The Bell Family: Napa Valley Girls Weekend

This is going to be a very long post, but there is so much I don't want to forget! I had the opportunity to go to Napa Valley, California with my best friend (also my cousin-in-law) for the weekend. To say that this trip was Amazing just seems like an understatement! Everything about this trip was so much fun! The entire trip seemed to revolve around food and of course WINE, but that's what you do in Napa...Right? : ) I don't want to forget anything about this trip so I am going to write down just about everything that we did.
We arrived in Sacramento late Thursday night and this is how we were greeted by our driver : )

We got to Napa late Thursday night and stayed at the AVIA Hotel ( http://www.aviahotels.com/hotels/napa/ ) after walking around downtown Napa I would say this is the place to stay. Everyone was so gracious and very hospitable.

We got up early on Friday had an amazing breakfast, walked around downtown Napa and were drinking wine before noon : ) We had lunch at a fabulous restaurant that we actually went to twice during our stay. http://www.gracestable.net/ The food was amazing and the desert was the best thing that I have ever eaten, SERIOUSLY!!

The Best. Dessert. Ever.

Friday night for dinner we ate at Cole's Chop House ( http://www.coleschophouse.com/) it was your typical steakhouse, but still very good! We met a good friend of Mandi's at the restaurant and being around people that are so much fun make any experience that much better! After dinner we headed to Fish Story (restaurant and bar) and had drinks and met a sweet couple that had just gotten engaged (this seemed to be the theme of our weekend).

Mandi and Kent

Banana's Foster

This was my appetizer : ) Life is short eat dessert first!

Biggest Bottle of Opus One

This picture just makes me laugh : )
http://wheresmyyarn.com/find-yarn/stores/

Having drinks at Fish Story

Saturday morning we slept in, we had our day planned out and were going to a couple of wineries and then to dinner that evening. Well, we go downstairs of our hotel and are ready to head out to our first winery. We requested that we have a driver for the day (mainly because we were on vacation and didn't have a car and we were going to be "tasting" a lot of wine) We waited for over 30 minutes on our driver and we he finally arrives they tell us "Your driver is here, if you could just please pull your car around he will take you wherever you need to go" ummm....We don't have a car! Apparently when in Napa you must request a car and a driver or else you will only get a driver. So the sweet driver offers to drive his own car. He says "I just want to let you know it's a blazer , I hope that's okay." Sure that's alright we just want to go on our wine tastings! As he's walking away to get the car he yells back "It's and an "86" blazer and were still like that's alright. Well he pulls around and this thing is huge, loud, 2 door, and had a step to get into the back seat! We laughed and continued to crawl into the blazer.

Here we are in front of the infamous Blazer : )

The concierge from the hotel runs out the door and says she has gotten us another driver (with a car this time) and was very apologetic for the confusion. This little mishap only added more fun memories to our trip! : )
Now that we had our car we headed over to Del Dotto winery (http://www.deldottovineyards.com/). This was a cave tour and was an amazing experience! We also met so many great people including another couple that had just gotten engaged!

In the Cave at Del Dotto Winery

The wine is poured directly from the barrel

After leaving Del Dotto we headed over to William Hill Winery (http://www.williamhillestate.com/, this was a beautiful winery where we got to sit on a patio over looking the vineyards.

Dinner that night was by far some of the best food I have EVER eaten!! We sat under a tent with heat lamps and enjoyed the perfect weather in Napa. So much fun! http://www.angelerestaurant.com/

Suckling Pig (sounds weird, but so good)

Yummy Banana dessert

Having dinner at Angele's

Sunday was our last day in Napa, but we had a full day considering our flight didn't leave until 11 P.M. that night! I enjoyed a 90 minute hot stone massage that morning followed by more wonderful drinks and food. We had lunch at Norman Rose Tavern http://www.normanrosenapa.com/. and had dinner that night at http://www.oenotri.com/.