Girl's Day Out

My coworkers and I had planned an all day outing to Napa for lunch and wine tasting.  We were having a small baby shower luncheon for my friend Genna since her actual baby shower is going to be in LA.  We also planned to go to a nice dinner to celebrate my engagement.  We had a very full day ahead of us to which I can express in a storybook style.

My morning started out with Nick stealing Honey Bear while I was in the shower.  Christopher had agreed to watch Emmy for me so that I could do the girls day without worrying about her and Nick could go shoot a wedding.  I guess Honey Bear was the replacement Emmy.  We had been out late the night before at the Shakespeare theater with Bonnie and going to see our wedding dj do a gig at a local bar.  Needless to say, it was difficult for me to get Nick out of bed.

For lunch I decided to introduce the girls to Mustards Grill right off of St. Helena Highway.  It was wonderful as always.  I had a delicious lamb bolognese that was not your average spaghetti with meat sauce.  It was so yummy that I want to go back for more.

Mimosas!

Fried calamari with a curry slaw.

Apparently this Grass is a great way to dry
your baby equipment.  I saw it at Buy Buy Baby, a
store that I was very overwhelmed by, but didn't
really give it much thought.  One of  the other girls
gave this to her along with a pacifier with a
thermometer built in.  I thought that was a pretty
ingenious idea for when baby isn't feeling well.

She likes the Star Wars pacifier leash.

We got a mac and cheese to share.  

Alaskan Halibut over mashed potatoes, bacon brussel sprouts, and wild
mushrooms with a prickly pear vinaigrette. 

Lamb bolognese

Chicken sandwich with pickled vegetables and house-made potato chips.

I don't like dessert much, but this warm chocolate-
hazelnut truffle tart with esperesso ice cream was
really good.  The toffee they put on top of the ice
cream was a mind blowing explosion of flavors. 

Right after lunch we hopped over next door to Cosentino Winery to do a round of tasting and then headed to Mumm's for some champagne tasting.  Nick and I love Mumm's and have been to the Mumm Napa  many times to pick up our favorite champagne, but I've never tasted there.  I've had a bottle of their DVX line champagne before, but since we were tasting, I figured I'd splurge and try them all.  

For our last stop, Genna took us to one of her favorite places in Sonoma, Gundlach Bundschu.  I'm so glad that she did.  Nick and I don't venture out much into Sonoma as much as we probably should.  I really liked Gundlach and will be taking Nick in the future.  You get a flight of six for only $10 and their reds are amazing.  We definitely need to explore Sonoma more if all the tastings are like this.  I bought Nick a bottle of Pinot Noir because it's his favorite and I thought that it tasted pretty darn good.