Kidnapped!

As promised yesterday, I am here to blog about my "adventure" on Sunday. It was one of the more interesting days I have spent in California for sure.

The day started with me being kidnapped around 1030am. It wasn't your run of the mill, blind folded, shoved into the back of a van, kidnapping. It was more of a get ready, you are coming with us, kidnapping. I was finally let in on the "secret" purpose of this kidnapping after a brief stop at Starbucks before we hit the freeway.

So, loaded up on caffeine, we proceeded along the freeway, through an extremely foggy San Francisco, across an even foggier Golden Gate Bridge, and along the north side of the bay to Napa. This was to be a day of winery hopping.

Our first stop was the Domaine Carneros Winery just south of Napa. We were able to snap a few pictures and enjoy some wine at this, rather swanky, winery.

Carneros Winery

After a brief stop at the Boon Fly, a restaurant just down the road, and a $16 lamb burger (it was worth every penny), we headed off to the next winery.

After about a 20 minute drive, we arrived at the Hagafen Cellars Winery in the heart of Napa. This was quite a bit smaller than the other wineries we visited that day. In fact, it was family owned and operated. Apparently, only manned by a few people. This is the kind of winery I have grown accustomed to living in Ontario. We paid $5 to taste 5 different wines. I was sold at that price. I ended up buying my first bottle of wine for the day from Hagafen.

So after tasting and buying some wine, we headed up the road to the Robert Mondavi Winery. I have been a bit of a fan of Robert Mondavi wines for a couple years now, so I was excited to visit this winery. This was quite a large operation compared to the previous two wineries. They have 550 acres of grapes that they harvest every year. It was quite amazing to see the entire operation. It cost us $25 for a 75 minute tour. This tour was very educational, interesting, and we were able to taste three different wines at the end. Like all tours, this one ended up in the store. I ended up purchasing my second bottle of wine here and the tour guide found out that it was my birthday, so he bought me a bottle of wine.

Robert Mondavi Winery Cellar

It was getting into the evening at this point, so we proceeded to head back south and stopped in at a restaurant called Mustards Grill for supper. The food was expensive, but it was well worth it. I had the rabbit, which was so mouth watering and delicious. It was definitely the perfect end to an awesome day.

But wait, there's more...

As an added surprise, we took the freeway along the east side of the bay on the way home. This involved a stop at Treasure Island just outside San Francisco. We were treated to a beautiful skyline. It was so dark and ominous, yet so pretty at the same time.

San Francisco Skyline

It was the perfect way to spend a birthday. Many thanks go to those who planned it. Even though I was reluctant to allow myself to be kidnapped, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

If you ever find yourself in the area, I definitely recommend the Robert Mondavi tour and a stop at Treasure Island at night.

I have uploaded all of the pictures from the trip to my flickr. You can find a link for the slideshow on the top of the blog. I hope you enjoy the pictures almost as much as I enjoyed my trip.

Thank you again to everyone involved.

Until my next post,

Cheers.