And then there was wine...

Only in Napa Valley is it acceptable to start the day off with wine. I found a Groupon for a guided wine tour so to start off Day 2, we set off in the bus over the Golden Gate Bridge into Napa Valley.  After driving through rolling hills with rows and rows of grape vines, we arrived at our first winery, Gloria Ferrer Vineyards. 

 The vineyard specializes in sparkling wine as it was the first US vineyard for a major cava (sparkling wine) producer in Spain.  They had a beautiful patio overlooking the vineyard which was perfect for some pictures.   

 We both loved the shovels turned bird statues in the gardens (above).  After looking over the menu, we decided to start the day with a sampling flight of three of their more popular wines.  I will admit it was odd drinking wine at 10:30 am, but I guess when in Napa Valley......

 After taking in the beautiful vineyard and wine, we stopped inside the gift shop for a bit, and of course had to take a picture of these huge bottles of wine!!!  We were then off to the next winery.

After 15 minutes we arrived at our second winery, Domaine Carneros. The winery also specialized in sparkling wine as it was the US winery to the French champagne maker, Taittinger. The winery had a gorgeous chateau with beautiful landscaping. 

 Luckily we again got to sit on a gorgeous terrace overlooking the vineyards (and a bit of the highway).  It was not much more to buy a bottle rather than just buying samples so we decided to do that. However the winery was busy and by the time we received our bottle we did not have much time (especially after Kyleen's wine photo shoot) and we had to drink it quickly in order to get back to the bus.

 It was around this time that the bubby wine and small breakfast were getting to us.  We were chatting with some other guests on our bus and we realized that two of the women on the tour were a perfect example of Kyleen and Amy in 15 years. They were two long-time friends that now lived hours apart but met in San Francisco to meet up again with one of their husbands along for the ride.  They were chatting and laughing and having so much fun, while the dear husband entertained himself in between taking their pictures and reminiscing on past visits.  We arrived at the third winery, Sebastiani Wineries, which was the biggest that we visited, just in time for lunch. We both enjoyed a much needed, delicious sandwich on ciabatta bread. We decided to forgo the winery tour to try a sample flight of wine. This was the best deal for samples and we enjoyed the variety.  Also, it was the first winery where you sat at a bar with the bartender who gave lots of additional information about each wine before we tried it.  As much as we both loved the view of the outside patios, having a conversation about each wine was really interesting and helped educate us on the differences.   

 We then headed to the birthplace of California wine, Buena Vista Winery for our last visit of the day. We were not impressed with the small samples or crowded tasting room but the building was interesting.  Also, after sneaking away from the group, we were able to see some of the winemaking process.

 We then headed back to San Francisco and were dropped off at Fishermans Wharf. We headed to In-n-Out Burger (for a much needed snack) as I have heard so much about it. Kyleen has said she had been to In-n-Out growing up but that did not stop her surprise when I ordered off the "secret" menu and ordered my burger "animal" style. We both enjoyed the burgers and ended up liking the animal style better. When we finished eating, we then headed to the pier for our cruise to Alcatraz to be described in the next post.