Napa River Inn

We stayed at the Napa River Inn. It is located in the old Napa Mill and has a lot of character. There are tons of amazing restaurants nearby and we enjoyed the view of the river running right in front of our room. Exploring the town of Napa was so much fun. We started each morning with a great breakfast at Sweetie Pie's bakery, also in the mill building. On our quest for allergy medication for Sean (we think he was allergic to the grape vines!), we walked to a combination liquor store/convenience store/Italian restaurant/pharmacy. In this town, anything goes!

Outdoor dining at Celadon restaurant.

Beautiful mosaic water feature on the patio.

Napa Wine Train

We took a lunch trip on the Wine Train on our last day in Napa, before returning to SF. It was fun to see the countryside from the unique vantage point of the train. Actually, just the train itself was interesting to explore. There is a full, working kitchen on-board and we were served a delicious four-course lunch.

Hanging out in the parlour for appetizers and drinks.

The bar in our parlour car.

View from one end of the kitchen car.

On the back of the train, passing by vineyard after vineyard.

Sean on the back of the train at the first of our two stops to let passengers off.

Waiting for my Bloody Mary (I was a little wine-overloaded from the day before).

Our turn in the dining car for lunch and dessert.

Sean waiting for his birthday dessert. Yummy!

Napa--winery tour

Napa was by far my favorite part of our trip. I am still trying to figure out how we could afford to live there. It was so laid-back and beautiful. We took a Platypus winery tour (I highly recommend them if you are ever in the area) that was absolutely perfect. Kevin, our tour guide, shuttled us, along with three other couples who knew nothing about wine, to four relatively smaller wineries throughout the day. We had a gourmet cheese platter and plenty of bottled water on the van, then Kevin set up a picnic lunch for us after the second winery. Of course, in between it all was some great wine and a killer soundtrack that Kevin put together himself (the music got louder throughout the day). It doesn't get any better.

Kevin from Platypus. Hands-down the best tour guide ever. This was our first stop of the day, attempting to learn about the grapes.

These barrels have a cost of about $1000-$1500/each and typically are used through three seasons. No wonder wine is so expensive!

This is "Dan the Man" and his dog, Chile at our second winery of the day. Dan played some rockin' tunes, too. Loved it.

Me with "the Man".

Beautiful cactus outside Dan's vineyard.

Sean at our winery stop in Stag's Leap. The land there goes for $500,000/acre.

Beautiful garden area above the wine cellar at our Stag's Leap stop.

Kim (the blonde), her two sisters and their husbands run this family winery. This is Kim's father's wine collection from his beginning days as a vintner. This was a great stop because Kim's daughter kept riding her tricycle into the tasting room. Kim is a PE teacher and runs the winery as her "second job". I loved the atmosphere here...felt like we had stepped onto a Hollywood movie set.

Thousands of dollars worth of oak barrels.

These pictures above & below go together...Sean took them at our last stop, Laird. Yes, almost four thousand dollars for this piece of tin artwork. Needless to say, it did not make it into our suitcase.

Our only photo at Laird Winery. Can you tell this was the last stop on our tour?

Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39

We got into San Francisco last Thursday morning and spent whole afternoon exploring Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 especially. I had been there for my 21st birthday with my mom, Debbie & my grandma, so this trip brought back very fond memories for me. It was fun to explore it again with Sean. We had such an amazing trip!

At the end of the pier, looking out across the bay to Alcatraz.

The gobs of sea lions that look like they have been there since I last visited 14 years ago!

Alcatraz in the background...

City view from the end of Pier 39.

We immediately thought of Carter when we saw this carousel. It is a double-decker...even cooler than the one at the zoo!

SS Jeremiah O'Brien

This WW II naval ship is docked at Fisherman's Wharf and was one of Sean's favorite parts of our trip. I enjoyed it...but the most fun was watching Sean tour the ship, especially the engine room (I kept calling it the boiler room & he kept correcting me.). He was like a kid in a candy store seeing how the pistons and whatever worked. This particular ship is still fully functional, so that part was even more fascinating.

The super steep stairs/ladder all the way into the bottom of the ship. Kind of creepy.

I think this is one of the greasy pistons.

Another view of the engine room.

Beautiful view of San Francisco in the background.

Parts of this ship were used in scenes of the movie "Titanic". The bottom photograph here shows how they used the engine room in the movie. Pretty cool!

By far, my favorite part of the entire ship was this sign hanging in the engine room. I told Sean I was going to blow this up & put it in his cube at work. Welcome to my life!

Grampy & Uncle Josh

Uncle Josh & Grampy stopped by for a quick visit on their way to Ft. Collins a couple of weeks ago. We were happy to be able to spend a little time with them before they headed out!

(Carter was in school and missed out on the photo op.)

He's still got it...

Carter's ears STILL look bad after a course of Omnicef, followed by a course of Zithromax. We have been trying to clear this last ear infection for a month now. Dr B said his ears would have had to look "perfect" yesrterday in order for us to avoid going to the peds ENT. Sooo...we have a referral and will be taking him in to see about getting him tubes. Unfortunately, the doctor is booked until July 20th! Hopefully, we will be fine until then.

On a brighter note, Carter is starting to use the potty!!! We have been talking about it & sitting on it off and on for a couple of months, but he is finally starting to show interest in using the potty. (I'm sure the M&M's we're using for bribery are helping some.) So far, he has gone pee-pee a handful of times...no #2, yet. I have mixed feelings about potty-training and am not looking forward to the messes and the rush to find public restrooms when we're out & about. However, my hope is that if Carter is driving the learning process & we follow his lead, it will not take forever to get him into big-boy undies. I was anticipating him working on this well into age three, so if we get it done sooner---great! I'll keep you posted!