Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Theresa!  We took a quick trip up to Temecula for one of Theresa's favorite activities…“tasting” wine.  We hit up 4 wineries and had a great time.

Wine, Bikes, and Mud

All these things go together in Calistoga, a town in Napa Valley.  Calistoga is located on the northern end of the valley and has a small town feel.  They just had a Christmas Tractor Parade the weekend prior to our visit and people were still talking about it.  We planned this trip to celebrate our anniversary last month.  I'd found a cottage rental on VRBO that was nice and quiet for our stay.  We took a self guided biking wine tour on Saturday and experienced a Calistoga mud bath on Sunday.

Start of the 20 mile bike tour visiting 5 wineries.

We had an unexpected warm, sunny day.  Fog was all around the mountains.

We tried and bought a wine that was served at the White House from August Briggs winery.

We experienced our first mud bath.  "The combination of clay, peat and hot springs mineral waters in the mud bath relaxes muscles and joints, detoxifies, and leaves the skin soft and renewed."

More photos on our online album:  Calistoga Dec 2010

Theresa's Napa Trip

I went to Napa with some of my girlfriends from Illinois.  The four of us have been friends for a long time.  I met Nicki first in Jr. High, so we've been friends for about 24 years.  These girls are friends that I don't see very often, but when I do, it's like we've been around each other the whole time.  We had a wonderful time in Napa together tasting lots of wine.  Hopefully this will become a regular thing...

After driving over the Golden Gate Bridge

Tasting wine at Domaine Carneros

Napa is beautiful, this is the view at Artesa.

In the vineyards at Plumpjack.

Mumm's sparkling wine tasting.

Santa Ynez Valley

We drove up to Santa Barbara and went wine tasting over the past weekend.  Santa Ynez Valley is mostly popular for Pinot Noir wine.  I'll admit, it's not my favorite wine.  It's a pretty valley and we had a great time on our tour that focuses on visiting sustainable vineyards and wineries.  The vineyards that we visited focus on organic and/or biodynamic farming of grapes.  Here's an article that explains a little about that:  http://www.mnn.com/food/wine/stories/organic-vs-biodynamic-wine.  If you go to the wineries websites, they explain their farming and accredidations as well.

Tasting at Alma Rosa (this winery was featured in Sideways and The Kids Are All Right)

Coastal fog keeps the area cool.

Pinot Noir grapes off the vine.  Our tour guide is explaining their brix level.

We had lunch on Ampelos Vineyards.

Our group wine tasting at Demetria Estate

Beautiful Grounds at Demetria Winery

More photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/FreqTravelers/SantaYnezValleySept2010#