A trip to Napa Valley

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Day 3: Friday, November 19^th, 2021



Today the gang is heading out to Napa Valley. We had an early breakfast at 7:00 am at the Blue Mermaid restaurant. After my delish French toast, the group headed of the nearby Avis to pick up the car to travel to Napa Valley.



Andrea our driver, did not want to take the rental car up and down the scary hilly roads to our RT-PCR appointment and I do not blame her. I would never want to drive in San Francisco. The steep hills are terrifying. We took an Uber to our CVS RT-PCR Covid-19 appointment which was a good thing because there was no parking at the site even though it said the appointment was a drive through.



After our RT-PCR test we headed back to our hotel to pick up the car to head to Napa. Since Andrea’s GPS was not working, I used my phone data to direct us to our destination in Napa.

The winery that we chose courteously of Andrea was Grgich Hills estates because the wine maker Miljenko “Mike” Grgich is from Croatia, Andrea’s homeland. Miljenko “Mike” Grgich gained international recognition at the celebrated “Paris Tasting” of 1976 where in a blind tasting, a panel of French judges chose his crafted 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay as the finest white wine in the world. We tried 5 of their estate wines tasting menu and Andrea bought 11 bottles of wines and Renata and I bought 3 bottles of wine for gifts back home. Because of Andrea’s large purchase the winery waved our tasting menu fee.



After wine tasting we headed to the Oxbow Market for a quick lunch. Renata and I ordered oysters from Fog Harbour and pizza to wash down the wine we just had. Then Renata and I headed over to Del Dotto Historic Winery and Caves for their cave tour while Andrea headed to the Bread and Butter Winery.



At Del Dotto, Renata and I got the chance to drink wine straight from the barrel. I probably should not have gone to the second winery because I got very sick afterwards. I could not enjoy dinner at Ad Hoc, one of Thomas Keller’s family style Restaurants because I was vomiting throughout dinner. So, I learned that I am a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and I can only survive one winery per day.



After dinner we headed over to Target and Trader Joes for some shopping before heading back to San Francisco. Tomorrow is our last full day in San Francisco. We are going to check out the Ferry Building, Chinatown and the Marina District.

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