Almost 2 years - the fast is finally over

Yep, between the pregnancy and the nursing, I have been off alcohol for that long. I am not a heavy drinker, mind you. But I do like to know that I can sip something here and there whenever I want to. And so these past couple of years I have looked enviously at each and everyone who has sipped something in front of me. Well, the fast is finally over. And what better way to break the fast than visit the wine country in our backyard - Napa Valley. Its barely 1.25 hours drive from where we live. And we decided to visit it last weekend.

First stop was Sterling Vineyards. With an aerial tramway, it was on the top of our list of wineries to visit. Also, they have a self-guided tour - less intimidating and easier to do with a one year old in stow.




The entrance to the winery made quite an impression. The trees were in spring bloom and lined the driveway to the parking lot.









And the views from top were spectacular. You could get a bird's eye view of the entire valley from there. The tasting was at different points along the self guided tour. I am not a wine connoisseur by any regard so I would rather not comment on the wines themselves, but we did come back with a slightly fizzy, sweet wine - a 2008 Malvasia Bianca. I guess it appealed to our Indian taste buds :)







Some tips while we are at it:

Their website has a $5 off coupon that can be used if you reach the winery before 12.30 pm.

Picnic lunches inside the winery are not allowed. We had to picnic in the car.

And Dean and Deluca on Hwy 29 is a good place to pick up some sandwiches.

Comments

Mridula said…
Good to hear that your fast is over!
11:39 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wild Animal Park

Image
Sunit and I are big fans of the Wild Animal Park at San Diego - we've been there numerous times and everytime we come back filled with wonder at something new. Spread over 1800 acres, the park provides a lot of space for animals to move and they are not enclosed in small cages as in a Zoo. It also allows the animals to mingle and follow the same natural habits as they would in the wild. The train safari provides a quick tour of the place, but if you have the energy to walk around and view some of the interaction areas, the Park can be a lot of fun. On my second trip to the Park, with Vijay ( a friend who is crazy about wild cats), we caught the Cheetahs during their feeding time. A huge moat separates the viewers from the feeding area, some meat is left on the logs and then far-from-sight the Cheetahs are let loose. One can actually see their long strides as they run to the meat and then feed on it. Vijay gets the credit for this picture. We also went upto the tiger observatory dur...
Read more

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Image
Its been a while since I last posted. A couple of out-of-town travels, Diwali and then some things back home kept me occupied. But I am back and hope to catch up from where I left off. First weekend of October I travelled to Ann Arbor again to spend some time with Sunit. I also hoped to catch some fall colors which are supposed to be wonderful in Ann Arbor. But as luck would have it, it was still pretty warm in Ann Arbor and Sunit was too busy so we could not travel to the upper peninsula to catch some colors. Hence we compromised for some local gardens itself. We decided to visit the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. We researched on the internet and from what we saw it seemed interesting. It also seemed to have a waterfall and I was very eager to see it. The gardens were beautiful and well kept in their natural splendor. There was a waterfall all right - the problem was it fell just 1-2 feet. Photography can do wonders indeed and the picture we had seen on the internet seemed to be of a go...
Read more

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Image
My latest favorite place in the world is Lauterbrunnen. It is a beautiful valley near Interlaken. For most Indians, Interlaken is synonymous with Yash Chopra movies and classic Swiss scenery. But about 20 miles from Interlaken, is this quaint little town and valley called Lauterbrunnen and this place formed the base of our Swiss travel in the Berner Oberland area. While Interlaken boasts of all the touristy stuff, if you want to live close to the mountains and numerous waterfalls (close to nature as my mom would say), Lauterbrunnen is where you need to be. A small town, that leads to a beautiful valley, with waterfalls falling on either side. When we went out for our first walk on the valley floor, I stood at one point and counted the total number of waterfalls visible - the count was 11. Streams trickle down from anywhere and everywhere. My husband remarked - "This is much like Yosemite, but multiplied by 10'. Days in this place just seemed to vanish - there was so much to do...
Read more