I met my friend Kylee in San Francisco this weekend. We were so excited, because we were finally getting to wine country! I had a free hotel night, so we stayed in the very posh St. Regis hotel! It was really nice, but we definitely felt out of place. That night we had a great dinner at Kokkari - sharing a bottle of Greek white wine and splitting some small plates.
The next day we started by exploring San Francisco. We walked to Powell Street to ride the cable car, which we rode down to Fisherman's Wharf. We walked down to Pier 39, saw the sea lions and a view of Alcatraz. Then grabbed a crab sandwich from one of the sidewalk vendors, took the trolley back to our hotel, packed up and headed on our way to Napa Valley. We stayed at the Westin Versa in Napa and wow was it a great room! Full kitchen, dining and living room, with 2 king suites. We were spoiled for sure! As soon as we checked in we left again for our wine tour and tasting at Beringer. We were actually really impressed with the winery. That night we took it easy - grabbed a quick dinner at Gott's diner, then went in the Oxbow market to grab some snacks. The next day we were taking a bike tour with a couple of our friends - Crissy and Oliver, who were celebrating their engagement. We met at Napa Valley Bike Tours and got our bikes for the day. Our first stop was at Cakebread winery, and then we went on to St. Supery. We all really enjoyed their wines. Next we went in the Napa Olive Oil shop and then rode to Rutherford Hill Winery. And boy was that a steep hill getting to the top - I didn't think I would be working that hard on a wine tasting bike tour! We finally made it up though, and then our lunch picnic baskets were waiting for us. After lunch we sampled some wine at Rutherford Hill, then hopped back on our bikes for one more winery - Miner Family Winery. By this point in the day it was so extremely hot (Napa was having an unusual heat wave) - the temp on the road was around 106! So needless to say I really just wanted water not wine. We finished at the last winery and then made our way back to the bike shop just before 5pm. That night Kylee and I ate at an Italian restaurant - Ristorante Allegria in downtown Napa. We had a nice dinner and then called it an early night. The following day we drove down to St. Helena where we got breakfast and coffee at the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Co. We then went to Grgich Hills Estate mainly to do the grape stomp! I knew it would be a fun feet picture. After that we drove up to Chateau Montelena for a tasting. It was by far the best wine we had all weekend! I even decided to join their wine club. Next we decided to give ourselves a wine break and go look at California's Old Faithful Geyser. I have to admit...it was pretty cheesy...but we were there and so we couldn't leave until the silly thing actually went off! After the geyser we got back in our car and drove to Sonoma. We stopped at Alexander Valley Vineyards, then Geyser Peak Winery. We did the reserve tasting at Geyser Peak, which was very nice - overlooking their barrel room in the warehouse. Our last stop was Silver Oak Winery before driving down to San Rafael for the night. We flew out the next day from San Francisco, so we grabbed an early dinner and called it a night. Check out some more photos from this trip - San Francisco & Napa Photos
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