Honeymoon Day 30 – June 30, 2011 – Napa, CA and San Francisco, CA

Thursday was the last day of our honeymoon. We slept in, enjoyed our last gourmet breakfast in bed – by the fourth day, we were both convinced that the quiche of the day was the best option. Drank coffee and chatted, and then finally got around to doing the packing.

When we were finished packing, we left the hotel to go to a tour we’d booked at Schramsberg. It’s a Napa valley winery that specializes in sparkling wine made in the French style. Their label actually used to read “California Champagne,” until they decided to remove “champagne” from the label in deference to the French, where it’s against the law for French sparkling wine-makers to use the term if they aren’t actually located in the Champagne region.

The tour was a bit expensive (about $45), but it had been recommended by some of Jeff’s relatives that live in the area, and we thought that a champagne tour and tasting on the last day of our honeymoon might be really nice. The tour took about 45 minutes, and it was really interesting. Schramsberg was one of the first wineries in Napa, founded in 1863, by Jacob Schram. It stopped producing wine shortly after he died (in 1912), and eventually became abandoned and overgrown. In the mid-1960’s, the Davies family purchased the winery, fixed it up, and started making wine again. They decided to focus on French-style champagne, which wasn’t being done at all in the U.S. yet.

In 1972, the White House called and asked Jack Davies to deliver a few cases of the Blanc de Blanc to a nearby Air Force base. They were later informed that the wine was served during Nixon’s visit to China, and used for the “Toast to Peace” between President Richard Nixon and Permier Chou En-lai. They had a really cool picture of the toast up on the wall.

They took us on a tour through the caves – they’d been dug into the mountain by hand (using chisels) when it had first opened. It always stays about 55 degrees inside, which is perfect for keeping the wine. All of the wine is still kept there while it’s being made and aging. They showed us the process, including the hand turning-process they still use to get the sediment out of the wine.

At the end of the tour, they brought us to a tasting room, and we tried five different sparkling wines. All of them were really great – some of the nicest sparkling wine I’ve ever had. And looking at the price list, I could see that a couple of the ones we tried sell for $100 per bottle at the winery, which would probably be twice that at a restaurant – definitely above my usual level.

Also on our tour was a couple from Missouri and a couple of women from Texas whose kids were just going off to college. They were all really nice – especially the two women from Texas – they were really friendly. Everybody was congratulating us on our marriage, and we were telling them about our honeymoon trip. It was a really cute group. Jeff and I ended up buying a couple of bottles of the sparkling wines we really liked – maybe we’ll keep them to celebrate our anniversary!

Just down the road from Schramsberg was Beringer winery. Jeff and I served Beringer wine at our wedding, so we thought it would be cute to stop there. It turns out Beringer is the oldest continuously-operated winery in Napa Valley. It was founded in 1875, and apparently survived prohibition by producing sacramental wine and “medicinal” products. Jeff and I had a good time at our tasting – they gave really big pours, though, and after just visiting Schramsberg, we decided that Jeff would just take a sip and I’d do the heavy lifting here. I’m very helpful in that way.

After our tastings, we were ready for a late lunch, so we stopped at Gott’s Roadside Diner just off Highway 29. It looked like a really cute place with a window to order and an old-timey outdoor metal counter. Jeff and I ordered cheeseburgers and garlic fries, and enjoyed them on our long drive back into town. The burgers were great, and the garlic fries were awesome – they had some kind of green herb on them, too – almost like pesto fries.

We had hoped to stop by Dave and Taylor’s new apartment in San Francisco to visit for a while, but the traffic was worse than we’d expected (maybe people leaving early for the Fourth of July weekend?), so we only ended up having a couple of minutes to say hi. Luckily, we did get to see their new place. It’s a really cool apartment in the Mission area of San Francisco. Their windows look out over city streets that really make you feel like you’re in the middle of everything, which is a really cool feeling. And they’ve got an awesome neighborhood to explore.

Our dinner was only a couple blocks away, at Foreign Cinema. This is actually the restaurant where Dan proposed to Janet a couple years ago. It’s a nice place with all out-door seating. In some ways, it feels like its indoors – it has a front door and four walls, but there is no ceiling on the building. They play a movie every night on the back wall of the restaurant, though there is no sound (but there are sub-titles, because it’s foreign!). The food is really great, too. Jeff and I were not too hungry since it hadn’t been all that long since the burgers, so we decided to just get one full meal and share it. We had fresh oysters and then baked brie as appetizers, shared sliced zucchini, and then had duck for our main course. We finished with a crème brule and sparkling wine. It was a very romantic last dinner for the honeymoon.

Honeymoon Day 29 – June 29, 2011 – Napa, CA

It was a bright and sunny day on Wednesday, and we did manage to get up and get going pretty quickly. We spent our morning on a long bike ride – the hotel provides free bike rentals. When we originally started planning, we talked about biking all 22 miles to Saint Helena, but when we saw that the bikes were a little slow and our time was a bit limited, we revised that to 5.5 miles to a couple wineries outside the city.

We visited Hagafen, which was small, but really cute and friendly. They had nice wines, which have been served at the White House many times. Their wine has also been given as a gift to the Prime Minister in Isreal (their wine is Kosher). The person pouring gave Jeff and I each a free tasting glass of one of their sparkling wines since we were on our honeymoon.

We also stopped at Black Stallion, which is a winery that was built on the site of a historic equestrian center. We enjoyed our tasting there, too.

We got back into the city in time to grab a quick pizza lunch (at Filipi’s – very good!), and then go to our 3pm spa appointment. We had booked a couple’s massage – our first ever! It was going to be a 90 minute hot stone massage, but the stones were overbooked, so we did a hot towel massage, which is the same idea. We both really enjoyed the massage – the hot towels are nice, and they do make you feel relaxed and your muscles feel lose. I’m not sure I’d do it again, though, because you do sacrifice some massaging time. The couple’s massage aspect was nice – though we didn’t talk or anything, it’s just kind of fun to have the person there, and you kind of get the sense that you’re doing something together. It can also be a bit distracting – I think Jeff fell asleep, and I spent a good while trying to listen carefully to his breathing and deciding whether to say something to him. (I ended up not saying anything, and he woke up when his masseuse moved something.) We both felt very relaxed when it was over.

After the massage, we headed up to Yountville (in the car this time) for our fanciest meal of the trip. We went to Redd, which is another Michelin star restaurant. It has great reviews on chow hound and Gayot. We both ordered the five-course tasting menu with wine pairings. They don’t actually tell you what’s on the tasting menu – they just bring it out, which is kind of fun. Also, when two people at the table order it, they bring something different to each person, so you really get to try two things at each course (the wine pairings are different too – one wine to go with each plate). Everything they brought out was wonderful. The food looked beautiful on the plate, the combination of tastes and textures was always creative and very well done, and the wines were great with each dish. Also, all of the portions were very generous, which is great for sharing. Some of the dishes we really liked – sashimi of hamachi and carmalized diver scallops with cauliflower puree and golden raisins. We also really liked the duck breast and the prime New York steak and short ribs. The other impressive thing about the restaurant was the service. The greeters and the servers were all really friendly. Each course was described to you, as were each of the wines poured, all in a very friendly and accessible way. Our server made a point of asking us if we wanted a break between courses to chat and enjoy the wine. (The answer was definitely yes between the main course and dessert – it was really nice to be able to let our food settle and to relax for a while before the last course.) Overall, we had a great experience – a great place for the last big meal of our honeymoon!

Honeymoon Day 28 – June 28, 2011 – Napa, CA

On Tuesday, we knew it was forecast to rain, and we had planned to drive around to a couple different wineries during the day. But somehow, when we woke up in the morning and actually saw the rain coming down, and then saw the cozy fireplace in our room, we changed our minds. We had a wonderful rainy day in, sitting by the fire, chatting, and watching movies (more Bond!). This also turned out to be the perfect time to open up the wine that the hotel had given us for our honeymoon.

We did finally venture out for dinner, but by then, the rain had actually stopped. We went to Ubuntu, a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Napa. The restaurant has one Michelin star, which I think makes it the first Michelin star restaurant I’ve ever been to. They have a yoga studio attached, and a lot of the food they cook comes from their own organic garden. Jeff and I had the tasting menu, and ordered a few different tasting-size wines along with the different courses. They had two options for each course on the tasting menu, so Jeff and I just always ordered different things, and got to try it all. All of the food was great. The ‘roast and raw asparagus’ was really good – the asparagus itself was really fresh and tasty, but also the sauces along with it were great. Jeff had a really interesting melon gazpacho, too.

After that, we stopped at Bounty Hunter again for a quick flight of white wines, and then it was back to the hotel!

Honeymoon Day 27 – June, 27, 2011 – Napa, CA

We started our day off nice and slow, with breakfast in bed, and reading through the news.

Eventually, we decided to head out. Breakfast had been so big that we weren’t really hungry for lunch. After a little walk around town, we went to “Bounty Hunter,” a wine bar and barbeque place.  We used a couple of our free tasting coupons, and ordered their taster platter to share. The barbeque was really good, and so was the wine. I had a Pursuit Pinot Noir, which I really enjoyed.

After our wine, we continued our little walking tour of town, before heading back to our hotel to make reservations at the spa. We also grabbed some coffee and spent some time relaxing near the river.

We had dinner at Angele that night, which is in the same building complex as our hotel. It’s a well-reviewed French restaurant with really nice patio seating. We enjoyed their cheese plate, and then I ordered the off-the-menu burger, which was very good, and Jeff had their vegetable risotto, which is one of the better risottos I’ve had – with a strong herb taste, and not too salty. We had their shortbread for dessert, and that may have been my favorite dish overall. It came with strawberries and ice cream, and was a great end to the meal.

Honeymoon Day 26 – June 26, 2011 – Los Gatos, CA to Napa, CA

The day after the wedding, the whole wedding crew got up early to get the house straightened and ready for guests. Janet’s relatives came over and brought a huge collection of Dim Sum foods.

When it was time to eat, we all loaded up our plates with the different items (conveniently labeled in English). About 20 minutes into the meal, when everyone was too full to take another bite, we agreed that it was the most and the quickest any of us had ever eaten dim sum. Usually you’re waiting for a good cart to come around and trading off with other people at the table to get a piece of something, and it takes a long time to get through the whole meal. This time, you just took everything you wanted right away, and you got to eat everything you picked, and so we all discovered that our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. The food was great, though.

The brunch went until 3pm, but Jeff and I didn’t manage to leave until about 4:30pm – it was hard to go when there were so many fun people still around that we don’t see often. Also, a picnic table on a deck on a beautiful, sunny day, looking out over the mountains, is a pretty hard thing to walk away from.

Eventually we did, go, though. John gave us a ride to our zipcar, which happened to be only a couple blocks from his house (complete coincidence!). From there we drove (well, Jeff drove and I slept) to Napa and checked into our hotel.

We stayed at the Napa River Inn in downtown Napa. It’s a historic hotel, located in a building that used to be a mill. Jeff and I stayed in a room that had been a roller-skating rink at one time. Everything was really beautiful, and it had a nice fireplace with cushy chairs nearby. I could have used a bit more natural light than our one little window allowed, but I guess you have to make some concessions if you stay in a historic location.

We had ordered the hotel through Jetsetter.com, and it included not only the room, but also one $150 spa gift certificate for each night we stayed, gourmet breakfast in bed each morning, and a complimentary wine tasting each afternoon. And the first night we were there they sent up a bottle of wine with a card congratulating us on our honeymoon.

There’s lots of good food and wine in Napa, of course, but the night we got there, we were really ready for a night in with just the two of us, so we ordered Dominoes, and laid back to watch another Bond movie. This time we decided to start from the beginning, so we put on “Dr. No.”