Napa Valley Vacation!

One of the perks of living in beautiful Northern California is that you can bribe people to come and visit you by saying things like ‘we can all meet in Napa!’.  My parents and brother decided to take me up on the offer and we had a great Easter Holiday in the wine country. 

My parents flew into San Francisco on a Tuesday and made the drive out to San Ramon for the night. Forest was very excited to have them and was in full-on performer mode. For such a shy guy, he sure does love to be the center of attention, and his Nana and Pops were happy to oblige him. 

The next day we all packed up and headed up to a house we rented in Calistoga. We found the house on VRBO and were sold on the view and the pool. 

The house itself was pretty great as well. The owners have a toddler so it was pretty well child proofed already and had a pack n play on the premises. 

On the first afternoon we just got settled and made a trip into Calistoga for a grocery run and also made time to enjoy a bottle of bubbly on the porch. 

My brother flew in that evening and arrived pretty late that night. The next morning we decided to take our first wine tour at Sterling. Sterling is a pretty commercial and well known winery. You take a gondola up to their estate and do a self-guided wine tour with tastings interspersed on scenic terraces. 

Wine in one hand, sippy cup in the other...

I think it’s a pretty good and non-intimidating introduction to the wine country of Napa Valley, especially when you have a grumpy toddler in tow. 

Not all Napa wineries and tasting rooms are kid friendly, but Sterling was very accommodating. I will say- don’t bring a stroller! We did but the hassle of getting on and off the gondola and up and down stairs just made it stressful. I’d recommend an Ergo/carrier or if you have a well behaved tot, just let them navigate by themselves. 

After the tasting, we drove 15 minutes back to the house for Forest’s nap while my brother and parents headed south for a few more tastings. Forest was crazy tired from waking up at 5:40 AM (he must not have gotten the memo that we were on vacation) and fell asleep 2 seconds within our 15 minute drive home. 

This usually spells disaster as he’s quite hard to transfer from the car to the crib, but he surprised me by waking up briefly as I got him out of the car, pointing to the house and exclaiming ‘BARN!’ (just go with it…), and then promptly falling back asleep in my arms. He didn’t move a muscle when I put him in his pack n play and then took a big honking nap while Jon napped and I read by the pool. 

After naptime, the whole family got into the pool and had some fun before my mom and dad volunteered to babysit so that Jon and I could do some exploring of our own. 

That night Forest slept great and even slept in so we went for a run while my mom took over morning baby duty (so nice to have grandparents around on vacations!). After our run we did some more exploring in nearby St. Helena before heading back for Forest’s nap. My parents and brother did some shopping and wine tasting while Forest took another monster nap, Jonathan swam, and I did some more reading in the sunshine. 

It was actually feeling like a vacation! Forest woke up just in time for us to leave for a 3 PM wine tasting in Downtown Yountville at Hope&Grace. My brother discovered Hope&Grace a few trips back and became a member. He swears by their Pinot Noir and since that’s my wine of choice I had to give it a try. 

Once again, my momma babysat Master Forest while we sipped wine.

Jon and I were both really impressed by all the wines at Hope&Grace and left with 3 bottles. We even left with a bottle of Riesling and Malbec which is usually not our thing but we were totally smitten. Of course we scooped up a bottle of the praised Pinot Noir as well! Yum! 

After our tasting in Yountville we headed to the nearby Mustard Grill for an early dinner. The food was good but the meal took forever which was pretty excruciating with a rambunctious and impatient 17 month old. We made it through alive with the help of Baby Einstein. 

Forest has historically been well behaved in restaurants so this was a new experience for us as parents. Maybe that ship has sailed now that he’s a toddler? I hope not! 

The next day we decided to give my parents a morning off and took the little one with us to tour MUMM (known for their sparkling wine). Unfortunately, Forest was throwing a total bratty tantrum (apparently this seems to be his new thing) right before the hour long tour was supposed to start so we opted for a refund and just did a tasting instead. 

Jon’s not really a fan of sparkling wine but enjoyed one of their reserve bottles enough to purchase one. Forest even had a tasting of non-alcoholic sparkling Chardonnay juice. It was his first taste of juice and he wasn't too impressed. He's more of a milk guy, I guess! 

I enjoyed all the samples, and certainly needed some bubbly to relax about Forest’s grouchy demeanor that morning. We’ve taken him to several wine tastings before and he’s always been an absolute prince. I think this vacation made us realize that we've reached a new era of parenthood. Having a toddler is easier than having a baby in so many respects but going out in public is definitely not one of them! He certainly did not want to sit still and quiet while we sipped champagne. 

We ended up once again falling back on some Baby Einstein to keep him entertained while we finished up. I will give that to Forest- a little B.E. and he will not move a muscle for the duration of the program. We had to pull it out way more than I would have like to on this trip, but alas, vacation is not the time to crack the whip on restaurant etiquette. 

When we got home my mom offered to babysit so that the rest of us could do a proper tour and tasting. We chose Del Dotto off of the recommendation of our house owner. 

We were warned at the beginning of the tour that we would be sampling 8+ wines so not to feel bad if we needed to pour wine out of our glasses into the designated buckets along the tour. I’m glad I knew this ahead of time because I would have passed out if I drank all I was given! Del Dotto (and Napa in general) are known for their Cabernets, which I’m not classically a fan of. Still this tour was great because you got to taste straight out of the wine barrels kept in their caves. 

We tasted Cabs that were aged in different types of barrels(American vs French Oak, Heavy toasted vs medium toasted, etc) side by side so you really got an idea of how that affects a wine. They also are very smart and serve pizza and tapas toward the end of the tour so that you can taste how the wine pairs with food and also so that your belly has some assistance soaking up all that wine! 

We were impressed with both the wine and the tour experience and we purchased another 3 bottles (7 total for the trip). Two of the bottles we purchased were straight from the barrel and will be mailed to us once they are bottled in a few months so that’s something to look forward to. 

After Del Dotto we headed next door for a tatsing at Whitehall Lane, another recommendation from our house owner. By this time I was definitely feeling like I’d better slow down so I only took a few sips and just let the boys do most of the drinking. 

After our wine tasting we met my mom and Forest in Calistoga to eat at JoLe, a farm to table restaurant recommended by a friend. 

The food (and wine) was delicious but Forest’s behavior was once again atrocious. Luckily the server had a toddler as well so he was very understanding of F’s obnoxious antics. Baby Einstein came to our rescue once again and Forest happily watched puppet shows while we finished eating. 

Sunday was our last day and we had planned to take Forest to Train Town in Sonoma for a special Easter treat. However, Train Town is closed when it’s raining and by some fluke it happened to rain on Easter (seriously it never rains here!). So yay for much needed rain but boo for our plans. 

Instead we packed up and headed into Yountville for Sunday brunch. From there we headed home to San Ramon while my brother and parents headed in San Francisco for some sight seeing before catching their afternoon flight home. It was a really great trip. It’s awesome vacationing with grandparents because they help with so much of the child-minding duties so that momma and daddy can actually relax. 

Napa is beautiful and the food and wine is first class all the way. I for sure feel like I know more about wine after visiting Napa and will have much more of an appreciation for wines from this region from now on. I’m so thankful that my family made the trip out to visit us for Easter and we cannot believe how lucky we are that we live within an hour’s drive of such a wonderful destination. Thanks Mom and Dad and Clint!!!

So who’s coming to visit us next??????? If you're lucky,  might even let you babysit...:)