SPRING BREAK in CALIFORNIA!!!

Sure, we got into teaching for the students and the literature, but both Clay and I must admit that one reason we love our profession is because we still get Spring Break. Who doesn't love Spring Break? and who doesn't love San Francisco and the Napa Valley AND fun times with great friends we don't get to see very often??

We had SUCH a great time and took lots of pictures, so let's get this party started...

We arrived in San Francisco on Friday night, and sweet Mary and Jamie picked us up--and then picked up two deep-dish pizzas from Little Star Pizza. YUM. We headed back to their adorable home in San Rafael, enjoyed catching up and eating delicious food (since when do they not serve even snacks on cross-country flights?), and then hit the bed hard. We woke up Saturday morning feeling refreshed and excited to check out Mary and Jamie's favorite spots that we always enjoy reading about on their blog. Our first stop was Chrissy Field, a popular running and biking area around the Golden Gate Bridge. Mary and Jamie are competing in the hardcore Escape from Alcatraz triathlon this summer, so we did the running portion with them and their nice friend Anders. The photo above is post-run and pre-brunch at Squat and Gobble, a cute creperie and cafe. M&J then took us on a fun tour of the city, including a stop at the famous Painted Ladies (famous, if, you know, you kinda like watched DJ and Steph on Full House all the time when you were growing up, like, maybe I did).

Saturday night we enjoyed yummy carnitas and several rounds of games with M&J and their fun friends Josh, Trixie, and Krista. We played girls vs. guys and the gals won all three competitions, albeit with some tricky clues and perhaps some slightly ridiculously girly terminology the guys had never heard of much less knew how to act out in charades.

Sunday morning Mary and I enjoyed a super special private Pilates class at Flow Studio while Clay and Jamie took a run around Phoenix Lake. All four of us then hit up the SR Farmers' Market, where we picked up some fish for the fish taco recipe Jamie noticed in the NYTimes that a.m. We also found some hearty paella, lots of fresh tangerines and apples, and even some cranberry wheat bread, which I happily admit made my day. It was amazing.

pretty flowers at the market

Clay discovered M&J's aerodynamic bike helmets from their Ironman...

Monday morning brought sunshine (hooray!) and whole-wheate pancakes for M&J before they headed to school and we headed to Napa!!! We stopped at Trader Joe's for some goodies (including a whole box of Cuties, which sustained us through the tough task of wine tasting for three days. It's a rough life, isn't it?) and then hit the road in M&J's car, which they so graciously lent us for our 72 hours in Wine Country. Check out the views from the drive:

Our first stop: Domaine Carneros for some bubbly. A great way to start our tour :-)

Clay and Sonoma Valley

Three different types of champagne.

Guess which one was our fave? Yup, the expensive one! This would become a theme...

Next stop: Hess Collection. A gorgeous winery with an even more gorgeous art collection. It is part tasting room, part gallery. This was on the top of our list.

We're in Wine Country! Yeah Baby!

I'm standing in front of Clos Du Val here, another winery we recommend for those travelling through Napa. Their wine is delicious AND their labels are fun, a standard that SJ started employing when I couldn't tell much difference between wines anymore...:-)

Clos du Val

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a park in downtown Napa and also spent some time wandering around the cute town of St. Helena, where we picked up some goodies at Olivier Oil Co. and Woodhouse Chocolates. We then headed north to Calistoga for the night. We got a great deal on a room at the Calistoga Inn and Brewery and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Boskos Trattoria.

Tuesday morning brought even more sunshine, a great run on the bike trail through Calistoga, and then more wine tastings! We started at Sterling Vineyards, which is well-known around Napa for its incredible views and tram rides up to the winery. We went before 12:30, so we got two tastings for the price of one! Sterling is one we can find here in Chattanooga, so we didn't bring any home, but we definitely recommend their Chardonnay.

Clay enjoying the views

How fun is a trip up a mountain to a vineyard? Really fun :-)

Gorgeous Napa Valley

These are really big wine barrels...

...and these are a lot of barrels. Looks like Sterling is doing a-okay...

The views from Sterling were pretty incredible.

The wine was also really good--and by this point we had gotten pretty good at swirling the glass and smelling the wine even though we honestly liked them all! I mean, its WINE. In Napa Valley. It's gonna be good. But we had fun coming up with our adjectives for each sample...

Several glasses of wine? No problem...

More pretty labels...

The Sterling gift shop had some fun finds, including the sign below that I made Clay pose with :-)

Thought these guys were pretty fun

...and now we are on our way back down. More wineries to visit!

Next stop was Clos Pegasse. The coolest part of their tasting was watching their artist in residence paint his "vision of wine." The thumb made us smile, too.

Hey look, its Bacchus!

We then hit up Summers Estate Vineyards, which turned out to be one of our two favorites. It was small, yummy, personal, and friendly. We ended up buying their Charbono and Cabernet. It was at this point that Clay and I started discussing how we were going to get all this wine home. Details, details...

Our drive towards Sonoma then took us past the CIA, and my slight obsession with Food Network and Top Chef inspired us to peek inside. A school just for cooking and baking? Sign me up! Their classrooms are giant kitchens!

Loved the huge dream of a gift shop

A few hundred yards past the CIA was Beringer, and Clay and I couldn't pass it without a little shout-out to Mom :-)

We had a free tasting at Merryvale in the heart of St. Helena, so we decided to stop in. They had a pretty cool tasting room on display in one of their barrel cellars, but their wine wasn't super special, so we moved on. So many wineries, so little time! We also stopped at Hall St. Helena, which turned out to be our least fave. We decided that smaller vineyards were the way to go, so...

Oh wait, we stopped at one more big one: Chateau St. Jean, a recommendation from the nice man at the Napa Visitor's Bureau. We liked it, bought a bottle, and took a picture with a even bigger bottle.

As you can tell by the signs, there are a LOT of wineries to choose from, and at times we felt a little overwhelmed (not in a bad way, though :-)). So we decided to do the logical thing: go to the winery that wasn't on the sign at all: Kaz.

This was BY FAR my favorite stop. We drove up to this little deserted barn behind a house around 4:15, hopped out, and asked the man outside if we were too late for a tasting. He broke out in a big grin and said, "Well, folks, usually I'm closed on Tuesdays, but come on in! I think I can find some wines for you to taste." He stuck his hand out and said, "I'm Kaz." Awesome! This is exactly what Clay and I were looking for: a unique winery off the beaten path. He gave us samples of several different wines that he makes, all in small quantities, and then he even invited us to bottle our own straight from the barrel, choosing our own label from his fun collection. We had a blast with Kaz and enthusiastically recommend his winery--what a treat.

I wish you could see his face here too--I think he was mocking me :-)

Clay chose the awesome "Stimulus" label. Kaz then signed both bottles for us. Pretty cool.

Sonoma was our next stop. We stayed at the charming Sonoma Hotel and ate dinner at A Taste of the Himalayas. Indian food sounded divine, and their Naan and spinach curry were perfect. A little ice cream treat at Ben and Jerry's, a walk around the square, and a bath in our claw-footed tub rounded out this treat of a night.

Wednesday morning we took another run, this time to the Gundlach Bundschu winery a few miles outside of the town square. Clay enjoyed the treats inside the Sonoma Cheese Factory and I found an amazing bakery and more bread! We could live on bread and cheese. Seriously.

We stopped back Gundlach Bundschu on the way south. My expression above is something along the lines of "Isn't this freakin' beautiful??"

A sign for our students, perhaps?

Love this guy.

Taking in the scenery at Gundlach Bundschu.

Another cave of wine barrels. They are everywhere!

Our final winery stop was at Jacuzzi Vineyards south of Sonoma. We stopped there because a.) the tasting was free, and b.) they also feature olive oil tastings. Yum. We decided to have our picnic lunch by the fountain behind their tasting room.

Before heading back to Tennessee, we wanted to check out the John Muir Woods. Several friends told us this park was stunningly beautiful and it was--the redwoods were even bigger than we imagined. We got in a great hike before getting on a plane for 8 hours!

This one is REALLY old!

Look how strong we are!

These trees are, um, a little tall.

We had a couple hours before we were to meet M&J, so we decided to go for a drive along Rte. 1 on the coast. I couldn't stop snapping pictures while Clay handled the insane curves. It is pretty amazing to think that we really were on the edge of the country just yesterday...

We stopped at the nearest beach, smelled the Pacific Ocean, felt the sand, snapped one last picture, and then headed back to San Rafael--and then Tennessee.

Mary and Jamie, many thanks for your incredible generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness. We LOVED being with you and enjoying your beautiful surroundings for a few days! And thanks to you and the rockin' blue suitcase you gave us, all six of our bottles of wine got home safe and sound yesterday! We now have PLENTY for the next time you visit, which will hopefully be SOON! Have fun in Peru!!

It was a glorious week in California. Clay and I feel so rested and recharged, and we feel so blessed to have been able to do and see so many beautiful sights. We also were grateful to have our awesome Cam-dawg to come home to...it was a bit pathetic how much we missed him. He is definitely a member of our family :-).