The Dirty South Comes West

Yep, the Dirty South arrived last week in full force. Meg, Marco, Nicole and Will arrived from North Cackalaka and San Francisco will never be the same. From a day in Napa to a trip to the Farmer's Market to watching the Blue Angels fly overhead in our neighborhood, to shopping, shopping, shopping and watching sports at local bars, we had a great weekend together and we absolutely appreciate the four of them flying cross-country for a visit with us!

Here are some highlights from the day in Napa:
1) Mumm: Dave and I LOVE this place. I have written about it a few other times because I love doing tastings here and walking through their art gallery.


2) PlumpJack: PlumpJack is partially owned by the mayor of SF, Gavin Newsome. He also owns 2 restaurants, 1 bar and 1 wine shop....all on our street. We wanted to check out his vineyard for the tasting and it turned out to be our favorite winery all day! September and October are harvest season in Napa, so we got to see the winery in action which was cool.


3) Hurley's: We ate lunch here and it was delicious! It's in the town of Yountville and food from their popular burger to the risotto was great.

4) Mondavi: Yes, the biggie. We had never been to such a large vineyard before. Mondavi, as you can imagine, is gigantic. It was more beautiful than I expected, but also a churn-and-burn experience (lots of people, relatively small space...not much time to learn about the wines from the person pouring). I definitely enjoyed the grounds and we took a few pictures out there...

Dave keeps this photo of me in one particular suit jacket.... It is from my 5th birthday when we lived in Evanston and I tried to recreate it here...



5) Clos du Val: This was our last stop for the day. We stopped because, like crackheads, we wanted "just one more". This turned out to be a not-so-great idea as it got us riled up enough to stop at the store and buy cocktails for the hour drive home. Meg came to regret this for the next 24 hours as she intimately got to know the bathroom floor at the hotel. Awww.....

The rest of the weekend flew by and we were very sad when Monday came and we all had to go back to the reality of work! They were anxious to get back to NC, especially back to their adorable kids, Dino and Emerson. For more photos, check out the photo album...