Napa, California... part II

Saturday
Woke up at 8am so Max and I could have the complimentary breakfast in the lobby. Sat with Aunt Debbie. Met up with Ben and the three of us headed to the Jelly Belly factory for the free tour. What fun! I had such a great time. It was like being in a Food Network show - except you couldn't take any pictures. At the end of the tour, they gave us free candy and then we headed into the shop for the free samples and to buy more candy. We came away with 4 huge bags of belly flops (jelly beans that didn't live up to the standards), a bag of Swedish fish for me, a bag of chocolate covered mixed nuts for Max, a blue jelly bean magnet for our fridge, a bag of sour inch worms for Kristina and Bruce (since Bruce studies worms and Kristina likes candy), and some postcards. The highlight of the visit was when Max and Ben tried the Rotten Egg Bertie Bott's.


On the way back we went to an olive oil tasting at Sepay Olive Oil. Max and I bought some garlic oil and jalapeno oil that was very yummy. For lunch, the three of us went to Lyon's Restaurant.

Then we had to get ready for the wedding. As Max and I were getting our wedding clothes out, Max couldn't find his tie. Turns out he didn't pack it and it was lying on our bedroom floor. Quickly we drove next door to Kohl's and picked out a blue silk tie - the only one we could agree on. I like ties to match the shirt he's wearing. He likes "complimentary" ones. We picked up Julia and drove into Napa. The wedding was at the River City Restaurant. Since we were early, we dropped off Julia and then quickly drove over to Yarns on First - the yarn store in Napa. I only had 20 minutes but I got some Crystal Palace dpn knitting needles, an Addi circular needle, and this yarn:


The Wedding

It was very warm during the ceremony but once the sun went down the temperature dropped about 15-20 degrees. The reception was great, dinner was good, the speeches had me crying along with Grandma Hyland, and there was dancing! By the end of the night, I was tired and my feet were pretty tired too. We said our goodbyes to everyone since alot of people were leaving the next day.

Sunday
Max and I woke up and had breakfast in the lobby with Kristina and Bruce. They checked out and then the four of us drove up to Armstrong Redwood State Reserve. Bruce drove, Max navigated, Kristina and I sat in the back talking and taking pictures of the scenery as we drove along. We got to the park around lunch and we were all hungry so we ate at Pat's in Guerneville first, then parked outside the park and started our walk from there. Although there were alot more people in the redwood forest than there was at Shenandoah, Max remarked on the quietness of it several times.

We saw the tallest tree, the oldest tree, the icicle tree, and walked along the discovery trail. We stopped at a picnic area to share a 5" apple pie with a crisp topping from Sweetie Pies. On our way back to Vallejo, we hit traffic on 101. Luckily, we found another route and made it back to the hotel in time to download Kristina's pictures, say goodbye to Kristina and Bruce as they headed off to San Francisco, change our clothes, and drive into Napa for our dinner reservations at the CIA. Dinner was good but the restaurant was loud. Our server was good but he seemed rushed. I kept wondering if he was one of the students (he's wasn't). More on that later. After dinner, we drove back to the hotel and packed so we would be ready to leave in the morning.

Take-Aways
- Peter Hyland said to me, "Nicole, you haven't changed at all!"
- if you make a funny face (Kristina), I'm going to take a picture
- discovered I like foie gras mousse