Pretty, Yummy, Fun Squared

my family was dismayed that i neglected to mention in my blog yesterday that yesterday we also went to a petrified forest up in the mountains of napa. i was less than plussed by those giant tree/stones but apparently they're a wonder of the world, blah, blah, blah. :) so there you go. are you happy? now you know that we wandered among the old, undead trees.

today was a long day and i'm tired. morning we ran over to mumm's winery to try their sparkling wines. we did a tasting menu of their dries and my parents did a tasting menu of their 'best of' and all were quite lovely. i also tried a sparkling pinot noir, which was fun. my husband's never been much of a wine drinker, but this trip he's sort of been enjoying it- and he definitely decided he likes sparkling wines the best. mumm's is also known for its beautiful view over a valley.

we did lunch on the terrace at a beautiful restaurant called auberge du soleil. also known for its view. it was pretty fancy- see pics of some of our dishes below. and we tried a sparkling wine called blanc de blancs by schramberg that we actually liked more than any of the mumm's wines. this vineyard's sparkling wine was on recommendation from my brother-in-law- we weren't able to schedule a tasting at their winery, so were glad to have a chance to try one of their products elsewhere.

we stopped at a laundromat to refresh our clothing supply, then went to the franciscan winery for a tasting tour where we did a blind taste test of some of their larger international company's wines. it was fun- we're all pretty amateurish, but it was interesting trying to guess at grape types and all that.

then we headed back to san francisco ("the city") and we'll be here for the rest of the trip. we went to china town for dinner and it was awesome. my husband said "china is the coolest country in the world" as he bought a t-shirt for $2.99...a block later the same shirt was $1.88. :)

now to bed as i'm exhausted and we have alcatraz in the morning....