wine, wine and more wine!

on sunday, we went on a girls trip. i had been with the kids for 27 days- i needed it! sue loves wine as much as i do and refers to napa as her "disneyland!" ambra does not like wine. she was our DD. by the end of the day, she didn't like sue and i very much either!

(many of you have already seen and read about our day on FB. sue and ambra are addicted to posting pics almost immediately and checking in at the places they visit... while i am with them, i have a habit of joining their club... but for those of you who missed it all- here goes.)

first up- Charles Krug. it is pretty far north in the valley and a new place for me. i was pleasantly surprised. this is a small winery owned by the little know mondavi brother, peter. it was the first bonded winery in the valley, owned at the time by charles krug. during prohibition, it became one of the "ghost wineries" until peter mondavi purchased the land. this is his only winery. he is now in his 90's and still lives on the property. all wines are under $30 and prices haven't gone up in 10 years!

 this old building will become the new tasting room in 2013! can't wait to go back-

 me and sue

 next up, markham- which came recommended by the sales associate at charles krug. again, a hit!

and another beautiful building. (there were some koi in the fountains. they didn't like me too much when i thought i was a "fish ninja" and tried to grab one!)

besides wine, markham also has art on display. we were lucky to be there during the exhibit of rolling stone cover photos!

some people carry coach or kate spade. sue considered this designer wine bag, but opted against it.

 even ambra found a wine she liked here!

 we loved this picture! three big bottomed women in the fields- could have been the 3 of us!

i packed a cooler full of water and snacks. the peanuts ended up thrown all over the car (who, me?) but these energy balls gave us the stamina we needed to keep going and going and going!

next up- v. sattui! of course, a favorite. sue had been before on a trip out here in 2006. but since you can not buy their wine outside of the winery, she wanted to go again and stock up this time!

 the associate here let sue serve herself a tasting right out of the barrel- she as like a kid at disneyland!

 i love how they seal their reserve bottles in wax-

 these two have been partners in crime since they were in middle school! (sue is also jacob's God mother)

 we were SO hungry. luckily v. sattui has an amazing deli and sandwich shop. we bought cheese, meat, crackers and olives to take to the tasting room with us. Little did we know that you can not have food in the (members only) tasting room! WHAT? so occasionally sue would sneak below the bar and fix us a snack! (this may have been the beginning of ambra's frustration with us...)

 moving on.... to silverado vineyards-

throughout the day, there would be many "vanna white" like poses of me- 

the BEST sales associates of the day! they were so attentive, even with a packed tasting room!

sue loved the view from this place!

okay- one last place. (i thought 3 would be too many for us. we ended up making it to 5! just barely... again, thank you AMBRA!)

the one place that sue really wanted to go- andretti. they closed at 5. we got there at 4:50. thank goodness the associate enjoyed/tolerated our shenanigans! 

it was a very cool, italian feeling kind of place. (even though mario is an american citizen, which we confirmed!)

here is the best chauffeur ever-

3, okay 2.5, happy girls!

this guy had so much patience with us!

three amigos

 my bedroom in arkansas was this same color pumpkin pie orange!

okay, time to leave! could we possibly have too much wine? (90% of it was sue's btw!)

there was no way we could make it home without a hearty meal- so why not a burger? (notice ambra's face of disgust with my antics?!)

 again- here i am, training for vanna's job-

 I'm sure that burger place has seen some characters. but i was even laughing at us while we were there!

okay- here's a story. my sister is intrigued by bar's without windows. (they scare me. but to each their own...) driving here from fresno, you pass "the cloud 9 bar" which is just a few miles from my house. it has no windows... ambra has been wanting to go there for months and i have always been able to divert her.

well, saturday morning while driving to napa she says "sue and i decided that since we have you out for the day, we are going to cloud 9 at the end of the day." ut-oh...

well, on our way home ambra was actually the one who said she'd pass, but sue and i insisted!

 it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. however, we were there at 7pm on a sunday night. i'd hate to think about it at midnight on a friday or saturday!

okay- time for home!

(i promise there really was water in that cup!)

how cool am i that even in our 30's, i am the little sister who still gets to tag along? it was a great day and many, many new hilarious memories were made! (again- thanks for driving ambra!)