Going Back to Cali

Wasn't that a LL Cool J song? Why is it I know a LL Cool J song? Scary.


Anyhow, The Husband and I used to go to Wine Country pretty much every year. We often took Big Bit, as he was small and enchanted with the birds, butterflies, flowers etc and loved, even then to eat at fine restaurants. (another good story about Big Bit I must post someday involved him eating very properly in a nice restaurant at 18 mos old).

Little Bit, we took once or twice and then we couldn't afford to get out of Dodge for several years. So this is probably our first visit in seven years, and the first one he remembers. He does NOT like to eat at fine restaurants. He likes cheeseburgers. Period. So we had to be creative. And buy a $10 cheeseburger here and there (ouch!!!).


As promised, pictures. Here's Little Bit at a store at Fisherman's Wharf, where we went immediately upon deplaning to have lunch:















Then, it was off to wine country. Here's the boys actually sitting together without fighting. It does happen once in a while:


It was so beautiful, warm but not too, sunny, etc. etc. This is a view from Jack London State Park, which was really cool:



Not to mention, we saw an exact replica of an Italian castle that V. Sattui Winery built a few years ago, it is used as a functioning winery but you can tour it. It even has a chapel that looks like a Renaissance period chapel. Remind me to quit drinking wine because these guys have WAY too much money.

Little Bit had fun pretending to be an archer:



Here's another view:




I hated to get on the plane. In fact, I did everything possible to avoid getting on the plane. Not really, but I did consider running off to become a server in a tasting room in Napa Valley while I attended the Culinary Institute of America.

First vacation I've had in years where I wasn't checking the BlackBerry every 10 minutes. And it was AWESOME. The boys had fun (all three of them) and so did I. Wish I was back right now.