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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Napa - looking for a blog
Quite a long time ago, one of you posted a link to your blog that had several posts on Napa Valley. I'm not sure if your blog was completely for travel reviews, but I remember being pretty impressed. Too bad I didn't save the link or remember your name....
If you are the wonderful owner of this blog, could you please post a link?
If any of you reading this post have travel reviews for Napa and Sonoma, could you please post the link?
We were there 4 years ago but are going back in July with friends. Looking for some good reviews of lodging, wineries, and restaurants (our friends are huge foodies that love to travel internationally and around the country). Thanks, ladies!!!!!
Re: Napa - looking for a blog
This blog has several great entries on Napa/Sonoma:
http://marylandgirl.wordpress.com/
This blog recently posted on Healdsburg:
http://darcela.blogspot.com/
Sometime over the next week I will be posting on a trip I took a few years ago to Napa/Sonoma on my blog as well.
Here is my trip report from May 2010 San Francisco & Napa
We flew Delta nonstop from JFK to SFO. My husband got a great fare of $240 and I used miles. The flight was pretty long. Luckily our plane had the televisions in the headrests so that kept us occupied.
When we arrived at SFO we went to the baggage claim and gathered our bag. I had read on tripadvisor to purchase the 3 day MUNI pass to make mass transportation more affordable. We walked all over to try and find an information post that was open and then we got on Lorrie?s Go Shuttle. (Another recommendation from tripadvisor) As we drove into the city we couldn?t help but notice all the hills with houses built into the hillside. We headed through the city, Union Square, up a hill, down a hill, past North Beach (Little Italy) and down to the Fisherman?s Wharf area. We were about the 3rd or 4th stop. I had won a pretty cheap bid on Priceline for the Holiday Inn at Fisherman?s Wharf. We checked in and were in the building next door with the Denny?s in the lobby. Our room was pretty large because it was handicapped accessible. We didn?t have a view of anything noteworthy, but I knew that ahead of time. We put our luggage down and walked to the Wharf. It was quite lively and windy. We saw a bunch of seafood stands serving fresh crab and lots of different seafood. We settled on a place and I got the crab roll and my husband got clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. We then ate it under the famous sign while huge seagulls were wizzing by and sitting on people?s cars. We then went to the Musee Mecanique where they have old penny arcade games and old flip card movies. We even got our fortune read by something that resembles the Zoltar machine in the movie ?Big.? After there we walked along the pier and saw a submarine. We went into Boudin?s Bakery and did a self guided tour of the history/factory. Then we walked further down and saw tons of street performers. One guy actually hid in a public garbage can and jumped out and scared unsuspecting tourists that were walking by. It was pretty funny. Then off to see the sea lions at Pier 39. It was really windy and cold, but we stayed a little while and were pretty amused by these guys. We kept going into the shops to warm up then out again. We were pretty tired so we went back to the hotel for the night.
On Sunday the Bay to Breaker?s Race was going on so we wanted to steer clear of Union Square in the morning and Golden Gate Park in the afternoon. There were a lot of street closures, but we managed to have no problem sightseeing. The first place we went was Ghiardelli Square. You can see the chocolate being made and there is a store with lots of different chocolates. We got some samples and headed down toward the Powell & Hyde St cable car. Seeing it up close was fun. The actually manually turn the car around on this circle thing and get it ready to go back up the hill. We waited in line a while then we boarded. As the cable car was climbing up this huge hill, it was really neat to see how the guy starts and stops it. We made it up to the top and got off at Lombard Street coined the ?crookedest street in the world?. It has 8 switchback turns in just 1 block. It was beautifully manicured with gardens and nice looking houses on each side. We walked down and up the other side. There were so many people on the bottom taking pictures. It looked like the paparazzi were there. We hopped back on the cable car. This time we had to hold on to the side. I was nervous at first, but it was pretty fun. We got off at the Cable Car Museum. My husband loved this. It explained how the cable cars worked. It was quite interesting. After here we walked around Nob Hill, saw some fancy hotels and made our way down to Chinatown. We got on an electric bus and took it to North Beach. We ate lunch at L?Osteria del Forno. I had heard this place was good. We got some Moretti beer and had a tuna appetizer and baked potato appetizer. I got a pannini and my husband had baked ziti. It was delicious. We then walked down to Columbus Circle and got the bus to Coit Tower. We saw the murals and took the elevator to the top. The views were fantastic. Then we headed down to Mario?s Bohemian Cigar Store Caf? where we each got coffee drinks to warm up. We walked back to our hotel and rested. After which we decided to take the historic F line street car along the Embarcadero all the way to the Mission District for some Mexican food. Well we got off at Valencia St. and walked all the way to 16th and didn?t see any restaurants. We asked some other people where the restaurants were and they told us that they are right at 16th Street. Well we walked there and the neighborhood was quite sketchy. We definitely saw some drug-addicted prostitutes. Everyone there looked like zombies, so we made a quick exit back to the street car without dinner.
On Monday we took the free SF City Guide Tour of Chinatown. It was a little hard to find the tour according to where the website said to meet. This tour was great. We learned a lot. We went to a temple, the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, herb shop, etc. We chose to extend our tour and went to the markets. We saw some pretty creepy stuff like live animals and fish, frogs, turtles, chickens, some kind of bird, etc. I called it a grocery store of death. We had planned to go for dim sum afterwards, but were pretty grossed out so we headed back to L?Osteria del Forno. We also did the night tour of Alcatraz. It was raining so, we went back to the hotel, layered up, and went to the pier. They do an audio tour that is included with the price. At one point we got to go inside the ?hole? (solitary confinement) and they shut the door. Boy was it creepy and dark! Alcatraz was definitely one of the highlights. After, we decide to get something to eat at one of the Fisherman?s Wharf restaurants. The food really was not great.
On Tuesday we took the cable car to Union Square to pick up our rental car. We then headed over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day. We stopped on the other side to take tons of pictures. We then went to Muir Woods to see the giant redwood trees. We did the one hour loop and continued on our journey to Napa Valley. We stopped at Gott?s Roadside (aka Taylor?s Automatic Refresher) next to the Oxbow Public Market. We got some hamburgers and sweet potato fries. It was delicious. Our first winery stop was Domaine Carneros. The building was stunning and we had a seated tasting out on the patio overlooking the scenery. We got a substantial cheese plate to share, I got a glass of champagne and my husband got a glass of Pinot Nior. I really liked that the tasting was seated and that you basically have a waiter like a restaurant. It was a perfect atmosphere. We then went to our hotel in Yountville. The Napa Valley Lodge. Our room was beautiful, high ceilings, fireplace, beautiful bathroom, patio overlooking the firepit, pool, and vineyards. The bed was so comfortable! I wanted to try Tra Vigne Pizzaria in St. Helena for dinner, so we drove up Rt. 29. We looked at the menu and noticed it was more expensive than I thought when I had researched it. The building is a beautiful stone building covered with what else- vines. When we were leaving we saw that we had eaten at Tra Vigne, the pizzeria restaurant was around the corner. Oh well, it was still good.
Wednesday was our 3 year anniversary. I had arranged for massages at Spa Terra in the Meritage Resort. The spa is built right into a wine cave under the vineyards. It was so peaceful and the spa was beautiful. I?d like to have a bathroom like that! We then had lunch at a little tacqueria in Napa town called Tannya?s Taqueria. It was really good and filling. I knew we had to eat a substantial lunch because next we headed to Del Dotto for their 3pm cave tour. We had arrived a little early and went to William Hill Winery down the road and took some nice pictures. Back to Del Dotto- I had read that their nickname is ?Del Blotto? because they give so much wine. It was true. It?s nice that you feel like you are getting something for your $40pp, but after the 4th wine, they all tasted the same to me. They are a limited production winery that doesn?t sell to stores or restaurants, hence their wines were very expensive to purchase. We went back to the hotel and got ready for our anniversary dinner at Bottega. It was right down the road form out hotel. We got a nice corner seat outside. I got the pork osso buco and my husband got the beef rib-eye. We both weren?t totally impressed being it was a celebrity chef owned restaurant. Michael Chiarello actually came out to greet people, which was nice.
On Thursday morning we had a castle tour at Castillo di Amorosa. It was really spectacular. We loved the architecture and how all the stone was hand crafted. Beside the castle being a working winery, there were also dungeons and a torture chamber. The tour included a tasting. The wines were pretty good, but again they are pretty hard to find in NY, if at all. We spent lots of time here taking so many pictures. We then headed up toward Calistoga and stopped at the Cal-Mart to get some fresh sandwiches. We then went to Chateau Montelena which was made famous and put Napa Valley on the map for wine production from its 1st place victory in the 1973 blind taste test in France. We waited a while before being acknowledged and being pulled into a separate tasting room. For dinner we met out Bother-in-law at Mustards. Unfortunately they didn?t have any reservations, so we went to Tra Vigne Pizzeria, which was pretty good.
On Friday morning we had a tour appointment at Frog?s Leap. I had read that this is a really ?fun? tour. I didn?t get that. It seemed like a pretty regular tour to us. The wines were good and you can get them in NY. We then went to the Oakville Grocery for lunch. We each got a sandwich and ate on the picnic tables behind the store overlooking the vineyards. It was beautiful and the food was really good. We then went to Rutherford Hill Winery. We didn?t taste here, we just walked around the grounds and took pictures. Next we went to Peju. The grounds and building are nice. We did a tasting here as well. Then we went to Cakebread Winery and did a tasting in the barrel room. It was a little uncomfortable because there was no bar to lean on and by that time we were getting tired. For dinner we went to Villa Corona for Mexican in St. Helena. It was very good and reasonably priced.
Saturday we checked out of the hotel and drove back to SFO. The airline was offering pretty cheap upgrades to first class, so we took advantage and really enjoyed our first, first class plane ride.
All in all, it really was a fantastic trip and I also feel like we learned a lot.
Looking great so far! Thanks, ladies!!!
This is exactly the one I was thinking of!
Old Town Home posted a few entries about their Napa itinerary here:
http://oldtownhome.com/napa-valley-itinerary/index.aspx
Just got back from SF and Napa Valley. We left SF on Friday morning and frove to Napa Valley, visited a few vineyards, the highlights were Dariush and amorosa for the nice looking vineyard and building, for great wine tour Rutherford and for great wine Grigich, there is no frills about this place. We grabbed lunch from the burger stand in St. Helena, the ahi tuna burger was wonderful.
We spent the night in Yountsville, since it was walking distance to great resturants. We stayed at Petit Logis and it was very good, the price, the location and the room itself. If you can afford it Bardessono would be a lovely place to stay.
For dinner we went to Redd, the food was wonderful, we ordered 7 starter and 3 entres, the chef sent us couple of extra starters in between. The service was exceptional. We took our own wine, and there was $25 corckage fee, which is very reasonable.
We bought some pastry's the following morning from Bouchon, the macarons are very very delicious and easy to pack and take some home with you.
On our way back, we stopped at Berkley and we were lucky enough that Maitre 'D seated us at Chez Panisse without a reservation. The food was great, but the salads were out of this world! if you have foodies in your group don't miss out of this place.