Wednesday, May 30, 2012

One day in Napa

My parents are bringing their friends down to see the Giant's game on June 9.  They've decided to stay in Napa and take the ferry from Vallejo directly into McCovey Cove.  They just discovered that in order to purchase tickets, you must either do so at the Ferry Terminal in Vallejo, or fax an awful lot of personal information in letter form to no one in particular.  Their arrival time won't be until after the terminal closes, and faxing didn't sound too appealing.

My mother and I bartered - Michael and I would go get the tickets if she would treat us to lunch at one of my favorite places - Rutherford Grill, in Rutherford - just outside of Napa.

So, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we headed off.  Traffic was actually pretty amazing.  We got the tickets purchased, took note of the parking lot location, and were back in the car in less than 10 minutes.  It looks like a pretty convenient way to avoid the AT&T Park traffic/parking nightmare.




We headed north on 29, and when we reached American Canyon we found all of the people.  From there to Rutherford, it was a pretty constant almost 10 mph drive!  Luckily, the scenery was nice.

We got to the Rutherford Grill about five minutes past our 2:45 reservation time due to the traffic.  They had no problem with this, and we only had about a 10 minute wait for a table.  I was so excited that I was practically gyrating - I love this place and hadn't been in over 10 years.  We were happy to wait outside by the boar fountain.  It reminded me of playing Lord of the Rings Online...(let's see who gets the reference.)



So, we got seated and ordered.  We started with their spinach artichoke dip.  It was wonderful!  Our entrees were a butternut squash enchilada for Michael (they accidentally made two instead of one, sucks to be him!) and the pork ribs for me.  The ribs were even better than I'd remembered!

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the food, but they have a strict "no cell phones in the dining room" policy, which I love.  I didn't want to risk getting kicked out before eating my food!

After the wonderful meal, we decided to try to find an alternate route into Napa.  We discovered that you can take 128 to the Silverado Trail, so we decided to try it.  It was a nice little drive, except for the torrential rain that lasted all of 10 minutes.

Once in Napa, we made a beeline for the Oxbow Public Market, where I would live if I could.  I was so excited to see that Oxbow Produce and Grocery had organic red grapes.  Red grapes are my absolute favorite, but lately all I can find are ones that are treated with sulphur dioxide, which I'm allergic to.  The only organic grapes I've been able to find locally are green.  I bought a bunch, which wasn't enough.  Need to go back! 

While I was browsing grapes, Michael decided to try their juice bar's Wowie Zowie.  It's carrot, apple, ginger, and lemon juices together.  It was delicious!

As Michael waited for his drink to be made, I boogied across to Kara's Cupcakes.  I love them because not only are the cupcakes very good, but also their bakery is certified green, and they use only organic and sustainable ingredients.

I grabbed myself a vanilla chocolate, and Michael a carrot cake (of course).



We made our way around through all of the vendors and back out to the car for the drive home.  It was a short visit, but so fun!  Our hope is to return soon.

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