Feb 6, Napa

Friday, February 6, 2015 - Day 3

We went to bed early last night, feeling the two hour time change and the day of travel.  Carolyn slept well but Dick did not and is up about 6AM, well before daylight.  Putting his time to good use, he downloads pictures and finishes the blog for yesterday.  Carolyn rolls out about 8AM and retrieves our breakfast basket from the porch.  Dick is well into his third cup of pretty good coffee by this time.  Breakfast pastries come from a bakery in Yountville named La Bouchon and the selections are very good.  We also scramble some eggs we purchased last night.

By 10AM we are in the car heading for Cuvaison Estate Winery which we noticed on the way in yesterday.  Cuvaison Estate Chardonnay is one of our favorite wines and one of the few we agree upon.  By the time we reach the winery, it is raining steadily and the sign says tastings by appointment only.  Oh, what the heck, all they can do is be closed or say no.  As it turns out, we spend a delightful two hours tasting a flight of wines, visiting with two very knowledgeable people, discovering some of their wines that you can only get directly from them and, of course, buying some of our discoveries.  We are shipping a case home to be held by a dear friend and buy three bottles for the ship.

 

Leaving the wine tasting, we head into Napa to the Oxbow Market, a recommendation of our server at the tasting.  We get there before the lunch crowd leaves so parking is a problem. The place is crowded plus it is still pouring rain.  Once inside, Carolyn buys a deli sandwich and we also get some cheese to go with our wines.  The place is very interesting and worth a stop for anyone in Napa.  There is a pizza place as well as other foods such as sushi and a full blown, sit down restaurant.

This morning Dick discovered that his Olympus Tough camera had met its match sometime yesterday and the view screen is shattered.  In finding the GPS we thought we had dodged a visit to Best Buy but no such look.  Leaving Carolyn at the cottage at 2PM, he drives to Vallejo to replace the camera.  Best Buy does not carry Olympus but he finds a Nikon Coolpix AW120 on sale and buys it, a padded carrying case and a spare battery.  The traffic is heavy and the 45 mile round trip takes most of two hours, including time in the store. All this time Carolyn and Jack are snoozing away in front of the fire, the perfect activity for a cold, wet afternoon!

We have a package deal at The Cottages of Napa that includes dinner for two at Ad Hoc, a restaurant in Yountville owned by the owner/chef of The French Laundry.  The cottages provide a car and driver to Yountville restaurants so we take them up on it so we can have a drink and not have to worry about driving in the pouring rain.  We are seated promptly and enjoy excellent mixed drinks, salad with a smoked paprika dressing, rustic bread, braised veal chop with polenta, kale and leeks, a selection of cheeses and a “cake shake” (red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream with whipped Chantilly mixed up in an old fashioned malt glass and served with a paper straw!) for dessert.  A real treat!!

 

 

 

 

We call the car and they pick us up 15 minutes later and return us, through driving rain, to our nest.  Time for a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.