Saturday was travel day and we ordered pizza for dinner and hung out at Emy and Seth’s. On Sunday we drove about an hour from their house to have a picnic lunch and enjoy the outdoors. It’s beautiful here, crisp temperatures at night and sunshine and temperate during the days. We are enjoying spending time with each other.
On Friday in the Napa Valley, Jeremy went on an early morning bike ride. Up another mountain – again now the details are fuzzy. Very foggy and slightly damp.
We had a late breakfast at a diner in the town of Calistoga and then headed to the town of Napa to do some sightseeing and shopping. One of our goals was to get a good family photo. Edda can be fickle and gives side eye to our attempts.
So we joined in on the grump fest for a few photos.
In the town of Napa, we went walking and went into a few stores. Honestly, the tasting rooms were a bit intimidating and though we were there to buy some wine, we hesitated to walk into them. Edda had a nice time. We played Pokemon Go as a family.
We came back to the hotel in the afternoon and I camped out at the pool and enjoyed people watching. There was the girls weekend, the young family with the dad and the 2nd wife, the honeymooning couple. I don’t spend time at the pool usually and the world has moved without me and everyone wears a bikini from the 12 year old to the 65 year old (except me!). For dinner, we went to Lovina, which is a tip-free restaurant, where the price on the menu includes health insurance, 401K, and vacation for the staff. We sat down and started in on the meal, and we started going down a TiK tok rabbit hole of funny animal videos and so we agreed to put all our phones on the table and talk to each other as if we liked each other (which we do).
The food was good, but again, Jeremy’s cooking has kind of ruined this kind of restaurant for me, but we enjoyed ordering all different dishes and passing the plates among us to try the different meals. The servings were generous, we were able to box them to eat for breakfast the next morning.
Another attempt at a family photo.
The next morning, we packed up relatively early and dropped Vince back off at Davis and then drove to Klamath Falls to visit Emy and Seth. Bob and Katherine were flying in that day as well from New Mexico. On the way to Klamath, we stopped at the town of Dorris and took a few photos and I was able to thrift some sweatshirts from the side of the road which have been lifesavers because I forgot to pack enough warm clothing and we were heading towards a place that gets to be 40 or 50 degrees at night.
Wed was our last full day in Berkeley. I’m not sure what we did – Jeremy biked up another hill which now I’ve forgotten the details.
I hung out at home and worked a bit, but really, I did not do very much. In the afternoon, Jeremy started packing our stuff (which takes a few hours at least) and I went to a laundromat and did some laundry. That evening, Jeremy made the most delicious salmon dinner – really comparable to any high end restaurant entree. We had the sourdough from the Cheese Board and I think I’ve never had a more delicious dinner. We still hung out in our backyard and enjoyed the beautiful evening outdoor weather.
The next morning, we did some last minute packing and were getting ready to send a very apologetic email to the airbnb host telling her that we accidentally broke a light fixture and that the replacement was slated to be delivered to the house that afternoon (I couldn’t bear to pay the extra $50 for next day shipping, but had paid the extra $15 for 3 day shipping, but I counted the three business days wrong because…I’m lame that way), but about 30 minutes before we left, the FedEx truck pulled up with the package and we were able to hush hush replace the fixture without anyone knowing (hopefully – fingers crossed) and did not send any email to our host. I asked that we go to the amazing dog park again and let Elka run around in her happy place.
Then we drove to Davis to pick Vince up to do the very short and fancy part of the trip, our couple of days in Napa. Vince took us to an Indian food place for lunch which was very delicious. Because Jeremy is such an excellent cook of many classic dishes, my main desire for eating out is cheap hole in the wall ethnic foods which this lunch was a prime example of.
We drove about 90 minutes to Napa using winding roads and areas which had been through forest fires a few years ago. We drove through lots of vineyards to our hotel in Calistoga. I know that vacations, even very beautiful and expensive ones, can be stressful and fraught with expectations and timing and competing desires, so I’m always trying to be gentle with me and all my fellow travelers. There are lots of needs to look out for so we don’t get too grumpy with each other. The first one is that Vince gets his own room which took me a long time to get used to because, all four of us could technically fit into one room and I can be cheap in certain ways which include spending money on “unnecessary” hotel rooms. But it’s hard with all of us essentially having different sleep (Edda first at 8 pm, us next at 10 pm and Vince last at who knows what time) and wake up times (Edda first or second at 5 am or 7 am, Jeremy next at 6 am, me next at 6:30 am and Vince at 10 am?) and different habits (Jeremy out at 6:30 am for a bike ride, Edda having breakfast at 7 am, Doris on a work call at 8 am, etc, etc.). So Vince got his own room (which we booked with an accessible shower which Edda has already enjoyed) and Edda shares with us.
I went to the pool in the afternoon on Thursday while everyone else took a nap and/or researched bike routes or whatever they do (maybe watch TikTok). Then we went to the restaurant at the hotel where we, tyros at wine appreciation, ordered a flight of white wine. We promptly forgot which one was which after the server carefully placed them in order and explained to us each type and then we decided that all of them pretty much taste exactly the same. We tried all the different ways of tasting the difference including clearing our palates, we tried closing our eyes and really concentrated on the taste. Haha, nonetheless, they were enjoyable and tasty. Wine appreciation is lost on us – maybe tonight we’ll try a red flight. We won’t try the real kicker which is that blindfolded even true wine connoisseurs can’t really tell red from white.
Don’t lick your sister.
Katherine asked for a family photo which we are attempting to do during the few days that we are together. We are not very good at this. The first time I mentioned this at dinner, Vince was like ummm, I have only this t-shirt to wear and didn’t bring any nice clothes. But no matter. We tried! We’ll keep trying. This was a not very good first attempt. That chair does nothing for Edda and it looks like I’m strangling the dog, but other than that, it’s perfect.
We walked to town which is about a half mile down the road to go looking for some ice cream (which we found) and we also found the beautiful labyrinth on the way. Vince and I both reached nirvana, but Elka, she broke all the rules and crossed the lines, I’m not sure it counted for her.
