happy cows come from california

sorry i have been m.i.a.

this past week we took our "big trip" {as we were calling it} to Napa Valley, CA with my entire family, on my side. the trip has been planned for about a year, and we have been looking forward to it for about that long, too. it was planned as part of my parents 30th wedding anniversary: they wanted their "anniversary trip" to consist of the entire family going to napa. we all said "aiight!" without hesitation. i was a little more nervous, ok a LOT more nervous, about leaving bennett this time {vs when we went on our cruise}, simply because he is older, more aware, and might actually get his feelings hurt or get really sad. NOPE! he was great. {stay tuned for a post about the flip side of this trip: bennett's trip to la & pop's, AL.}

here is a highly condensed version of our trip: {accompanied by a condensed version of the pictures, as well - there were a total of over 400 taken, no lie}

we flew into san fransisco, just bc its perdy and fun to fly into. erin and ben had a heckofa time getting to CA, read about it here {when she posts of course, i dont think she has yet}. stephen and i traveled to napa with my parents back in september of '05 and were looking forward experiencing it all over again. erin and ben went shortly after they were first married, and hollis and rachel have never been. if you cant tell, my family {i.e. my parents} frequents napa. like at least once a year.

we flew in and saw some of this:

sunrise over the clouds on earrrrrrly flight out

driving down lombard street {curviest street in the states, maybe world}

golden gate bridge

i was a little queazy during this quick san fran visit...mostly due to long flight, insane hills, lack of lunch, and aggressive driver at the wheel. lets just thank goodness i wasnt at the wheel. i fear wrecks would have been involved.

on a queazy stomach you may disagree, but our lunch at swans was actually a good sight, since all of this

meant FOOD. and i love food. and seafood. and food.

as many of you who read this blog know, my husband is still working on the "opening your eyes during a picture" thing

we drove the one hour drive to napa, and were greeted with gorgeous countryside.

{i dont have a picture, but wait, i will in just a sec...read on}

since my parents visit napa yearly, they have become friends with several of the winemakers out there. recently, one of the napa-based families came down and stayed at my parents house in orange beach. in return, we were able to stay here

during our trip. i dont know who had the better deal, but i have to say it was SO great all being in the same place, vs. FIVE hotel rooms. the house was perched at the tip top of a small hill. literally the tip top. the amazing view from the porch:

i really dont know the best way to document the rest, except in categories, so here goes:

to put it simply, this time of year is known as the "crush": time to take the grapes off the vines and crush 'em up real good and get all the juice out. this time of year the landscape is pretty barren, typical fall-looking scenery. however, the vines are lush and green and bursting with grapes

in some places the wine was stored caves

some caves were simple, with gunnite walls

others were extremely elaborate and made me uneasy at the amount of mula spent to create them...i mean WOW

others stored their barrels in warehouses

other places, like Schramsburg {champagne} stored their sparkling wines in bottles...in caves with crazy moss like things growing everywhere. {creepy, but creepy-cool}

and others had very dirty barrels, but they were pretty dirty

since it was the crush, there were also lots of plastic bins filled with grapes like this

waiting for de-stemming and fermentation

{im thinking about doing a post about the wine-making process, just because it is incredibly fascinating, but dont want to bore you if you arent interested. let me know...}

almost every winery had a pet of some sort, roaming the premises. im not exactly a cat-person...i was more into the DOGS

our days would consist of sleeping in {stephen and i did some record sleeping for our parents-to-a-two-year-old-selves...ten or eleven hour stretches. but you learn out here, with all the wine tasting going on...the only way to make it through is to get your SLEEP}, then going to around three or four wine tastings a day.

with lunch and dinner thrown in. we ate lunch out at places like Mustards, Fisher winery, and Tra Vigne {probably the best pizza after authentic Italy pizza}. Dinner was Bistro Jeanty, Rutherford Grill, Reynold's Family Vineyards Fall Party, and steaks on the grill at the house. i have to say, i could have eaten in every night. the food was excellent but WHEW are you exhausted at the end of the day! {and im sure wine has absolutely nothing to do with it...}

the best tomato soup ever: Bistro Jeanty

its obvious this was the first night's dinner: not spent over wine yet...

lunch outdoors at Fisher Winery...fairy tale setting

we spent a lot of time over the clouds on hills and bluffs that would make your heart sink {if you are afraid of heights} or soar {if you arent}

overall, the setting was more than ideal.

cool mornings and nights, highs in the low seventies, little to no humidity {needless to say this monday morning back in LA ...lower alabama... the humidity hit me over the head like a ton of bricks. bricks full of hot steamy water. ugh} and flowers blooming like crazy. i was in love with the mexican sage...it was EVERYWHERE. i like purple flowers

and pink ones

aaaand white ones

i wanted so badly to climb this tree

but thought twice about it, as there were many people with me who might be embarrassed by that type of child's play.

speaking of embarrassing child's play, here is a picture of my sister

{i told you it was going on the blog}

my camera was around my neck at all times. so was erins. we even took a picture of each other taking a picture...'cause i mean after we left a place, there was nothing else that anyone could have taken a picture of. we covered it. ALL

this picture speaks to me. it says:

hi. my name is hollis and i am bigger than you. dont mess with me. oh yeah, and im a sweetheart.

these pictures also speak to me. they say:

hi. our names are stephen and natalie. we are in napa. we are drinking wine. we are tired of taking pictures. bring us some more wine

it was an amazing trip. most likely our last in the near-to-distant future. i could easily see myself living in this area, if only this area was in the south, but kept its own weather. thats possible, right?

in closing,

and for all you bennett lovers out there, stay tuned for a post about HIS vacation...while we were away :)