Hello there Steemians, I live in Humboldt county which is around 250 miles north of Napa Valley. So to begin this journey I of course went to tripadvisor and looked up various things I can't really do around here, to be honest Humboldt is really only known for its #marijuana. Other than that there isn't a whole lot to do unless you want to see the redwoods, and even that beauty can begin to feel jaded. So given the parameters I looked for things I can say normally would not happen here, and this was all planned around one special event - You'll figure that out soon enough!
So grabbed the girlfriend, two suitcases... for her and a duffel bag for me and began the journey down the coast, I opted to take a slightly longer way and follow highway 254 (The avenue of the Giants) down past Phillipsville. This way she could see some of the local tourist attractions such as the Drive-Thru Tree, several parks and overall a very scenic view of Humboldt.
We continued along easily enough laughing at the only radio station we could find, no it wasn't really funny but it was so bizzarely random we couldn't help but laugh. Hours later we finally arrived in Napa, and whats the first thing you have to do when you get done with a long drive? EAT, absolutely starving.
So we stopped at the best Mexican Restaurant according to Tripadvisor, that's right we ate at an Applebees! Just kidding we went to La Casa which was absolutely phenomenal. Or I was just really hungry but still, devoured this beast of a burrito like nothing.
Its covered in a jalapeno cream sauce and was maybe 10 inches long and 7 inches round.
After this we went and checked into the hotel and crashed, we had to wake up at 4 am the next morning for a special plan.
Day 2:
I had planned a morning with Napa Valley Balloons Inc. That's right, hot air balloons and a morning breakfast afterwards.
Huge Balloons.
Now when I booked this it asked for weight and said a maximum of 12 per balloon, so I was like well our balloon probably won't be packed because I'm tall and weigh a fair amount. Nope our balloon had 16 people, we still took off though and the view was amazing.
(Sorry about the picture quality, I was using a S5 Galaxy at the time)
Now we continued along, our pilot was great - he would dip us down low for good pictures, take us high although in doing this we missed our first two stopping spots and eventually landed in the middle of the road.
Here is my girlfriend in front of the balloon as it got pulled off the road. We had a quick ride back to the winery and had our breakfast, now knowing my girlfriend I knew she would want to go wine tasting. So we used Google to find the nearest Wine Tasting,This happened to be the Maisonry -- Alright not quite the closest but I mean c'mon Maisonry, Mason, #illuminaticonfirmed !
Now upon entering this tasting you get met by a relatively friendly staff and some pretty cool modern artwork.
And they said pigs would never fly.
So we sat down and began looking at the wine menu, she knew exactly what she would like. Me on the other hand well, I went with what sounded cool. Which as the tasting expert eventually asked, "do you like it?" I fondly responded "Not really, its bitter I like sweet stuff" and then she somewhat scoffed and replied, "Why did you order the sauvignon Blanc" "Because it sounded cool".
She rushed off in a little bit of a huff and brings me 3 glasses, a piece of paper and pen and says describe how these 3 are, In my mind I'm like well I guess free wine and all I had to do was some homework? Done. Well as we were leaving I realized she charged those 3 glasses at full price, keep in mind I never asked for these 3 glasses. So on that note we left kind, aggravated slightly we went back to the hotel took a nap before our dinner at Sante.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g33107-d630270-Reviews-Sante_at_the_Fairmont_Sonoma_Mission_Inn-Sonoma_Sonoma_County_California.html
We arrived at around 7:30 and went inside the Inn and were promptly seated and ordered our drinks, we selected the 7 course tasting menu, which wound up being 9 courses after the chef added some of his favorites.
Yes this is an egg, filled with caviar and something else. I don't remember what but it was pretty good.
This was a tasting of varying meats, which was equally excellent. I have no idea why, it looks like lunch meat right?
Alright, So I've never wanted to say this but Elmer Fudd was right all along, Rabbit is amazing.
I think this was brusselsprouts, I'm a carnivore so I outsourced this task to my girlfriend.
Gnocchi, little cheese stuffed pasta; Vin Diesel said gone in 60 seconds, think I beat him by around 57 seconds.
Anyways, So I can let you guys make it to the end of the post I'll stop posting food and get to the good part, this was where I proposed and she said yes, or else this entire story would not exist. I can guarantee that much, we went back to out hotel and then cut-scene to the next day - I would make such a good producer.
Our final day we went and did something very, very kiddy. After a quick wine tasting that actually had an extremely friendly staff -- We did pretend we had made reservations, but shhh they'll never know.
Anyways moving on to the extremely kiddy thing, If you've been to Napa you might already know this, if not well did you know the Jelly Bean Factory is down there? Yeah that's fucking right.
Guess what is also inside the jelly bean factory? Jelly Beans, Wine Tasting and a Self-Guided tour.
They also have a lot of Jelly Bean Artwork, and statues!
After leaving here we headed back, My fiancé and I are currently planning for a wedding in 2017 -- I'm not good at selfies so don't judge too harshly at my blank attempt to get my phone to take a picture look.
Thinking I may try and convince her to have the wedding ceremony at a place I went to several years back - It does require a two hour hike to get to the base of Mt. Cook in New Zealand though. However I think it would be well worth it, What do you guys think?
It has a lake of partially frozen glacial water beneath it which lets you see the reflection perfectly beneath it, Absolutely stunning right?
If she declines my idea, well in the words of Bruce Lee, "You must be fluid like water".
