Anniversary weekend getaway in Napa!

November 24, 2013 Anniversary weekend getaway in Napa!

So I finally have a little break from studying (but not really because studying never ends in dental school, but at least I’m done with midterms). Sooo I’m going to try to catch up on some posts! This was from more than a month ago from our 5th anniversary trip to Napa.

Here we are wine tasting at Artesa Winery. The views were gorgeous and the wine was great. We ended up getting a bottle of the 2012 Albarino, which was our favorite from the tasting.

After that, we drove to Domaine Carneros for the Art of Sparkling Wine tour. Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the process of making sparkling wine.

We also had many generous pours to taste throughout the tour, which left us sufficiently and happily buzzed afterwards. They also had the most beautiful chateau and hedges.

After the winery visits, we went to our hotel and relaxed until dinner time. We had our anniversary dinner at La Toque. We went with the prix-fixe 3 savory courses plus dessert menu for our meal. Yufei had the Chef’s Garden Vegetable and Green Salad for his first course:

And I had the Cauliflower Horseradish Velouté with Maine Lobster and Tender Vegetables. It was so good to eat lobster again – I couldn’t even remember the last time I had it!

For his second course, Yufei had the Veal Tenderloin:

And I had the Beer Battered Alaskan Halibut:

Third course for Yufei was the Rib Eye with Fiscalini Cheddar Pearl Tapioca
and Rutherford Red Wine Sauce. I had a bite and remember it being really yummy!

My third course – Duck Breast with Fried Polenta and Huckleberries, also very good.

I can’t remember or find the exact names of your desserts anymore, but they were served with these little cute candles. I think Yufei had some kind of apple crisp type dessert with ice cream.

And I had a pavlova, which is a meringue dessert with a crispy crust and a soft center. It was really different but I liked it a lot.

After our meal, we also had a selection of candies and other sweets, and we were given a signed copy of the menu. (Funny story: our waiter asked us in the beginning of our meal if we were celebrating anything special, and Yufei told him it was our 5 year anniversary. The waiter thought it was our wedding anniversary and asked us what we owe our success to. It was too weird and awkward to correct him so we just went with it for the night. And I had to make up some BS “married wisdom” on the spot to answer his question. Hahahah.)

The next morning we decided to go to the Jelly Belly factory since it was really close to our hotel.

We went on the factory tour and got free small bags of jelly beans at the end! After that we dropped by Erickson Ranch for a little bit. IT was a cute little farm with fresh fruits and veggies and a pumpkin patch. I really wanted to get a pumpkin there but then we didn’t have a good way to get it back home from the rental car place.

They also had this chili roasting station and it smelled so good!

In the end we just ended up buying some fruits and a jar of homemade apple butter from their market. After that, it was time to go home. It was such a fun and relaxing weekend and the perfect way for us to celebrate 5 years together.

Tags: dessert, dinner, duck, food, napa, seafood, steak, travel, wine

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