Mommy Musings: Wine Country Get Away

We had a great excuse to sneak away to Napa Valley for two days this fall. A friend got married in Livermore, CA. Here are some highlights of the trip:

Met Thomas Keller (funny story to go with it too!)

Side profile of the French Laundry (one day we hope to eat there!)

The garden where Thomas Keller grows the herbs, fruits and vegetables used at his Yountville restaurants.

Thomas Keller's bakery that bakes all the bread/pastries for the French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc (or so we've been told). FYI...the pastries are awesome!!

A bouchon - supposed to look like a large cork. Tasted wonderful and had chocolate chunks inside of it. Recipe is in the Bouchon cookbook.

Ate amazing food and drank great wine - we both tried foie gras and I actually ate a few oysters as photographed below...

Bistro Jeanty has a happy hour oyster bar - $1 oysters from 3 pm to 6 pm weekdays. This is a great restaurant and the locals told us that the oysters were pretty good too.

I'm taking a sip of bubbly to get the courage to try an oyster.

The oyster is in my mouth...

The oyster is being swallowed...

and I survived the whole experience. It wasn't so bad after adding a little hot sauce. I also had our foodie friends walking me through it so I didn't have any mishaps.

Enjoyed the views and smelling the wine grapes in the air as we arrived in Napa Valley

View at Auberge du Soleil where we stopped for lunch

Spent a fun day with friends Jon and Amy visiting wineries and eating dinner at Bouchon.

Tasting at Robert Biale - primarily Zinfandel with a Syrah and Petit Syrah

The winemaker at Biale. He's from Wales and comes to Napa for three months to make wine - rough life!

Tasting Zinfandel from the barrel at Casa Nuestra. It was very good!

Your eyes do not deceive you...it is a wiffle ball bat holding the container open.

Tasting at Failla winery. A very relaxing and rustic atmosphere. Unfortunately, Dave did not care for the wines. It's all about personal preference!

Tasting at Pina winery - very small production place.

After oysters, we headed to Bouchon for our dinner reservation. It was fantastic!

Dave holding the crostini for the foie gras we shared. We had a great syrah with dinner called Relic.

My bibb lettuce salad. We've made this at home, but it doesn't look as pretty.

Dave's scallop and lobster dish with a potato ? (Florentine??). The item that looks like a flower is several thin potato slices crisped to add some crunch to the dish. Very cool!