to Sacramento. Kisses to our son who thought we were having a meeting with Yoda.

We were off!



The Inn is set up like a village, complete with restaurants, post office, market, and boutique. We pulled up and saw what looked like Restoration Hardware meets the Hamptons but with a Northern European Flair architecture, and I was in heaven. It is a closed property, so that you have to be a guest to access almost everything but the restaurants, so we called our name in through the gate, drove in, and saw the clusters of cottages en route to checkin at the Hilltop. It felt like summer camp. With wine.



We were escorted by golf cart to our cottage, #3 with the Blue door, complete with mailbox and porch rocking chairs, and i was giddy with excitement. Or maybe it was glass of Cade Sauvignon Blanc that I received at check in.

First building cluster to see on the property - Farm Restaurant, we ate here night #1, delicious. Bocce courts. Post office and market to the right.



We reserved a Premiere King Cottage, it was adorable. The room was adequately spacious, with a wood burning fireplace that we actually used, but what made the cottage worth the price was the backyard set up...

Enormous bathroom with soaking tub, heated floors (yes, I used this feature, it was chilly mornings and evenings) and INDOOR/OUTDOOR SHOWER! This was way too fun.
The indoor shower was enormous, literally could fit a family of 6, but the best part was the shower was a walk through, so that you could open a door in the shower that leads outside, latch the door open, and poof! You were in the outdoor shower section.

(Beautiful flora and fauna)


So here's the outdoor shower. It came down like warm rain, and every morning after my work out, around the time the sun burned through the clouds, I enjoyed my outdoor shower, and then every night before dinner, under the stars, same deal. It was amazing.

Shot of our enclosed yard. We had beautiful French doors that opened up to our private garden surrounded by a very high aluminum wall. Pete had to do quite a bit of work on this trip, so a lot of reading was done on the lounge chairs with convenient overhanging heaters... and wine.







The point of the trip was R&R, for both of us, so while we did go wine tasting, we also enjoyed just slowing down. Mornings I went to the gym while Peter went for his run - there was a 4 mile loop that went along a bunch of wineries like Artesa and Michael Mondavi (relation?) and some Plumpjack affiliates, and we even borrowed bikes and did a nice tour along the rolling hills - and I managed not to tip over. Then, I'd pick up coffee and bagels for us, we'd come back to the cottage, Pete would field emails, calls, I had the morning paper and a book - that I actually managed to read! And soon the morning would be over and we'd be off to our daily appointment for wine tasting.























In the afternoons after wine tasting, we'd retire to the adult pool at Hilltop - this is where the reception building is, another restaurant, the spa, the boutique (packing light didn't do me much good, the temperatures dropped so much that I had to pick up pants and a sweat shirt), bike rentals, and the salt water infiniti pool that overlooked fields, rolling hills, and the cow. I loved this cow. Actually, everybody at the pool loved the cow.





View from the pool. Not bad.




The only appointment we had on Monday was at Hall in Rutherford, which was past Frog's Leap, up a hill, past Auberge de Soleil, up... up... up... till you hit the most amazing bird's eye view from the Napa Valley. The owners of our local wine shop set up the tour for us, and while the wine was fabulous, the Hall's art collection (mostly living artists) is unparalleled and was the highlight for me.



This photo doesn't do the tasting room or the light fixture justice, but this was absolutely the most awe-inspiring chandelier I have ever seen. It was custom made for the Halls after they saw the artist's work hanging in Grand Central Station - and it is a replica of a 300 years old grape vine, complete with to-scale root structure - which is the bulk of the light fixture. Hanging from the chandelier are 1600+ swarovski crystals, representing each day Kathryn Hall was the U.S. Ambassador to Austria. I couldn't stop staring.





Monday night we ate at Bottega, and while I was disappointed in our seating despite 3 weeks in advance reservations, the food was very good. I was thrilled to have Nickel & Nickel by the glass, and the polenta under glass was hands out, brilliant.






Tuesday, our only appointment was Schramsburg, thank you Holly for the rec! And I LOVED this tour. We hoofed it up to Calistoga, where it was 15 degrees hotter than down at the other end of the valley, and after learning of the winery's amazing history (as in 1861... amazing) and enjoying the musings of our very talented tour guide, we enjoyed 5 outstanding pourings, and I learned that i actually enjoy the Pinot Noir based bubbles (but, they are not red...) Cremant was delicious, and has been served at the White House since Nixon, so we picked up a nice bottle to enjoy at the hotel before dinner at Bouchon.







Tuesday night was Bouchon, a spot-on Paris style bistro, and even at 8:30 at night, the place was bustling and noisy and fabulous, as it should be. Given the environment, I stuck to Kir Royal and devoured my mussels in Chorizo broth and enjoyed the fresh house baked bread right off the table (tres tres French.) Pete, not normally a red meat eater, couldn't resist the steak. We're not used to eating that late or being up that late socially, so by the time my second drink came and I had soaked up all the broth with the bread, I was ready to head back to the hotel and curl up with my book.

It was a wonderfully restful trip, although next year we're hoping to return, and bring Alex - just hire a babysitter at night...