Napa Valley Day 3

My Birthday!
We finally made it to a restaurant for breakfast that many different people had recommended to us. It was called the Boonfly, and as cute as the name sounds, it was! We spent way too long trying to decide what to order (and talking to well wishers calling me on my birthday), but we started off with homemade donuts and a cuppa joe. Best decision! We split a breakfast pizza that was very good. I still wonder what a few other dishes tasted like, and although we didn't make it there for another sit down breakfast, we did grab a few more donuts on our way to the airport the next morning.


We decided to drive up the other stretch of road that runs through Napa Valley after breakfast. It was a very pretty drive flanked by rows of grapvines. With fewer wineries off of the path and since it didn't directly run through the little towns like the other main road, it was more of a country drive. Our first stop was Stag's Leap. We didn't call ahead for a tour, but we heard the tour of the old barn was great. The wine was a little higher priced, and although it started out as a family winery, it is currently under a commercial label, I believe bought out by a french winery. We took a few bottles of white wine because although it is higher priced, you can definitely taste the higher quality.

After Stags Leap, we went to an organic winery, Honig. They use dogs to sniff out caterpillars and birds to keep insects off the grapes. We enjoyed their wine also, and got our most expensive purchase, a bottle of dessert wine, sauvignon blanc. It is not pure wine, so it should last indefinitely. I don't understand how that works, but I look forward to making a dessert with some of it added to homemade whipped cream.


Lunch was at Greystone. Again, Mark and I split a main course, and we got a bowl of soup that was different and very good. I wish I could remember what it was! Our main course was excellent, and had a great presentation.

Since it was tax day, even though it was my birthday, we ended up having to run around some that afternoon and find a place to receive faxes and then stick our tax payments in the mail. Ouch. Glad we were in wine country to relax our nerves after that news! I walked around the small town of St. Helena and got some coffee at a coffee shop(Blue Mountain freshly ground - the coffee from Jamaica - perfect!). Then we hit our final four wineries to end our Napa tour. Franciscan, Napa Cellars, Folie A Deux, and Consentino. All I can say is that I could have skipped Napa Cellars and Folie A Deux. Lower priced wines, which we went to some of the most expensive wineries on our tour today, so that kinda ruined it right there, but it was also after the Franciscan, and I fell in love with two of the wines at the Franciscan. They were $80 and $100, but they were outstanding. I understood the term "chewy red" a little after the wine tasting at the castle, but I understood it oh-so-much-more-clearly after this reserve wine tasting. The good news is Franciscan is sold at restaurants and in stores. As a matter of fact, I saw a bottle at a restaurant last week! I don't think I'll be buying one of those bottles anytime soon, though.

After we toured the wineries, we went back to the hotel, soaked in the hot tub for a while, then went into Napa for dinner. We ate at an Italian Restaurant that night, and Mark thought it was the best Italian food he'd ever had! After all the wineries and the bottle of wine we ordered at dinner, I don't remember the meal much. They did bring me out a cupcake with a candle, but we were soooo full after our meal, we each took a sample bite.

That pretty much wraps up our trip. It was lots of fun and I really liked San Francisco! Mark's favorite was Muir Woods. The Napa Valley was a great experience as well.