Napa Weekend

This past weekend we went to Napa - the reduex of our attempted 10th anniversary trip last year. We had a great time. Some highlights:

Dinner at The Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant - We had starters and entrees, and then dessert. All were great (Cold Corn Soup, Crispy Dumplings, Lamb Kafta and Hanger Steak). I tried to have the Cherry Tart for dessert, but they were out, so they comped Glen's Strawberry and Rhubarb crepes.

We did some wine tasing and driving through the valley on Saturday - and Saturday night we went to La Toque for dinner - we'd been there last year and felt it was fabulous - they have since moved from a small inn in Rutherford to the new Westin in Napa. At first, we thought we might not like it as much, the restauarant is bigger and a little louder, but the service is still outstanding and the food is as Glen said "knock your socks off good". Highlights included White Asaragus with bacon vingerette, Pork Tenderlion with cheese tapioca pearls, porcini ravioli, and Ribeye in a wine sauce. It remains one of our favorite restaurants.

Today, we met our future cruisemates Craig and Barbara (first time in person) and they invited us to a private tating at the White Cottage Winery - owner Dennis gave us a taste of several of his wines, and now I understand when people talk about handcrafted wine now. It's very clear in both his attitude and the taste of the wine that he takes a great deal of care and pride in what he produces.

We then headed down the hill (the winery is in Angin, a town in the hills east of the valley) to St. Helena for lunch at The Market a nice casual restaurant. We'll be seeing them again in February for our cruise.

On the whole an enjoyable weekend with good food.

And now for something completely different

This is not directly related to travel, but people have asked to see my V. Waltz performance from last weekend, and we have video, so here it is:




Please note that for various reasons beyond our control, this routine wasn't quite as ready as we hoped it would be, but we wanted the feedback from the adjudicator, so consider this a best effort and preliminary performance, presented in order to get suggestions to improve the next time, which will probably be December.

At least my mom liked it!

Start the Blog

Our trip to South America and Antarctica is now less than 8 months away, and our Cruise Critic group is getting active, so now is as good a time as any to get started.

So far, we have booked our airfare and hotel. We'll be in Beunos Aires for 3 full days before we leave for the cruise and we'll be staying at the Marriott (I knew all those points were good for something besides last years model of electronics!). We're arranging tours and tango experiences with a local travel agent.