California, Part 7 - Sausalito

The last three nights of our trip were spent in beautiful Sausalito.  This town sits on the bay across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Fransisco.  We stayed at Casa Madrona, and this was the view from our room.  We had beautiful weather again (honestly, it was perfect the entire trip), and we enjoyed quite a bit of relaxing in our room, looking at this view or watching college football which started this weekend.

 Sausalito has lots of neat places to visit too, but this is probably our favorite place.  It's simply called "Hamburgers."  They use this huge rotating grill to cook them, and it's just kind of neat to watch.

 This is how they turn out.  YUM!

While we certainly loved our burgers here, our favorite meal was definitely North Beach Italian Restaurant.  The four of us drove over and met up with some family that has recently moved to San Fransisco.  It was great to catch up with Lynn and Ron, learn about their cross-country drive with Hula Girl and share a wonderful meal together.  Ryan and I both ordered the spaghetti carbonara, and it was the best we've ever had (even better than what we enjoyed in Italy and Scotland...I know that Scotland sounds weird, but seriously, this one restaurant at the end of the Royal Mile has amazing carbonara).  We will certainly visit this restaurant again next time we're out west!

 Walking along the sidewalks of Sausalito leads to a great view of San Fransisco.

 We also saw this full moon over the bay our last night.  Gorgeous.

 One morning, Ryan and I drove about 15 minutes to Muir Woods, a local redwood forest.  It was really cool to visit!  We did about a 1.5 mile hike and thoroughly enjoyed our time.  What a great morning.  Here's a picture of us inside one of the trees.  Amazingly enough, we're told these redwoods aren't even as big as some of the ones further north!

 Crane your neck to see the tops!

 A little creek was flowing through too.  One sign noted though that the creek is currently at its low point, but in the spring, it rises a lot and is filled with fish.

 Of course, you can't make it to the San Fransisco area and not go visit the Golden Gate Bridge.  We loved the panoramic view from the marina near the bridge.

 There is a great mountain to drive up to see the bridge.  This is from the first stopping point, and we had some great views.  As we drove further up, fog actually rolled in and you couldn't see the whole bridge anymore.

 Smile, you're in California!

Finally, on Sunday late morning, we started the journey home.  What a fantastic time!  This was definitely a trip from our travel bucket list, and it was even better than we imagined.  We had such a great time making wonderful memories together and with Mom and Dad.  California is such a beautiful state with so many fun things to do, delicious food to eat and lovely places to stay.  I can't wait to go back!

California, Part 6 - Other Napa Fun

In addition to all the wineries, the Napa area has lots of fun things to do.  We enjoyed shopping in St. Helena.  I believe we spent close to an hour at Olivio which specializes in olive oils and vinegars and allows lots of free samples...so wonderful.  Of course, we stopped at the chocolate shop and made a little purchase.  I also love visiting the Oakvill Grocergy.  It's a small store, but I love their selections.  I have a feeling if I lived in Napa, I would visit these places a lot!

 

Ryan and I also paid a visit to the Culinary Institute of America ("CIA").  It is a huge, old, stone building.  This picture only shows a very small portion of it, but you can still see it's beautiful.

 I hope on a future visit to take a class and/or eat in their restaurant.  How great would that be?  They have a fantastic gift shop that I could spend hours in.  Part of that gift shop is where they sell their chocolates.  We couldn't resist buying an assortment, and they were awesome!

 One afternoon, we visited Auberge du Soleil.  This resort must have some of the best views in valley; see the picture below.  They are ridiculously expensive though, so we opted to have afternoon drinks and dessert which were definitely worth it!

 One day we had a lunch picnic at the St. Clement winery.  I loved this picture Ryan took at our table.

 Mom and Dad were enjoying this picnic!

 This was the view from our picnic table...not bad, huh?

 There are many excellent restaurants to choose from, and we found several of them!  We all loved Cindy's Backstreet.  I had to put this picture in because it made us laugh pretty good.  Mom had mentioned before we arrived how much she loved their grape soup (sounds weird I know, but it's pretty tasty!).  She was thrilled when she heard it was one of the specials of the evening.  Mom, Dad and I each ordered a bowl.  So, this picture shows Mom with her bowl, my bowl is across from her (you can't see me in the picture), and Dad's bowl is in the middle because he decided to let Mom have a little extra; it made us laugh though because it looks like Mom ordered three bowls.  Maybe you had to be there, but it makes me smile to see this!

 As we left Napa and headed to Sausalito, we stopped for lunch at Domaine Chandon.

 They had beautiful grounds to enjoy while walking up and while eating.

 Of course, they are known for their sparkling wines, so we all enjoyed a glass.  Ryan had a classic sparkling wine while I enjoyed a rose glass.

 Normally, I am not one to take pictures of my food at a restaurant.  However, the food they served was some of the most beautifully presented I ever seen.  Add in that this was all amazing deliciously, and this was an awesome lunch!  I didn't get a picture of Dad's halibut, but here's the rest of the meal.

 

Mom's chicken with corn succotash.

 Ryan's pork tenderloin with couscous, figs and peppers.

 My beef tenderloin with frisee salad and little sides.  LOVED THIS.

 After enjoying lunch so much, we had to have dessert.  Seriously, had to because we knew it would be amazing.  For the record, we were right.

 

This is Ryan's chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream, caramelized bananas and graham cracker.

 This is my cream brulee with ladyfingers.  Mom and Dad also shared one of these.

This was the sign as you leave.  I wanted to say this to them a million times over for that fantastic meal!

California, Part 5 - Napa Valley Wineries

You can't go to Napa Valley and not visit a few wineries, right?  We started with our favorite, V. Sattui.

 We arrived early so we could visit their shop and purchase some lunch items to enjoy in their picnic area.  Ryan and I had baguette, meat and cheese while Mom and Dad had various salads.  I'm not kidding, they probably had a hundred or so cheeses to choose from; it wasn't an easy pick!

 After lunch, because Dad is a club member, we were able to visit their cellars and enjoy a private tasting.  I love walking past all the huge oak barrels!

 

This fountain provided a nice soothing background sound to the beautiful day.

 Ryan and I were definitely enjoying our visit.

 I had to put these roses in; aren't they gorgeous?

 I loved this one too!

 Dad, Ryan and I visited Silver Oak winery as well.  Since they are known for their red wines, I didn't partake in the tasting (I prefer sweet whites), but Dad and Ryan said it was fantastic.  We all enjoyed talking with the wine expert who shared many interesting tidbits with us.

 At one point, Ryan and I visited Alpha Omega for a tasting as well.  We loved it so much, we ordered several bottles that will ship to us soon.  This is a smaller producer, so they don't distribute in Georgia yet; that's unfortunate, but maybe someday!

 After our tasting, Ryan and I sat on the back patio for awhile and simply enjoyed the beautiful day and these fountains.  It was wonderful. 

Ryan and Dad also visited Frank Family Winery and the Napa Wine Company which I think they both enjoyed.  It was fun also to simply drive around (making sure to not have too much to drink of course!) and see all the wineries.  Napa is such a beautiful place!

California, Part 4, Wine Country Inn

After our time in Mendocino, we headed inland and south towards Napa Valley.  On the way we stopped at Guy Fieri's restaurant called Johnny Garlic's.  Wow, it was wonderful!  We all shared some appetizers...garlic soup, fries with garlic, caprese salad.  Then the entrees came.  Ryan had a spicy chicken pizza which he enjoyed, and I absolutely loved my pizza called French Pig.  It had pancetta, brie, green apples, leeks and a balsamic glaze on it...oh my my.  Finally we made it!

 We stayed for three nights at the lovely Wine Country Inn.  Such a quaint little inn.  They have 25 rooms and 5 villas.  They serve a homemade breakfast each morning (the granola recipe is in our family cookbook, and it is so good!), and they have a wine and appetizer time with a different winery featured each evening.

 This was the view from our balcony.  We look right over Duckhorn Winery.

 Even though I loved the humongous jacuzzi tub in our bathroom that looked out over the vineyard, this fireplace is my favorite part of the room.  There are no tvs here, so in the evening, it was great to light a fire, read a book and relax.

 We may have enjoyed some wine and cheese on the balcony a few times!

 We explored the Duckhorn vineyard a little bit one day since it was so close by.  I love seeing all the rows of grapes!

 Since we arrived just before the harvest, all the rows of grapes were full, like this.

 Walking around the Inn's grounds was nice too as there were beautiful flowers everywhere.  Here are a few pictures of my favorites.

This is such a lovely place to stay!

California, Part 3 - Mendocino Headlands

One of the things we love about Mendocino is visiting the headlands.  One day we stopped at a little deli and picked up some items to enjoy on a picnic.  Here are a few of the pictures from that gorgeous day.

What a great way to spend the day!