Napa Valley
I'm so excited to share a few photos from our trip to Napa Valley last week! My boyfriend and I planned this trip a while back in hopes of a relaxing weekend and we had the best time! Napa is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to go back. Though we were only there for two days, we managed to visit and taste at 6 different wineries and eat at a handful of incredible restaurants. We were also lucky to have perfectly on-time flights, connections, and perfect weather.
On our first morning there we realized that I didn't pack any of Kevin's clothes that he asked me to pack (he was traveling from somewhere else!) so we spent an hour at the outlet mall there (surprisingly they had one!) finding shirts and shorts. Oops. After that we had lunch at Addendum in Yountville, which is a little picnic area behind Ad Hoc, a restaurant headed by the legendary Thomas Keller. I first heard about Addendum on Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa show. I especially suggest getting the fried chicken- it's the best I've ever had. (And in the interest in not going overboard with spending on eating out, Addendum runs about $16 per person for lunch.) After that we headed to our only scheduled tour and tasting of the trip at Stag's Leap winery. The rest of the wineries we visited didn't require a reservation, but I thought it would be nice to do one guided tour while we were there. Stag's Leap is enchantingly beautiful- it's set on a road lined with walnut trees about a mile back from Silverado Trail. When we arrived, the normal tasting room was undergoing renovations but they had set up a beautiful white tent and table overlooking the valley where they grow their grapes. We had a walking tour of the vineyard and even got to taste the grapes from the vines. After that we headed to Mumm, a sparkling winery just down the road. (Most of the pictures here are from Mumm.) I had a fabulous time there because firstly I love sparkling wines and secondly because it was so beautiful and a little bit what I want my house to look like, if I were ever in the position to build one. We were able to sit by these floor-to-ceiling windows that open up right to the vineyard. After that we headed back to Yountville to walk around a bit and grab a cup of coffee before heading back to our hotel. That night we ate at Bottega, a delicious Italian restaurant.
On day 2 we made an early morning stop at Bouchon Bakery. I have been drooling over this place since I first heard about it and it lives up to the hype. Everything there is beautiful and delicious and absolutely worth waiting in line for. Then we hiked off our pastry breakfasts, changed, and stopped at our first winery of the day, Cakebread. We shared a red wine tasting and ended up returning home with a bottle. We stopped at Gott's Roadside for delicious burgers for lunch, then headed to two other wineries before calling it a day.
I already have a new list of Napa places to visit if we ever go back! See the rest of my photos here on instagram.