Napa Valley

My first experience in Napa Valley…

The sun was shining; the weather was sweet…

I spent a beautiful day with the family in Napa Valley.

The area is pretty – unfortunately a lot of tourists (like ourselves) make the traffic quite busy.

Also the cops are very careful about patrolling – so don’t drink & drive.

We visited a couple of wineries. Nothing spectacular. I did enjoy a Chardonnay from Jessup Cellars.

Later when we were in cheerful spirits, went to visit a vineyard and winery called Castella di Amorosa North of Napa. The winery is housed in a Tuscan Castle built in the 1990s-2000s with stone and brick taken from old buildings in Italy that had been demolished.

So the castle looks very authentic and has an eerie feeling – like you get when you walk into a relic of a building where you know it’s existed for hundreds of years.

I liked this castle because it was very serene. The vines were outside. There was a draw bridge and an unfilled moat where chickens were pecking around.

It’s nice enough to lounge around the grass and have a picnic.

We also did an underground tour of the fermentation rooms – those oak barrels are gigantic. We also saw some of the containers where the liquid is heated and fermented and later stored.

Very impressive.

Nevertheless, they kept some of the old equipment for show. This is how they used to make wine:

There was even a room with torture equipment – they really wanted this to be authentic. I’m not sure if any of the equipment was used. But it was really frightening.

Next, the best part –  a taste test 🙂

The tour guide gave us a test of the wine before it was aged – tasted really AWFUL. Very bitter and dried my whole mouth – the tannins were out of control. But the wines properly aged and ready to drink were delightful!  Especially their vintage collection. I liked their Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a lot of character. And I don’t know much about wine. So the fact that I could distinguish the taste and the flavours from other offerings probably meant it was good wine!

Overall, it was a tad too touristy (the castle sold merchandise like chocolate, pens and even the book, The Little Prince…). But it was a nice walk through and I would enjoy going back.

 

Welcome to the Bay Area!

I made the leap.

That’s right. I moved up to Northern California. San Jose to be specific.

For all the haters, the means I’m going to be using hella a lot more.

All seriousness aside, I moved up here last Friday because I want to find a job doing marketing/communications with a tech company. So where better than live in Silicon Valley?

When I told my friend Y I moved to Palo Alto, he seemed stunned 1. that I’m not in NZ anymore and 2. I suddenly materialised to live in the same county as him. Good laughs.

Anyway, the advantages of living here are huge.

— It’s better weather (I was deathly ill the first week back to USA from burning heat in Orange County – I much prefer shade and green leaves here).

— It’s friendlier

— My auto insurance is cheaper by $100 (yeah never occurred to me how crazy LA drivers are, esp. when you’re one of them, but they are some of the most dangerous in USA, I imagine)

— Everything is a 5 minute drive away. No seriously.

— And I live so close to San Francisco and Berkeley.

So here’s a little welcome note from the Dyke March last week during Gay Pride Weekend.

I went to the Dyke March Saturday with friends and we hung out in Dolores Park where we sipped gently on wine while catching up and briefly skimming topics related to the LGBT community.

It was a nice day with so many CRAZY looking people. I love that about San Francisco. Anything goes. And you never look too silly. Even the naked people are OK. Except maybe if I turned up wearing a suit. And even then, people probably wouldn’t look more than twice…

Nice man making bubbles for the crowds. Isn’t that sweet?

Totally NOT surprised to see the New Zealand flag there. Proud moment of being a Kiwi!

San Francisco is filled with free LOVE ❤

Capped off Dyke March with a motorcycle pride. After the parade I realised it made so much sense…Dykes on Bikes. Has a nice ring to it!

Polished off a lovely day with my good friends H, B (& O & A), with dinner at Gracias Madre. Organic Mexican cuisine.

So SF. And so delicious.

…Off to the Mission!

Exactly what hit the spot. And we ordered some crazy concoctions I’ve never tried before!

These are quesadillas made with hand-made tortillas fresh from their kitchen (their texture is really different, thick and soft but not too dense…) with sweet potato filling and cashew cheese on top!

YUMMMM

Next my favourite. Spicy as though so watch out if you can’t handle your chilli!

They’re Gorditas: potato-masa cakes with salsa verde, avocado, cashew cheese and some salad. But don’t be fooled. The vegetables don’t temper the spiciness.

And the Empanadas!

Another crazy fabulous hit.

I loved this. It was so good. Tortilla wrapped plantains with mole sauce. OMG OMG OMG. I have that weak spot for beautifully grilled and caramelised plantains. So you can imagine the food coma I was in after this.

All very reasonably priced (appetizers around $8-10, mains $12-15). The three of us girls ordered 3 appetizers and extra tortillas and cashew cheese to share tapas style. Turned out to be just enough (if not a tad too much) food so I recommend this if you’re starving because their portions are HUGE.

Thank you so much B for introducing me to this resto.

So this long weekend is July 4th. I promise to get up to something interesting.

Sit tight and don’t get too excited as you wait for my next post. Ha.

By the way if anyone has recommendations for things I should do in the Bay Area.

PLEASE send them my way. Would love to explore this place 😀