New Thing 177, New Thing Every Day: Visit Napa Valley in California

[Note: This post is late because I was having trouble with Internet access in my hotel room last night.]

Leigh and I looked at a variety of ways to do this and we finally settled on a service with a small touring van -- a Mercedes Sprinter that seated ten. It was a very fun day that started about 9:30 and got us home about 8:30. Here are 10+ things about the day.

1. There were a total of ten of us on the tour, plus the tour guide. It was a great group of people we had never met before and they made the whole experience much better.
2. The tour guide was a great guy who had gathered information from us all, the day before, and tailored a trip that he thought we would all particularly enjoy. He was right.
3. Here is a quick breakdown of the other four couples -- very successful retired couple who have been to hundreds of wineries in Napa; young couple from Philadelphia -- hot, super-fit, very nice, fun; couple from Scotland on three-week vacation; couple our age, she was an attorney and he was a transplant surgeon. All were nice and fun, with unique qualities that made the day special.
4. We hit four wineries over the course of the day, which means at least 20+ tasting-portions of wine, or maybe 4-6 glasses. All very good wine, and a little intoxicating for this not-in-college-anymore lightweight.
5. The first winery was probably the most fun because our host was entertaining and gave us a lot of wine history/trivia.
6. We went to Mario Andretti's winery and I got my only souvenir for the day, a hat.
7. At one winery, each of four wines was paired with a little piece of chocolate. That is not something I eat anymore, but I decided this was a rare experience, so I did.
8. For lunch, I also ate a few things I do not eat anymore, because we were served by our guide/host and I felt like it would be rude to not eat, and there were no other alternatives. I am sure that sort of situation will present itself from time to time in my life and I am not going to feel bad about it.
9. Peter, the retired gentleman on our tour, had a great story about running into Frank Sinatra in the late 80's, getting a drink with him, and going back to his house to listen to him play the piano. Peter was an extremely successful guy and I believe the story is true (also, I don't ever really care if a story I hear from someone I do not know is true, as long as it is good).
10. At the third winery, we discovered that the wine really had gone to my legs (which, with my MS, it does long before it hits my brain) and the transplant surgeon actually had to lift me into the van. That was weird (and very nice of him).
11. For the fourth winery, I stayed in the van because I did not want to have further MS issues with getting in and out. Honestly, three was enough, anyway.
12. Leigh made every second of the day more fun, as always.