Weekend getaway!!

My husband and I decided to spend the thanksgiving weekend at Napa as we had no intentions of travelling long distance to entertain ourselves. Visiting Napa was a very unique experience. Please note that Napa is the wine country and every restaurant/Inn that you go to offer wide varieties of wines for you to pick from.

We decided to stay at the Hennessy House Bed and Breakfast Inn at Napa. Initially we were a little skeptical about staying in a privately owned B&B as opposed to just staying in a reputed hotel. Nevertheless we decided to try the B&B as it would be a new experience. Napa has lots and lots of B&Bs to choose from, the choices are just overwhelming. After going through almost every single B&B, my husband and I picked the Duck Nook room at the Hennessy House. This B&B was a stone building that had beautiful antiques and each room had a theme which made it interesting.

We reached the Inn around 6 pm and there really wasn't much to do as it had already gotten dark. There was Sherry for us in the room and it did taste really good too. No sooner than we entered the room and closed the door, there was a pet cat that showed up at the entrance. I'm really scared of cats and wasn't sure about opening the door in order to get to the car and bring our stuff back. It was quite amazing to see how my husband could interpret the cat signals and how he made friends with it so quickly. The cat pretty much obeyed whatever he told it to do and it always came running to him once it saw my husband (I just hope I could love the animals the way my husband does!!!). Since it was the thanksgiving day lot of restaurants were either closed or were already full and couldn't take any more reservations. Hennessy House's website had a list of recommended restaurants and it made it easier for us to decide where we wanted to go for dinner.

We managed to get reservation at Ristorante Allegria which was located on the First Street. That was pretty much the only restaurant that we could get a reservation. We managed to get to the restaurant by 7:30pm. The restaurant was nicely decorated for thanksgiving and had lots of room and the seating wasn't cramped. They were serving Thanksgiving special dinner as well, but since I was a vegetarian we picked Bruschetta Al Pomodoro for Appetizer and Capellini Pomodoro as the main course. Upon ordering they served bread with dipping oil, the bread with dipping oil tasted wonderful. Then we got our appetizer, we have always loved the Bruschetta and it was excellent here at this restaurant as well. Then came my Capellini Pomodoro which was excellent as well. It didn't have too much cheese and it wasn't bland for a change. I had nothing to complain about and I was pleased with my main course. For desserts we had Classic Tiramisu, which was great too. We pretty much had a complete dinner with appetizer, main course and desserst and were really happy with the meal and the service at the restaurant.

We got back to the Inn and watched TV, our room had a 42" LCD TV and that was really nice as some of the Inns don't have TV or internet connection. It was really nice to have TV and internet so that we didn't have to invent other ways of entertaining ourselves when at the room. That was our first night stay at this Inn. The room had a nice fire place which was pretty efficient in keeping our room warm. The bedding was amazing, it was truly one of the most comfortable beds that I have slept in. My husband and I managed to sleep well that night.

The next morning we had to get to the dining room that was at the main house at the Inn. They served us our morning fruits, followed by Frech toast and muffin. The Peach Cinnamon french toast was excellent and the muffins were really good too. They had a lot of berries in them and tasted wonderful. They did have the usual granola and yogurt as well but we decided to have the gourmet breakfast. There was tea, coffee and orange juice for beverages. Overall it was a sumptuous breakfast.

After sometime we decided to go for a nice bath in the Jaccuzi tub. We unwound and soaked ourselves. The bath soak liquid was provided as well and it was great too. It was greatly relaxing. Since it was the black friday we spent the rest of the day shopping at the Westfield mall in Fairfield and then shopping at the Napa premium outlets. I bought a PCTV tuner the review of which would follow sometime soon. Having used to shopping at the West Field Valley Fair in San Jose and the Gilroy premium outlets I don't have much to talk about the malls in Fairfield and Napa.

We got back to the Inn past 6:30pm which means we had missed the evening wine and snack. We weren't interested in it so we decided to skip it and just hang out at the mall. Finally we picked up Pizza at Pizza hut in Napa and went back to the inn. Finally it was saturday morning and time for breakfast again, we were served watermelon soup instead of fresh cut fruits. The watermelon soup tasted divine. As for the main breakfast this time it was baked eggs with dill sauce, I didn't like it as much as I liked the french toast. The muffins were different too, my husband picked the sundried tomato muffin and he didn't like it and I had the Banana bran muffin and it was good.

On both days that I stayed at the Inn, our rooms were cleaned nicely and bed was made nicely as well. Everything was back in its place and as good as it was when we got there. When I went to return the keys I met Lorri who happens to be the owner of this Inn. She was very nice and friendly and gave us a lot of information about which places to see, which wineries we could go to and where we could possibly eat lunch. She was nice enough to get us a wine tour reservation at the Rober Mondavi winery and gave us a free wine tasting coupon for V.Sattui and another coupon for the Sterling winery. She gave us a booklet that had map of all the wineries.

We went to the Robert Mondavi winery and took the tour, the tour guy was great he wasn't too fast or rushing us out. He gave us enough time to ask questions, take photos, etc... We were given a brief history about the winery and then the tour began. From whatever he told it was clear that the most important wines were Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc. Robert Mondavi does make a lot of other wines too...but the grapes aren't always grown at the Robert Mondavi vineyard. We were given the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to taste. The grape in itself had a strong taste and the skin was way too bitter. Proceeding further we were shown how the oak containers are used and we then got to see the wine aging in the oak barrels. He explained the whole process of wine making and all these intermediary stages from harvesting the grape to bottling the wine.

At the end of it we were given 3 different wines to taste. He offered us the unoaked chardonnay first, I was told that they only made 200 cases of this Chardonnay and that it could be aged upto 8 years easily. The unoaked chardonnay basically bypassed the aging process in the oak barrels and gets bottled right away. Everyone like this Chardonnay as it merely tasted like grape juice only fuller. The next wine that was offered was the 22005 Merlot, this had quite a bit of alcohol and I couldn't take it. Then came the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon which everyone was waiting for. We were given a small appetizer that was made using olive bread and mushroom when tasting the Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery tour guy told us that Cabernet was the biggest wine they make and it needs to be paired with big foods to be enjoyed. We were also told that Cabernets can be easily aged for about 15-20 years. Finally as a surprise we were given muskato this was an outright winner, it tasted like a stronger 7up and every single person that was there in the tour with us bought atleast 2-3 bottles of this wine.

There were people from other states of USA and certain other countries too that had come to visit these wineries. All the other wineries seemed crowded so we went to Beringer more to see its architecture than for the wine. We didn't go on the tour or wine tasting there. The Beringer vineyard was just beautiful. We walked down the St. Helena Downtown and picked up some chocolates at the Woodhouse chocolate store. Those chocolates tasted divine. My husband and I totally loved these chocolates, each chocolate melted in our mouth. It got dark pretty quickly so we were on our way back. Every winery was uniquely decorated with christmas lights. It was quite a sight.

It struck me on my way back home, how the weekend was a real getaway. The two days we spent at Napa were really relaxing and we never thought about work or daily routine or anything else for that matter. We pretty much lived by the moment. Anyways it was time for us to get back home and we did.

In all honesty, I would definitely recommend a weekend visit to Napa and I whole heartedly recommend a stay at the Hennesy House as well. I would love to visit Napa sometime during summer or early fall and I would definitely love to stay at the Hennessy house or maybe try a different B&B just for the sake of variety.