Wendy's Blog

We went to Napa this weekend and lots of things happened. This is going to be a long post, so go grab a cup of coffee and a donut before you start reading, you are going to be here for a while.

The Beginning:

Last March we went to Napa with a few friends. We had a real good time. You can read all about it here.
We had such a good time, we decide to go again this year. Joe arranged all the hotels and the wineries and lodging and Amit arranged to eat at the Greystone restaurant.

The Middle:

We took off Saturday morning to go to Napa. We were suppose to meet up with Matt and Amit at Napa at 11:00am. Of course, the way we travel, we were an hour late.

The first winery we hit was Artesa. By the time we got there, Amit and Matt already had their tasting. I guess you can’t have 2 tasting (?) So they waited while we went to get our wine. As we were going up to the counter, the guy at the counter said to me, can I see your ID? I was like huh? My wallet is in the car. I am also with bunch of old guys, how can I not be of age?! So I ran down to get my ID. On the way back, I took these photos.

It’s been a while since I got carded, so I guess I was kind of amused? The wine was pretty good. It’s a good start!

Then we try to check into the hotel. We pulled up but they wouldn’t let us check in. But we were STARVING so we asked the counter guy to recommend a place. He recommend Joe’s down the street. We had two Joes in the party, so I took it as a good sign. The food was pretty good and gave us strength for more drinking.

We tried to check in after lunch, but still no go, so we all piled into 2 cars to go to Luna.

Next stop was Luna. It has such a pretty name. We drank and ate bread sticks. (Come to think of it, this was the only place that offered food.) They had a lovely tower where you can go up to and drink. See photo here.

By the time we got to our Stag’s Leap, I was getting a bit too ‘happy’. I remember the wine being very good but not much else. I also stopped taking photo because I was starting to lose it.

Last stop, Domain Chandon. It was ok. I had Champagne and it was good. Some of the people had wine and it was rank. We snuck into a tour and toured around the place.

I don’t remember the ride back to the hotel. I guess it was good. We stayed in the hotel for a few minute and went to dinner.

Dinner was delicious! Again, don’t remember much but just really enjoyed it. The Mister had salmon and it was more delicious than my steak. The salmon was pan fried to perfection and the skin was so delicious! I think I would have enjoyed the meal more if I was not so ‘happy.’

The End:
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. I passed out watching The Interpreter, while the boys went to Joe’s for a pint.

The weekend doesn’t stop here, but I am tired. I’ll blog more about the weekend tomorrow.

I finally saw this movie last night and it was pretty enjoyable. I like foreign movies. (That statement just make me sound like pseudo-intelligentsia, but whatever!)

It was hard for me to follow because I like to multi task when I watch tv at home. Can’t really do that with foreign movies, and my Spanish is rusty. But I do remember enjoying it so it must be good.

I won’t recap the movie here, because you can find that in any movie site. You don’t need me telling you how you should feel about anything. You are the master of your own universe.

Now that’s out of the way, this movie makes me want to visit South America again.

When I was in high school, I took Spanish but gave it up after I left high school. I can still understand and read it conversationally, but I can’t really speak it or remember much of it. Well, other than “donde está la biblioteca” which probably won’t get me very far.

Subsequently, I took Latin, German, Indonesian, and Japanese in college. I really enjoy Latin it was fun and you don’t have to speak it which is a big bonus for me. German, I took because I wanted to read Kafka in German. The Penal Colony is excellent, excellent work. Indonesian, well, that’s because of a boy I met along the way. I did end up like Gamalan music a lot after that though so I guess it’s not a total loss. In retrospect, I should have kept up with Spanish, but whatever, such is life.

What are we talking about? Right, why I want to visit South America. We went to Ecuador in 2001 and I really enjoyed it. I had a tough time in Quito, though. I got really sick the last day we were there. I was really mad about that because we had a gorgeous breakfast and I couldn’t eat any of it.

Good times!