From The Good Life - Wine Country

To celebrate our anniversary, Tim and I enjoyed a long weekend in the California wine country.  Taking advantage of a Groupon, we stayed in Lafayette at the Lafayette Park Hotel.  Lafayette is located in the East Bay about 45 minutes south of Napa. 

Three years ago, Tim and I toured the wine country in Sonoma.  Although we loved Sonoma, we wanted to experience another part of wine country.  Everyone knows about Napa Valley, famous for it's celebrity restaurants and well known wineries.  Along with Napa's fame, comes a price.  Tastings range from $15.00 on the inexpensive side to $35.00 on the really expensive side.  Certainly, you get to experience wine you can't purchase in your local wine shop but $35.00 for a tasting is a bit rich for our budget.  I began researching the Livermore Valley where many wine tastings are free and the most we paid was $10.00.  My favorite winery was Big White House where we barrel tasted with the winemaker and purchased a lovely bottle of peach sparkling wine!  We spent two days wine tasting in the Livermore Valley.  If you have an opportunity to go there, do so, it's what Napa was twenty years ago!

Our last day, we did travel to Napa Valley.   We drove up Highway 29 from Napa to Calistoga and back down the Silverado Trail.  We began our morning in Yountville, home of the famous Bouchon Bakery.  The line wasn't too long and we were ready for a pastry.  I had a chocolate filled croissant and Tim tried a cheese danish.  Of course, we couldn't leave without purchasing a couple of their macarons!  The case featured the most amazing  macarons I've ever seen.  Being a chocolate lover, it was a chocolate one for me.  Tim couldn't pass up the beautiful pink strawberry rhubarb ones.

With a little time to kill before our flight, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  As with many days in San Francisco, it was too foggy to see much of the bridge.  Regardless it's an amazing site.