Happy Sunday!

I can’t believe how quickly this weekend has come and gone. Since Gina and I booked tickets back in February, I’ve been eagerly anticipating this special weekend – one full of wine tasting, Gavin Degraw, and my best friend.

Gina’s flight landed around 11:30PM on Friday and, though we were both exhausted, we were thrilled to be reunited after so long. We both had had pretty long work weeks, so we chatted a bit, but eventually dozed off to sleep pretty soon after our heads hit the pillow!

The next morning, we woke up around 7:30, went to Starbucks (duh), and went to the Los Gatos Creek Trail for a quick morning stroll. Even though I talk to Gina 2-3 times a week, it still felt like we had so much catching up to do. We ended up walking between 3-4 miles and then rushed home to get ready and on the road by 11AM.

After a short 1.5 hour drive, we parked outside of our hotel and found out that our hotel was located just around the corner from the theater! Unplanned but definitely an added perk!

We roamed around for a bit, but were both ready for lunch. We pulled out our phones and found a restaurant nearby called Small World Cafe. I probably would have eaten anything at that point, but I’m glad we found this place. I ordered a chicken salad with all the veggies and Gina ordered a chicken pita. And TONS of hummus to share! 🙂

Since we had some time to kill until we could check in, we decided to check out a few places on our list. We ordered a wine tasting card for $30 each which gave us access to 12 different wineries/tasting rooms.

 

Each place did something a bit different, but we were able to taste at least two wines from each place. Which, it turns out, was plenty more than we needed. We didn’t make it to all of the tasting rooms because we’re adults and don’t need to binge drink alcohol anymore we didn’t have enough time, but I guess I could go back there again before December and finish up our punch card if I really wanted to.

Our tasting experience:

NAKED WINES:

Naked Wines is a customer-funded winery and they attempt to make expensive wines accessible to us normal folks. They fund independent winemakers to set up their business in order to make the costs more affordable for people.

Pros:

• Affordable
• The tasting room experience was the best. We walked in, grabbed a glass, and were told that we could pour our own tastings. The red wine was available all over their studio and, if we wanted to taste some champagne or white wine, we could ask them to grab it from the fridge.
• It was a special event that day and one of the winemakers was at the studio. Very cool experience for the people attending the “party.”

Cons:

• I tried all of the reds that were available and I wasn’t really a fan of any of them. (The champagne that I had tried was good, but I also didn’t want to taste too much since it was our first stop.)
• The ambience. It’s definitely a hip, modern-looking place, but if I’m going to drive to Napa, I don’t want to feel like I’m in New York at an art gallery.

CAPP Heritage: 

Pros:

• We got to try 6 wines (instead of the usual 3 that they do with our tasting card) because it was just us tasting.
• Very spacious and seating was available
• Bar area felt like an old style saloon
• Very nice bathroom (which seems silly, but totally important when you’re out wine tasting!)
• The Gewurztraminer at this place was drier than most, but I actually enjoyed that because, typically, they can be pretty sweet.

Cons:

• No cons! We liked this place a lot!

 

NAPA VALLEY GENERAL STORE: 

Pros:

• It was fun to browse through all the knick-knacks in the store before we settled down to taste.
• They have a cafe in the back and the food looked FAB.
• We only had two tastings here, but the wine was fantastic. The Lobo Pinot Noir was our favorite but, unfortunately, a bit on the expensive side.
• Gave us glasses of water while we were tasting. So valuable.

Cons:

• Other than the fact that our tasting was in a general store, we had no qualms about the wine itself!

VINTAGE SWEET SHOPPE: 

Gina and I were planning on going here after the General Store to pick up some chocolate, but realized that this place was one of the 12 places on our card.

Pros:

• We got two pieces of chocolate with our wine.

Cons:

• We were shoved off to the side of a chocolate and ice cream shop.
• We only got one tasting.

BOUNTY HUNTER BBQ: 

Pros:

• The Riesling was good. Not too sweet, but still sweet enough.
• We walked in through the back entrance and got a whiff of the barbecue. It smelled amazing and I’m not usually a fan of BBQ sauce.

Cons:

• It was a crowded bar feel.
• We only got one tasting.

TASTE AT OXBOW: 

Pros:

• Plenty of room to walk around and lounge – even though it wasn’t too crowded while we were there.
• Staff seemed really knowledgable about what they were pouring
• Great wine, heavy pours

Cons:

• Wanted to try the Zinfandel, but it wasn’t a choice on our tasting menu
• The staff was knowledgable, yes, but seemed very aloof and rude at times

UNCORKED: 

Pros:

• Very cute ambience – indoor and outdoor seating
• Helpful and informative staff – very knowledgeable about the wine they were pouring
• Pinot Grigio + white chocolate infused with lemon = phenomenal. I was really close to buying a bottle, along with the chocolate, but the place suddenly got pretty crowded and we got impatient and left.

Cons:

• The only con was not being able to buy the bottle + chocolate.

MASON CELLARS: 

Pros:

• Cute little tasting room, very comforting ambience
• Affordable
• Really unique flavors (pomelo?)

Cons:

• The lady pouring was wrapped up in her conversation with two couples who were there before us. We left before we finished our flight so that we could make it to dinner on time. We were also a little frustrated that she didn’t really acknowledge us much.

We went to dinner at a cute Italian restaurant – Ristorante Allegria. I ordered the butternut squash soup and stuffed chicken. Both things were fantastic, but the soup stole the show. I really LOVE butternut squash, but I feel intimidated by it at the grocery store, so I never buy it, but always love ordering it when I’m out.

 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel room for some much needed down time before the concert. I ended up sleeping for about an hour, which was perfect because I didn’t think I could make it through the concert without a power nap.

 

I booked our hotel through Expedia because there was a dental convention going on in downtown Napa over the weekend and everything was completely booked. Our hotel room was GHETTO and we had one double bed. But it ended up being fine since we were only in there to sleep!

We quickly got ready and walked over to the theatre – which was LESS THAN 3 MINUTES AWAY! 🙂

Gavin Degraw had two opening acts: Rozzi Crane and Parachute. I have loved Parachute since I first heard their song, “She is Love.” I was ECSTATIC to hear them perform and I told Gina that I may have been more excited to see them than Gavin himself. She wasn’t too happy about that.

I was absolutely blown away by both opening acts.

Rozzi Crane is a 22-year old artist who is currently studying song-writing at USC (Boo Trojans!). Adam Levine stumbled upon one of her YouTube videos and was so impressed with her voice. He contacted her and said he wanted to make a label and sign her. She’s featured on one of the songs in Hunger Games. She only had two people performing on stage with her, so you were really able to hear the power in her voice. She got on stage and just captured the attention of everyone. Her range is ridiculous and she was so entertaining to watch. You could just tell that she absolutely loved performing. My favorite part of her performance was at the very end when she took a picture of the audience and said she was going to tweet it and asked everyone for suggestions on which emojis she should use. (She ended up using a heart, thumbs up, and lightning bolt – because she couldn’t find the firework).

Parachute is a pretty well-known band from Virginia. Some of my favorite songs of theirs are: She is Love, The Mess I Made, and What I Know. They were also SO full of energy and had everyone up on their feet dancing. At one point, Will Anderson (the main dude) ran out into the audience and danced up and down the aisles.

But, even though I may have initially been more excited to see Parachute, I will admit that Gavin stole the show. And my heart. Over and over. He is probably one of the most underrated artists. His voice is phenomenal and it’s even BETTER live. He pumps you up and makes you want to sing along, but then he’ll hit a note and make you want to stop singing so that you can watch in awe as he puts a soulful spin on his music – so much power, so much poise. And then, to top it all off, he was so interactive with the crowd – during the show and after the show. When the concert finished, he stuck around to talk to every single person that stayed after. Gina and I walked up to him (and by walked up, I mean shoved everyone else around us) with a picture of us from 2006 when we first met him. We told him that we had met him in 2006 and that we were so excited to see him again. He asked to see the picture and said, “Hooooooooo-ly shit. We were little babies.”

This has got to be the best concert I’ve been to, hands down. He’s performing up in Berkeley on June 20th. Anyone interested? 🙂

After the concert, Gina and I went back to the hotel and tried to relive the experience by sharing our favorite parts like the little teeny-boppers that we are. But we fell asleep within minutes after we changed and got ready for bed (wine will do that to you).

We woke up and got ready to head back immediately. We didn’t want to stick around since the weather was kind of dreary. We stopped for some coffee and breakfast and then hit the road.

I wanted to show Gina the farmer’s market and a few of the shops downtown.

I took her to The Olive Bar because she was looking for some garlic olive oil. I also bought some olive oil, coconut oil, and olives! I’m excited to start using the garlic olive oil when I cook.

After the farmies, we picked up some sandwiches for lunch.

 

We took our sandwiches up to Picchetti Winery because I really wanted to show Gina MY winery. Of all the wine tastings this weekend, Picchetti was her favorite. Obviously. Good wine, good ambience, good people.

I had to say goodbye to her, but it wasn’t THAT sad since I’ll be seeing her in a month for Conor’s wedding! Now, I’m going to go get my flexy friend ready for the week so that this week will hopefully be a little more successful than last! 🙂

GOOD NIGHT! 🙂