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Thursday, July 7, 2011

West Coast Road Trip: Napa Valley Part 1

Well, I've been out of commission for a week or so, but I'm back! Maybe just for today though... The past week has been crazy and stressful, but also fun and relaxing at the same time.

We embarked on our road trip early last Wednesday morning and 13 hours and a few stops later, finally made it to the Napa Valley to stay with Zach's Grandma, Mary. Wednesday was a looooooooooong drive.


Whenever we've gone on a road trip in the past, Buster has been a champ. He basically just sleeps the whole time (which is great for us). The longest trip we had previously taken was about 6 hours max, so we weren't sure how the BBoy would do for double that time cooped up in his crate in the back seat. We also didn't factor in that going over the many mountain passes along the way (the Grapevine, Mt. Ashland, Mt. Shasta, etc.) might affect his ears.

Sure enough, about half way through (after going over the Grapevine) he started whining and yelping. I finally made the Hubby pull over on the side of the road to let him out to do his business and get some water (Hubby was turning into a slave driver with the driving... we both just wanted to get there). After that, Buster went back to sleep until about an hour and a half before we got to Napa, in which he proceeded to whine and cry and yelp the rest of the way. Poor little guy. I felt for him, but it had to be done.


Napa was great. Zach's Grandma took us to one of her favorite Italian dinner spots, La Strada in Napa for dinner and then Thursday we went out to breakfast at the adorable and "very California" Boon Fly Cafe which was delish (pardon the iPhone photo, but I wanted to get one shot of the super cute mugs). I had the Boon Fly Benedict and it was ah-maze-ing. Then we drove around Napa taking in all the really cool old Victorian architecture. There are some crazy cool mansions up there!


The Hubby was raised in Napa until about 5th grade, so it was fun to drive around and see his old house and visit the dreaded Westwood Hills where his Dad made him hike the steep climb to the top. Zach always remembered it as a death march, but going back there now he realized it wasn't too bad (this was the first time he'd been back to Napa since he moved to WA!). We decided to take a short hike up to the top (although we had a hard time finding the top) and I even did it in sandals.


The funniest thing was that hiking in front of us was a family of four and the little boy, probably around 9 or 10, was complaining the whole time and saying, "I want to go down. When can we go down?" Haha. It was like a deja vu of little Zachary complaining on his hike years ago with his Dad. :)




The whole hike smelled like Eucalyptus and the tall old trees were a refreshing change, since the tallest trees in Arizona are palm trees and don't give much shade. It was a beautiful day!



More tomorrow (or later today) on our winery tours and the 4th of July!

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