Girl 1: Sup Bitch?
Girl 2: …..
Girl 1: What you are a bitch!
Me: I’m so blogging this.
This was when I knew we were going to have a good day but I’ll need to back up a bit to get the whole story in. Earlier last week my friend CY and I decided that we should go to Napa. A new up and coming friend BT has expressed that she has a vast knowledge of this area so I pinged her for some advice on where to go.
BT suggested a few places I jotted them down. While I was really looking for quaint wineries that I didn’t express very well in my message to her she came through like gang busters with St. Supery. This place is not only cute but has really fantastic wines.
I got up at 6am to get to the train on time. packed up everything or so I thought. Camera, GPS, iPod, waters in an ice chest…basically everything I could think of to entertain myself for a long train ride to Milbrare then a transfer to BART as I made my way up to Oakland where CY would meet me. As soon as I get to the train stations I remembered that the piece of paper that I had typed up the night before with all the addresses and phone numbers of the winery’s and dining places that BT had mentioned. Back home then back to the station with 1 minute to spare. I hope on the train and crash.
We finally make it to Milbrae and CY calls. She’s upset that we’re getting such a late start but there’s nothing I can do.I got the first train out and made my connection so aside from asking the BART conductor to skip stops the earliest I could get there was 10:30. No biggie really but I could hear that she was starting to get annoyed. Luckily it passed because we both needed a good day after such a long week. I get off the BART and say good bye to the folks dressed up who were going to the Bay to Breakers. Some were dressed up in tights and panties but they seemed to be nice guys. When CY heard of this she asked me why I didn’t take a picture of them…good question.
On our way to the valley we wanted to stop off and grab a bit of coffee and a blueberry bite. So the local Starbucks served us well. We found a couple places that we wanted to go and sat and talked about this and that for a good long time. Already the day was a win and I hadn’t had a drop to drink. I think that’s wonderful. The point wasn’t to go get blitzed but just have fun and we were doing it. We were having a great conversation and just enjoying each others company. Even when the conversation had a lull it felt comfortable. This where the two girls come into play. I say they were white gals while CY seems to think that they were of another race. No matter though we found it amusing that the greeting was so off beat. This morning I messaged CY "Sup Bitch?"
We started down the road to the Napa Valley area and saw St. Supery which I mentioned earlier. Thanks again BT. After touring the grounds a bit, which are far more quaint and attractive then the grounds of any other winery that we visited that day, we went in and decided to do a tasting. I am really not a drinker by any means but when it comes to wine I know one thing for sure. I know that I do not like white wine. So all day I stuck with reds. This was good for me but CY broke out and did a little of both. At St. Supery she favored the red there as did I. I was partial to the Petit Verdot while she liked something a bit more mellow. I think CY liked the Dollarhide Cab. Though I could be mistaken of which one she liked the best. Regardless we had a great time there. We both decided that we’d pick up a bottle of our favorites here so we did and we left but not before snapping a few more pictures.
We then headed to BV. BV stands for Beaulieu Vineyards. The wines here were so so but CY found one that she enjoyed and I found a great cookbook that has some really neat recipies that I’ll be trying soon. The young lady pouring the tastes, Jill, that we enjoyed was either new or tired.She didn’t seem to engage us much and we didn’t really seem to connect with her so our experience there was hampered by her lack of ability to converse. I’d much rather have had Peter pour for us as he seemed knowledgeable and engaging let alone friendly. All in all though the wines there were hum-drum. The gift shop was fun though as CY (a.k.a. Orchid) started to get her glow and the wine started to hit her. It was rather amusing. Not only were we relaxed but we were in that fun state. Not mean and nasty just fun. Not obnoxious just giggles and smiles. Orchid bout some goodies consisting of some candle holders, a few place mats and a bottle of wine. I picked up a cookbook of Mustards famous delights.
From there we headed out to a few others most notable was Markham . This place was neat too but the entrance had a handle bar mustache. The guy pouring the wine here was nice enough even though he told CY that her palette was shot. I really liked the Syrah here. At BV they said their Syrah was spicy and well it just wasn’t. So when this guy said the same thing I thought to myself…geez do they all have the same lingo and use it on people who look like new folks? Well this one DID have a spice to it and it was nice. So good in fact that I bought a bottle here too. Though again the grounds were not as nice as St. Supery the last spicy syrah was quite good.
We tried to go to one more winery but failed as they closed before we got there. Fine by me because any more and I would have been falling asleep on the trains home.
Off to Mustards! 
We chose this place as CY and BT had both been there and both gave decent recommendations of it. We made a promise not to get the Mandarin chops as we’re going to make those at home now that I have the cook book and we can do that another time.
*Note to NC — I suggest you and Phil go here for a get away. Lots of scenery and very romantic. Though that wasn’t want CY and I were after since we don’t have that relationship .. you and Phil do so take advantage of it.
The loot:
The loot I came home with ended up being two fantastic sauces from a crappy winery whose name I luckily forget but CY will know, a couple things not pictured or mentioned as they are presents for my sister, a sharpening steel for my knives, and two wonderful bottles of wine. I hope I get a chance to share them with a couple of good friends over a dinner I create from the new book that is also pictured. Anyone interested?
All in all it was a wonderful time and the conversation flowed better then the vino. We talked about everything from cameras to our wedding dreams (though neither of us have a hint of that in our futures…yet), to what would you do if you had the opportunity to be the opposite gender? What would you change about me? about you? Did you see Iron man yet? Basically we talked deep and shallow and had a lot of fun enjoying the varying depths.
Thanks to BT: The suggestions you gave me helped me learn about a world I didn’t know anything about. While I’m still new at this it was a wonderful experience.
Thanks to CY (Orchid): I had a wonderful time and thanks for putting up with me and my goofyness. I know I’m a bird with different colored feathers and I appreciate you spending time with me. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Enjoy the pizza cutter!
