Meredith052013

Hi all! Ryan and I are on our way to San Francisco for 3 nights and Napa Valley for 2 nights. I will be chronicling our trip along the way through this trip report.

Kal

We'll be there, too for Mrs Kal's b'day weekend then up to Sonoma Valley on Monday so be nice to tall guys with short, little red heads because they might be us!

StuDudley

My wife & I will be there on Sunday. She is leading the "Victorian San Francisco" tour for SF City Guides.
http://www.sfcityguides.org/desc.html?tour=83

Look for another red head hanging around Union St, Chestnut, and Fillmore. I'm the taxi service.

Kal - where are you dining??? We'll be at Skool Sat night.

Stu Dudley

Kal

Red heads in SF! Sounds like a B Movie!

We prefer to eat rather than dine, Stu.

We haven't been to A16 in awhile so we will be there for an early b'day dinner. Next time! We do need another SF GTG soon.

BTW...Skool now has a location in Sac. Getting great reviews, too.
Been waiting to hit it for brunch one Sunday.

OK...sorry for squatting Meredith.

Meredith052013

Fri 5/20: Travel to San Fran & Giants/Cubs game

Our flight was scheduled for 1:27pm, which would have meant a half vacation day. Due to recent long wait times at O'Hare security we made sure we allowed at least 3 hours. So, we took the whole day off. Well, things must be turning around for the TSA because it took us only 12 minutes to get through security. Our gate hadn't even been assigned yet!

We were through security 3 hours before our flight and enjoyed a nice tour of Terminal 1. We had plenty of time to check out all the different Hudson News bookstores and restaurant options. I bought Aziz Ansari's book and we finally decided upon Chili's for a leisurely lunch before boarding the plane. The flight was on time and all was well until we stopped suddenly when taxiing and were told planes were stopped at SFO. Not sure why. Maybe winds if I had to guess. We finally took off and arrived almost an hour late, but still within time to get to our hotel before the game.

We arrived at the Orchard Hotel in the Union Square area of San Fran and quickly changed and headed out for the game. The hotel is right near China town. It's in a great area (lots of other hotels nearby and I'm told also shopping), clean, and spacious. Everyone at check-in was very helpful, providing us with options for getting to and from the park.

As we left the hotel, we didn't really see cabs so we ordered an uber. This was kind of a more frustrating task than we expected. All the typical uber annoyances happened. First, it defaulted to uber pool, which meant we would be picking up up to 2 more people along the way. We did not have time for that so we cancelled the trip. Then, ordered again and it defaulted to a different address. Ugh. Uber. And in the city where it all started! So we cancelled that order and started fresh again. Finally, we ordered again, changing all defaults and were on our way.

We arrived at AT&T Park just as the game was about to start and waited about 10 minutes to get through security, which was way more lax than what we experience in Chicago, despite the metal detectors. The guy that was working the metal detector we were coming through was chatting with some other fans so we pushed our stuff through ourselves outside the metal detector and walked on through. No one went through my bag or anything. Luckily we are trustworthy citizens!

We walked inside and immediately you could smell the garlic from the garlic fries served. It looked like a food court. Everything new, clean, with lots of lounge like seating, and tons of options for dinner. Mexican, Chinese food, brisket, wraps, salads, sandwiches, and the usual baseball game staples. There was a full bar also. We had seats in the field club section behind home plate. I don't know if this is what the rest of the park looked like but I was impressed and didn't want to rush myself to a decision on dinner so we grabbed a couple beers and went to our seats.

We traveled down a hallway, looking for our section and once we found it, had to open a door to get out to our seats. This can be difficult when you have drinks and food you are carrying! Our seats were great! We were about 10-15 rows right behind home plate. It was a full house and we even saw some Cubs fans amongst the sold out crowd. Right away, I looked at the row behind us and saw a guy eating a salad. Much different from what I'm used to seeing in Chicago. I ended up having a lot of respect for those I could see (not very many) enjoying the humble hot dog!

In the bottom of the first inning, the Cubs right fielder, Jason Heyward made an amazing diving catch that you could tell looked awful. He slammed into the back wall and started writhing in pain as his fellow team members ran out to him. You could hear a gasp as people at concessions must have been watching a replay. He finally got up and the Giants fans showed their respect and sportsmanship, standing up and clapping for him as he walked off the field with some assistance.

After a few innings we left our seats to get dinner. We decided to split the All-star nachos. A ton of chips, beans, nacho cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and jalapeños with choice of meat. We chose carnitas. It was so good! A bit messy though so we were thankful for the seating in the "food court". Almost everyone seemed to eat out there vs at their seats. We probably only saw 2 food vendors, no drink vendors while we were at our seats. There were guys walking around taking orders from people since we were in the field club level, but we were surprised at the lack of food & drink vendors throughout the whole park.

The rest of the game was uneventful as far as injuries are concerned, which was good. But the Cubs' bats were hot! Also, there was some guy two rows behind us heckling the Cubs players and screaming encouragements to the Giants. Not very effective given he was in the 20th row, but definitely irritating for those around him. Towards the end of the game, the Jumbotron showed a boat in the cove that looked like the car from Back to the Future, a DeLorean. Hilarious! Ultimately, the game ended up as a Cubs win, 8 to 1.

It took a while to make our way back to our hotel. You can tell there is not much parking near the park bc the crowd funneled through the streets as we made our way back north. We stopped in a bar near the park but left before ordering a drink because it was pretty rowdy. Just like Wrigleyville, really. It had been a long day and we were not into it so we left and joined the crowd again through the streets of San Fransisco. There were no cabs to be seen so we walked the rest of the way home, but ducked into a bar close to our hotel for one more drink to get out of the cold. It was in the 50s, which was comfortable with the sun out given our attire (I wore a sweater, jeans, and windbreaker; Ryan wore some layered shirts, jeans, and a windbreaker). However, towards the end of the game and for the walk back, I was getting a little chilly.

We made our way back to our hotel close to midnight (2am our time) and could hardly wait to lay down! Big day tomorrow: San Fransisco sites like Lombard street and Fisherman's Wharf then Alcatraz!

Meredith052013

Haha! No worries. We will look out for all the red heads!

Stu - You gave me some much appreciated help on these boards for a trip to France a few years ago! Great to see a familiar name!

StuDudley

Do you have my San Francisco suggestions???

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

I am a "famous" Fisherman's Wharf hater.

Stu Dudley

MichelleY

Nice! Have fun in The City.

Meredith052013

Thanks, Stu! Your recommendations look great. We will definitely hit up some of your suggestions. I wish we had more time here!

Ps. I joked yesterday that I would like to see the Wells Fargo museum since I am an employee. Well, it was only a half joke since I am interested, but we just don't have the time!

StuDudley

The Wells Fargo Museum is a quick visit. Much more interesting then the Wharf, IMO.

Stu Dudley

Meredith052013

Sat 5/21: San Fran city sites & Alcatraz

After a late night, I woke up at 6:30am. I've got to get used to the time change! Ryan had no issues sleeping in, of course! While he was sawing logs I went to grab a latte and breakfast. I went to this cozy little cafe, Beanstalk Cafe. It had some construction going on outside so I was worried it was closed. Thankfully, it wasn't. It is so charming - just a small room with a bench and maybe two little table & chairs. They were playing Hotel California when I walked in so I was even more pleased! The latte was delicious and I also ordered a piece of Hungarian coffee cake with cinnamon, chocolate chips, and walnuts in it. Very tasty! I plan to go back tomorrow and try the croissant!

Our first activity on the agenda for the day was to walk through Chinatown on our way to catch the cable car to Lombard street. We followed Stu's advice and chose Stockton rather than Grant St, starting at Sacramento. The streets were buzzing with residents doing their Saturday morning grocery shopping. Exotic fruits, legumes, fresh fish, even dried seafood like sardines and shrimp! We didn't stop to shop, but it was neat enough just to "window" shop. We turned onto Jackson and walked one street to Powell to grab the cable car.

After just a few short minutes, the cable car arrived nearly full. There were people in front of us who had priority but they needed 4 seats and the cable car could only accommodate 3 so we were able to hop on the only spaces remaining on the left side. The spots were separate but that's okay. It allowed me to take a pretty good picture of Ryan and a "selfie" of both of us at a stopping point in our ride. I also took a little bit of video. Hanging on, this made me a little nervous. I had to be very careful not to get clipped by passing cars. I did not however think about another passing cable car and came very close to getting myself in trouble there. In fact, the cable car driver (or maybe it's a conductor?) asked me to pay attention. Oops! I was well behaved from that point forward.

We hopped off at Lombard ("the crookedest street") and took the stairs down. It was less crowded than I expected it to be. We got some neat pictures along the way. Some cars were descending down and that was interesting to see. The street had a lot of beautiful flowers and the houses were neat to admire as we made our way to the bottom.

We then walked down Leavenworth to check out our lunch location - in-n-out burger! It was open for business. Yay! We decided we weren't quite hungry yet so for the next hour just walked over to the piers to see the ocean. We walked down pier 41, which was much less congested than pier 39 and could hear and see the seals. We grabbed a iced coffee and tea at Boudin in hopes of using their bathrooms. That didn't work out quite as well as we had hoped. They had this outdoor trailer that they rented and pretty much forgot about for patrons of the cafe. There was no toilet paper to be seen and it was a mess. Pretty sad that this was what they provide to their customers. We were told there were nicer bathrooms upstairs but only for those eating at the restaurant. Ugh.

We headed back over to our lunch spot, In-n-out. The line was out the door so we weren't sure how true to the name our visit would be! I timed it of course because I'm a nerd. It was 6 minutes to order and another 12 minutes until we had our glorious food in our possession. 12 minutes is actually not bad considering the fact they were on #54 after we ordered and we were #79. We walked out to the courtyard to enjoy our lunch in the sun. Ryan had a double-double animal style meal and I ordered a single cheeseburger, animal style and a vanilla shake. We both thought it was good but not as good as we had remembered it. Ryan made a good point that the buns needed to be crispier and I thought it was a bit too salty. Maybe next time I would order without the sauce (no animal style). Compared to other places, the milkshake fell somewhere in the middle so just average, in my opinion. The french fries on the other hand were delicious and I am not a french fries fan. Maybe it's a matter of expectation. We were so excited for the burger, but I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the fries. Hmmmm.

After lunch, we needed to make our way to pier 33 to catch the boat to Alcatraz, but we had a little extra time so we got a drink upstairs at Boudin. We were hell bent on getting to use those nice restrooms! The bar's view was blocked from seeing the bay so nothing special, but it was nice to sit down and relax for a little bit.

We arrived at pier 33 right on time per instructions (30 minutes before departure) and when we boarded we were able to get a spot standing on the second level (away from any waves) but with a direct view of Alcatraz as we approached. The ride was cool and windy so we were glad we had windbreakers on. We docked the boat and skipped the orientation because I found out from the information booth right away that a guided tour was just starting and another wouldn't start until 45 minutes later. We followed our guide along as we ascended "the Rock" and he told of the history of the island prior to being a penitentiary and of the apartments on the island that housed the families of those who worked at Alcatraz. Very interesting stories. It ran about 30-40 minutes and was a good segue into the audio tour, which we could pick up once we got to the main building, the prison. We really enjoyed the audio tour, which included stories relayed by previous inmates and guards and step by step instructions on where to go next. The whole time, there was someone on the second floor completely devoted to opening and closing the cell doors by use of a huge lever every 30 seconds or so. When we finished the tour, we quickly made our way back to the boat to catch the 5:10pm departure. Otherwise, we would have waited another 45 minutes and at this point, we were eager to be off our feet for a little bit.

When we docked back at pier 33, we were going to try and order an uber after walking to a good spot, but ultimately decided to walk back to our hotel - about a 30 minute walk. I'm glad we did because we got to see the North Beach neighborhood, which was very active with lots of little cafes and restaurants and folks stretched out on the lawn of Washington Square. We realized when we got back to the hotel that except for maybe 1.5 hours where we sat for lunch, our drink, and the ride back from Alcatraz, we had been walking for 8 hours. That's 6.5 hours on our feet! No wonder the bottoms of our feet were sore.

We rested a bit and cleaned up before dinner at Barbacco not too far from our hotel. We arrived and I was disappointed that we were sat at the counter rather than a table given I had made the reservations a long time ago. Ryan talked to the host and we were whisked away to an actual table. Yay! I don't know why they had placed us at the counter, right at the entrance to the restaurant to begin with. It gave me a bad feeling about the place. Maybe we were just grumpy from being so tired out. Luckily, they changed our attitudes. The food was wonderful! To start, we ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and two appetizers. The first was a plate of burrata mozzarella cheese, with arugula and olive oil, paired with prosciutto, and these thinly sliced fried gnocchi. The other was a spicy sausage pate with toasted crostini. It was nice and smokey and also delicious. We then split a pasta dish and a main dish. For the pasta we had the orecchiette with sausage and kale pesto and Parmesan. The main dish was the beef stew with polenta. Both were delicious. We finished with one scoop of the chocolate crunch gelato - chocolate with pieces of cookie and caramel. Yummy! What a great end to a long day. A well deserved meal!

Meredith052013

Sun 5/22: Japanese Tea Garden, the painted ladies, and biking the Golden Gate Bridge.

First and foremost, we stopped at the beanstalk cafe for breakfast and coffee. I am really loving this place minus the construction going on. I ordered a cragel (croissant bagel) and cream cheese and Ryan ordered an Asiago bagel and cream cheese. Amazing. I need to find out where I can get my hands on cragels in Chicago!!!

We ordered an uber to Golden Gate Park. There were some very pretty views of San Fransisco neighborhoods along the way. Our driver dropped us right at the entrance to the Japanese tea garden. There was no line to enter. The cost was $8 cash each, exact change preferred. I paid with $16 ones that I had exchanged at the hotel and the lady working the booth was VERY happy. Excellent. The Japanese tea garden was really cool. It was like a maze of paths with beautiful trees, koi and lily ponds, and Japanese inspired buildings and sculptures. It was crowded, but not uncomfortably. We walked it for about an hour then upon exit decided to walk 2 miles to see the painted ladies at Alamo Square. Well, actually we kind of thought the house from Full House was there too. Not so much. It's about a mile away. Oh well.

As we walked through Golden Gate Park, Ryan saw signs for hand ball courts so we checked them out and watched a 4 person game in action for a few minutes. It looked like a lot of fun. Like racquetball, but using your hand instead. Then he noticed a baseball game going on so we stopped to watch that too. Right away he noticed that they were dressed in older attire and used different equipment. We noticed the American bicentennial flag hanging near the dugout. I googled and found out it was a Bay Area vintage baseball game. The league plays by 1886 rules, equipment, and etiquette. There were no helmets and the gloves were just thin, leather ones. I also noticed another flag hanging that read "Don't Give Up the Ship". Google came through for us again and informed us that those were words on the battle flag of Oliver Hazard Perry aboard the USS Niagara in 1813. The game ended and we started walking again towards Alamo Square. After exiting golden gate park, we walked through another park called the panhandle in between two streets lined with Victorian homes. There were a ton of people out walking, running, and biking. The smell of the pine trees there and in golden gate park was amazing. The air smelled so fresh!

We walked just a couple blocks further to Alamo Square, which had fences all around due to an improvement project that was underway. Bummer. This was the park shown in the opening credits of Full House with a line of Victorian homes (the painted ladies) in the background. We walked around the fenced in area to see them and took a couple pictures. Some people were walking up the steps to take their pictures right on people's front porches, which was taking it a bit too far, in my opinion. We ordered another uber towards the pier so we could pick up our bikes for our ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We arrived at Bay City Bikes and received directions for the ride and our bikes. The cost was $8/hour, no more than $32 for the day. We were nervous to ride in the streets so we walked them until we got to the main drag to the bike paths where many other fellow bikers were heading. We made our way to the bike path through a bit of a detour that caused some confusion. It helped that there were some others making the same trip that we could follow. When we got towards the yacht club we went in search for the wave organ, which I had read about. We biked back a little bit to a peninsula to try and find it. We did in fact find it, but the tide wasn't high enough. What a disappointment! No wonder the guy that helped us rent the bikes had never heard of it! We had a laugh and continued on.

Most of the ride to the bridge was flat but the wind was against us so the ride was a little challenging. Once we started to ascend the hill approaching the bridge it became very challenging! We stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful views and finally made our way up. Bikers were funneled to the west side of the bridge. There were some little spots where you could stop and admire the views but we continued on, not wanting to disrupt the flow of bike traffic. After the bridge, I think we chose the wrong option as far as skill level for the ride to Sausalito. There were other bikers too but it seemed very challenging again and the traffic was heavy, with buses a little too close for comfort. We finally made our way to Sausalito, a beautiful hillside town with shops and restaurants along the water. It was starting to get late and we had dinner reservations so we weren't sure we had time to stop. We went right to the dock to see when the ferries back to San Fransisco were scheduled. We had just missed the 3:50pm and there was one added at 4:15pm so we got in line right away to get tickets. I recommend buying them ahead of time. We thought we might bike back at the time. After all that work, a relaxing ferry ride back sounded much more appealing. On the ferry, we each ordered a cocktail and a bags of Cheetos. That was the best Moscow mule and bag of Cheetos I have ever tasted. I realized we hadn't eaten anything since 10:30! We were so hungry and especially after all those challenging climbs. I joked later that was the best meal I've had so far. Once we arrived at the ferry building we had to ride our bikes back to the rental location, which was about a 10-15 minute ride. We were happy to return them and be on two feet again. It was about 5:30 so we had the bikes for about 3.5 hours. The ride across definitely took us longer than expected. Between 1.5 to 2 hours.

We had dinner reservations at Fog Harbor Fish House at pier 39. As requested, we got a table by the window so we could see the beautiful sunset views. We felt a little over dressed compared to the tourists in t-shirts and sweatshirts. Or maybe they were the ones under-dressed considering it was a white table cloth restaurant During our meal the diners switched to the international crowd and we suspected we were the only ones seated speaking English. We ordered the fried calamari to start, which was very good. Ryan ordered the filet mignon with blue cheese and I ordered the Cioppino. Cioppino is a seafood stew, tomato based, with a little spice to it. The stew had fish, scallops, mussels, shrimp, and crab in it. It was delicious. Ryan really enjoyed his filet too. For dessert we ordered the chocolate cake and creme brûlée plate. Very rich and wonderful. As we left dinner, we stopped to see the sea lions. It was dark but you could still make them out and you could definitely still hear them just fine! It was chilly so we hurried back to our hotel after a long and active day - our final day in San Fransisco. We loved the visit here. There's so much to do and we would love to come back and maybe spend more time checking out the different neighborhoods. Next time!

StuDudley

>>Alamo Square, which had fences all around due to an improvement project that was underway. Bummer. This was the park shown in the opening credits of Full House with a line of Victorian homes (the painted ladies) in the background.

MichelleY

Enjoying your report!

Kal

You could not have picked a better weekend for the weather!

I thought we'd have to call for a "safety check" for Stu after you mentioned FishWharf, In n Out and Boudin's in the same paragraph. :-?

StuDudley

AAAAAAGH!

Meredith052013

Oh no, Stu! Haha!

Yes, the weather was perfect both in San Fransisco and Napa Valley. I am delinquent in my updates but will have time to do the last 2 days during our travels back to Chicago today

Meredith052013

Mon 5/23: Travel to Napa Valley, Domaine Chandon, and dinner at Bouchon.

We slept in a little bit and planned to catch the Evans transportation shuttle from SFO to our hotel. It's only $29 to Napa, $45 if you want hotel drop-off. It's cash only. We caught the shuttle at noon and the drive to Napa was about 1.5 hours then we switched to a smaller vehicle for our ride to our hotel. We arrived at Hotel Yountville a little after 2pm and our room was ready for us early.

Hotel Yountville is amazing. There is a nice, cozy living room with a fireplace in the lobby. The hotel is a series of small villa-like buildings with only a few rooms per building. Little paths wind through amongst beautiful greenery and flowers. Jasmine was planted outside our room and it smelled wonderful. The room was huge. A couch and set of two chairs in front of the bed faced a gas fireplace. The bathroom was also nice and spacious, with a walk-in glass shower. The decor was very warm and welcoming.

We changed quickly and walked 15 minutes down the road to Domaine Chandon. We ordered the Classic Tasting, which included the Brut Classic, Blanc de Noirs, Rose, and Extra Dry Riche. The cost was $20 each but we received two complimentary tastings with our hotel stay. Yay! We ordered the cheese and salami plate to enjoy with our sparkling wines. I really enjoyed them all. We both agreed on our favorite - the Blanc de Noirs. We got another complimentary tasting too after because they were closing down shop. It wasn't too crowded there. We were able to get a table and enjoy the sunshine and relax a bit.

We came back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We walked up the street maybe 10 minutes to dinner at Bouchon. Yountville is such a cute little town. Lots of restaurant options and there are some shops as well. We arrived 30 minutes early but they were able to seat us outside, which was fine since it was a nice night. The French bistro feel was very charming. I ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and Ryan ordered Templeton Rye whiskey. Some things never change! They brought us warm bread, butter, and pistachios. We decided to split a couple dishes. The steak frites and the croque madame (ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top). The steak was absolutely amazing. There was warm butter on top and we had ordered shaved truffles on our fries. The croque Madame was also delicious - better than the one I had in Paris, believe it or not! For desert, we split the profiteroles with ice cream and chocolate syrup. This was our favorite meal of the trip!

Meredith052013

Tues 5/24: Winery tours and dinner at Redd.

I woke up and walked down to Bouchon Bakery to get breakfast and a coffee. I ordered a cinnamon roll and a ham, egg, and cheese croissant sandwich for Ryan and I to split. I also ordered a few macaroons for later! I chose vanilla, pistachio, and espresso. Everything was very good. No surprise there!

We had arranged a driver for the day and scheduled 4 winery visits. We used Perata Luxury tours and our driver, Nick is the owner. He was very knowledgeable, had waters for us and was an all around friendly guy! Our first appointment was at Bell Wine Cellars. We were greeted with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and walked out to the vineyard to learn about the owner, winery, and grape growing process. We came back inside and were shown their many wine barrels and sat down for a tasting of four more wines paired with different types of cheese. Everything was delicious and afterwards, our guide let us taste the Cabernet Sauvignon clone 6 from the barrel. It was incredible, even being still too young to even bottle! I had to buy a bottle to enjoy at a way later date! She said it is best aged 20 years, but the likelihood of me waiting that long is not very great!

We went to Clos du Val afterwards. It was a beautiful view with ivy grown on the building, cabanas, and wooden bistro tables & chairs in the grass overlooking the vineyard. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, which Nick picked up for us from Upper Crust. We split two sandwiches (turkey with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and avocado on a wheat bread & prosciutto, fig, and brie on a baguette), a salad, and a cookie. It was a nice, relaxing lunch but we didn't really partake in learning about the wines beyond the short explanation provided when poured. The wines were nice and the view was picturesque. I bought a bottle of the three graces white to take back to Chicago.

We then met two other couples who happened to be in town for a tasting at Domaine Carneros. We each ordered the classic sparkling tasting and a couple cheese plates. I think I may have liked the sparkling wines at Chandon better, but the view here was very pretty and it is set in a French chateau, which is apparently a replica of the owner's own home. We had such a great time here and our friends, who had just arrived, were interested in meeting us at our last winery so when we hopped back in the car, we asked our driver if it would be okay since it's a private estate and a very personal tour. He texted the owner and asked for all of our first and last names. Yikes! I messaged my friends that they would need to be on their best behavior! Haha!

We arrived at our last appointment, Kitchak Cellars, and were greeted right away by the owner, Peter. We sat down at a beautiful table imported from Positano, Italy for our first tasting. He gave us a history of the winery and talked about the process of making the wine we were tasting. He is a great story teller. He also explained how rose in the US is typically made. Not as romantic of a process as I had thought! It's basically leftovers. I guess I need to buy only French roses from now on! Note: this is not a process he partakes in! He takes great care in all the wines they produce. We got up from the table and headed to the vineyard. On the way, we stopped to see his collection of vintage and race cars. He used to race in the 1990s. What a cool collection. We spent quite a bit of time in there because of course the guys had a lot of questions! We then made our way back out to the vineyard and learned about his growing process. After, we came inside to learn about the wine making process and he gave us a barrel tasting. First, we tasted a Merlot that was pretty young then one that was closer to being bottled. It was interesting to compare the two. We then sat down for 4 more tastings. We seemed to love each wine more than the last. Each couple bought a couple bottles each. Ryan and I got a bottle of Merlot and a bottle of Cabernet Savignon. They were so delicious! We can ship the wine from our hotel, for a fee of course. It was $81 for four bottles and 2 day shipping. They don't recommend ground shipping since the bottles are shipped by truck and at unknown temperatures. We thanked Peter and said good bye. Our driver thinks we had set a record with the longest visit there he has seen. In all, we were there for 3 hours!

We finished the day with dinner with our friends at Redd. We all shared the ceviche appetizer with avocado and chips. Ryan had the filet mignon and I had the scallops. For dessert we split the chocolate cake with ice cream. Everything was delicious. Ryan and I came back to the hotel and ordered one last drink to enjoy in front of the fire on the patio. It was a great trip. We loved both San Fran and Napa, but both agreed we would like to return to Napa again first since it was so relaxing!