Day 2 in Napa & Dinner with Don

Okay, here I am, back to blogging about Napa.
I finally finished laundry (from Napa and Newport),
cleaned part of my house today,
and some of the bathrooms,
tore apart my closet (thanks for the encouragement to get that done Teri!) and put away some of my winter wardrobe and pulled out the summer stuff,
woke up with a cold (guess that is what I get from all the fun we've jammed into the last two weeks),
Hannah has one too,
but I am here...  trying to get the last of these Napa posts done!

So you know vacay and the weekend is officially over when you are summoned to jury duty tomorrow morning.  Boo-hoo!!!!

Let's not talk about reality right now though, let's talk about Saturday April 21st, when Mr. Hass and I woke up to our first full day in Napa!

I made Mr. H stop the car on our way out so I could get this view of the Inn.

Those last two pics Mr. H took with his cell phone camera.  I am assuming you figured out that the red circle indicates where our room was?  ;)
I never brought my camera with me when we went to the main house for breakfast but I wish I did.  Saturday morning was sunny and just gorgeous.  We sat outside on the patio and chatted the morning away with two other couples.  It was so nice.  Then we decided to just drive through downtown St. Helena and check out some of the shops a bit.

The yellow building with the red door is where we went for dinner that night.  Market.  It was recommended by staff at The Inn.

That pharmacy was cute, we bought little hello kitty dolls for the girls in there.  And next door, you can't see the sign well behind that small tree, but that is Olivier.  This was my favorite shop we went to.  They have all kinds of olive oils and different dressings, dips, marinades, and the fun part is that you can taste just about everything they sell.  We bought a couple fun things in there.

After shopping around we drove over to V. Sattui to check it out and have lunch.

The grounds were really pretty, and I loved their wine and cheese shop.

The underground cellar was nice and cool, and by this time it was already 90 something outside. 

If you know me, you know that I love history.  One of my favorite things was learning the history of some of the places we went to.  V. Sattui had a lot of original family photos and some neat artifacts.

And of course all that shopping and history really works up an appetite, so we ordered sandwhiches from the deli there.

We had a side of this olive salad and it was so delicious that I have been re-creating what I now call my "Napa Olive Salad" at home.

Our sandwhiches were so delicious.
After lunch, three huge tour buses unloaded and V. Sattui got pretty crazy crowded. 
I'm glad we went and checked it out, but after some of the places we went to on Sunday, I think we preffered the smaller scale wineries.

After lunch we headed back to the Inn to rest up a bit before my cousin Don and his wife Kaylen were meeting up with us. 
It was so hot out so we decided to swing by the main house for a fresh iced tea, and then to check out the pool for a bit.

 

This area was open to guests for water, iced tea, coffee, hot teas, and sodas until 10pm. 

Since we've been home, and life is back to full blown craziness, I will look at Mr. Hass and say "I wanna go back to Napa."  And then we laugh about how our most difficult decisions while there were "Am I gonna have a glass of iced tea right now, or should I have a glass of wine, or should I drink some water first, and then some tea, or wine now and coffee later?"  Oh, those were the days. 

We spent two hours at the pool.  It was so nice and refreshing, and the whole time we were there we kept saying I can't believe we are the only ones down here.  It is Saturday right?  And we kept saying how quiet it is.  So very peaceful. 

After a little swimming, and kindle reading it was time to get ready for dinner with our guests.

Don and Kaylen moved to Walnut Creek recently, so when we knew we were going to Napa we arranged one night to have dinner together.  I am so glad it worked out.  Don is my (older) cousin (he loves that I point this out ya know, so I will never stop) and we have always been really close.  When he told me he and Kaylen were moving to Walnut Creek I almost cried, but we have been lucky enough to spend some fun time with them since they have moved like when we stayed in San Diego and went to the BSU game, and having them come to Napa, and we even got to hang out last weekend with them at Newport Dunes. 
After we showed them around the fabulous Inn, we walked over to a winery called Freemark Abbey that comps the tasting for guests at Wine Country Inn. 

So this was technically our "first Napa tasting".
We had fun, and liked all their wines.
We even got to taste this hundred dollar bottle of Josephine named after the original owner of the winery.

We bought a bottle of their sauvignon blanc to take to dinner.
And then since my (older... by three months, but so what he's still Older) cousin Don just loooooves having his picture taken (I'm joking can you tell?) , I made him pose for a few shots.

All joking aside, I really love this shot of them!

Then we went back to The Inn for happy hour!
Every day from 4:30-6pm the Inn does wine tasting and appetizers.
The wine was always great, and the apps were too.
And soon we were ready to hop into our awaiting stretch suburban and be driven to dinner.

This drop off service was so awesome.  And apparently Wine Country Inn is one of the few places that offers this to their guests.  Not only was it nice to not have to worry about finding it, or driving there, but our driver filled us in on what we have to order and try, and she was so full of good information.

Again with the pictures.  He will thank me some day.  Kaylen appreciated them. :)

We had a GREAT time.
The wine was fabulous.
Service was fantastic.
The food was Ahhh-mazing.
My pics of the food however did not turn out that amazing.
But we tried new things and loved it all.
We had lobster spring rolls, oysters with a watermelon finish (they were so good!), I had the chef's mushroom ravioli special, Mr. H tried the braised lamb (unbelievable!), Kaylen had a delicious steak, and Don ordered halibut that looked cooked to perfection.
We also tried the butterscoth pudding after our driver Janelle said you have to have it, and man was she ever right about that.  An amazing finish to the meal.
We sipped our lattes and coffee afterwards and we closed that place down.

Then we headed back to the Inn and shared a couple of stogies on our balcony.

Thanks again for meeting up with us Don & Kaylen!!!
We had such a fun time.
Mr. Hass and I said if we lived in the area, the Market would be a place that we would frequent quite often.


Stay tuned for our adventures on Day 3.
We booked a private wine tasting excursion, or "Inn-cursion" as they say at The Inn.
Stay tuned!

From Napa to Newport...

Hi there.
We are home from our fun weeked of "glamping" at Newport Dunes.
You know, glamorous camping.
Full hook-ups, a convenience store steps away with everything we might need (like the ketchup I forgot to bring), family and cousins close by that came to join us for the day, Sprinkles cupcakes that Aunt Glenda brought to us, Crab Cooker for dinner to celebrate Grandma and Deanna's birthday...
Yeah, I'd call that glamping.
But you know what, glamping or not, when it is with a 5 and 3 year old, there is not one minute of downtime and I am exhausted!

So for now, here's a flashback picture of the Hass family from May 4, 2009 at The Dunes...

And here we are now, April 28,2012

We had a great time.
I'll share more pics from our glamping weekend one of these days.
But for now I have to catch up with my editing from Napa.
And laundry.
And grocery shop.
And clean my filthy house.
And take my car to the dealership to see why my check engine light is back on.
And sleep.

You aren't sick of hearing about Napa yet are you????

Cause I'm not done talking bout it!

Be back soon.
xo

Day 1 in Napa & Pictures of the Inn

Day 1.
Got on the road last Friday morning by 9am.
Soon after Mr. Hass handed me an envelope, and then pulled out a gift bag from behind his seat.
We had not discussed gifts (good thing I got him something though!) and he totally surprised me with the 35mm lens I have been wanting.

He's the best.
I was all smiles the whole 8 hour drive. :)
What a treat it was to sit and talk with no one around to interrupt us.
We chatted the drive away, listened to some new favorite Pandora stations : Bon Iver, Brett Dennen, Bruno Mars, and Kate Nash.
We had lunch at Quizno's and hopped back on the road.
Pulled up to the Inn about 5:30pm.

As soon as we pulled into the Wine Country Inn I was blown away.

This is Mr. H just stepping out of the car.  Even the parking lot was gorgeous with a view of the neighbors' vineyards.

We walked into those doors above to check in and were immediately greeted by the Inn Keeper, Jim.  Jim asked us if we were checking in, and then he asked if we would like a glass of wine in our hand while we did so.  Yes, yes please.  I loved the place already.

With views like this every which way, how could we not???  It was just gorgeous. 

Just below those stairs in the above picture is where our room was.
The Inn has three buildings, 26 rooms that are all unique, and three private cottages.  It was nice that our room was not connected to the main house, and we could never get over how quiet it was.  The most peaceful and serene place we have ever stayed.

For our own records so that we don't forget, we stayed in room 26.  I can't decide if I'd like the same room next time, or possibly something different.

What a great view we had from our balcony too.  Joyce (our friend who checked us in and gave us a personal tour of the Inn and our room) told us that the vineyard behind our room was a cabernet sauvignon (our favorite) and that they sell it there at the Inn.

It is called Hourglass.

And I said how neat, we should buy it and have it next year on our anniversary.

Unfortunately, after all the money we spent buying the wines we got to taste on Sunday, we decided to forgo the Hourglass.  Maybe next time.

The Inn is known for their homemade granola (which I had every morning over fruit and it was delicious), but we also decided that their cinnamon apple waffles were equally unbelievably good.

The staff was SO very friendly and welcoming.

I always wanted to sit and swing in this spot and we never did.  Next time.

We were surprised at how early we got to the Inn, so we hurried and freshened up and decided to go to a brewery we had read about online that happened to be walking distance right behind the Inn.

Mr. Hass said to me over dinner, "So, um, you aren't mad that our first night in Napa we are eating at a brewery and watching the Spurs game are you?"  Haha.  No, but I told him he was a lucky guy. ;)
The next morning I was up at 5:50am.  Of course I have been excited for months to sleep past 6:15 and wouldn't ya know that my darn internal clock wakes me up for good before that.  Figures.

So we decided to make the most of it and enjoy our coffee in the hot tub overlooking the vineyard.  Not a bad way to wake up let me tell you.  I much prefer that to watching Phineas & Ferb or Team Umizoomi.

I just love this next picture.  It makes me smile.

And so we sipped our coffee while the sun slowly came up over the valley. 
What a way to start the day. 

Stay tuned for day 2.
Hopefully I will get that up soon.
We just got back from dinner celebrating my nephew Noah's 5th birthday tonight at my parents house.

Tomorrow when Mr. H gets home from work we are heading to Newport Dunes to camp with our girls.

Oh and um, they have full hook ups there, and wi-fi.  Cause I learned I prefer "glamping" to actual camping. 
In fact, Saturday night we have reservations at The Crab Cooker for dinner. (with the fam to celebrate my Grandma's bday and my cousin Deanna)
I know, it's a rough life...
but somebody's gotta do it!
;)

One more thing,
I'm on instagram now.  Look for me at gennerallyspeaking if you are on there.  It's fun.  So glad Android finally got with the program.

Hope you all have a happy weekend.
Peace.