California Wine Country, Part 1: Arriving in Napa

Now that he’s had a chance to experience it, the husband will tell you that you should never book a flight that departs so early that you have to set the alarm for 3 a.m.  I will tell you that, while it’s not ideal, it does maximize your time at the destination.  Unfortunately, the husband was kinda right in this particular instance.  Arriving exhausted, dehydrated, and hungry—Sun Country® will not give you a single peanut, not before COVID and not now, and the beverage distribution brought to mind drought-fueled water rationing—all that extra time was accompanied by a pounding headache.

You can try to sleep at the gate.

After surviving the aggressive, Formula One-style driving San Franciscans seem to favor, in which half a car length is in invitation for surprise, unindicated merges, and weaving in and out of traffic is all in a day’s commute, we pulled into Napa, the heart of California Wine Country.  We were only there for 24 hours, and once I (prescription) drugged, slept, and hydrated my headache into submission, it was very enjoyable.

Our B&B—Candlelight Inn—was lovely.

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They provide (crucially, unlimited) complimentary wine, charcuterie, and desserts, and the 3-course breakfast overlooking the pool was top notch.

I was particularly wowed by the toilet paper flourish.

I’m totally going to master this technique and use it to impress houseguests. I shall call it: Fanfare for the Common Bog.

We like to support businesses that support bunny-themed art.

Napa, too—small and manageable—was very nice.

The Napa River – a little disappointing that it just contains water.

We spent some of our time taking advantage of the amenities.

Not pictured: Drinking wine in our 2-person hot tub. . .

. . . at 8 a.m. Hey man, when in Napa . . .

But other than that, all we really had time to do during our two half days there was wander around the downtown area full of shops and restaurants, which is easy to cover on foot, given its size.  The husband also found time to drag me to a TV-strewn pub to catch the Euro Cup championship while we ate a much-needed lunch.

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  He found a bike shop? Of course he did.

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  Kind of like Pike’s Place in Seattle, but smaller.

And before we knew it, it was time to move on.  A little cat named Max, lounging languidly one valley to the west, was getting ready to meet his latest staff members petsitters, and we didn’t want to keep him waiting . . .

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• Summer Travel is Imminent: California Wine Country, Here We Come!
• California Wine Country, Part 1: Arriving in Napa
• California Wine Country, Part 2: Santa Rosa Petsit
• Sonoma County Wine Tasting
• California Wine Country, Part 3: Bodega Bay