Napa, how we love you so!

So you'll see very few places make a reappearance on the blog, i.e. BK and I's travel itenerary.  Napa is the exception to that rule.  We decided last year, after a great trip, we would be coming back here on an annual basis.  So here we find ourselves, having a great time once again.

Over the next few days I'll be posting about the wineries, restaurants and other activities that we had fun with in Napa.  You should come if you get the chance!  BK says its the one place that he feels that he can really relax and disconnect.  We love it and think that everyone else will too!

A couple of tips for your trip to Napa:

1. Don't come to Napa if all you want to do is get drunk by drinking a lot of wine.  That one may sound a little strange considering that I'm writing about Napa, but honestly, if that's what you want to do, you can do it at home for a lot less time and money.  Come to Napa to learn about wine you love, eat great food and spend time with people you enjoy.
2. Only schedule two, max three, wineries per day.  If you're making a day trip, this one can be hard.  If you're here for multiple days, try it.  We typically do one around 10:30 and one around 2:00.  If you do this, you don't have to rush through tastings and tours, it leaves you time for a nice relaxing lunch and you can enjoy your last winery of the day.
3. Research where you want to go and make reservations.  You can go to the big ones with large tasting rooms, however if you do, we suggest you get a private tour with cheese pairing or something along those lines.  If you just go tasting rooms, often the people pouring the wine know nothing about it and you're just kind of hearded in and out- not a special experience.  We tend to like the family owned, small wineries.  Often you'll find yourself sitting down with the owner, a family member and/or winemaker...a pretty awesome experience (details later).
4. Give yourself a wine budget in addition to what you want to spend on other details of the trip.  You are going to get here and want to buy wine and/or join wine clubs.  Give yourself a budget so that you're not stressed about the thousands of dollars (it can get to this amount quickly when you're talking cases) you weren't planning to spend.  Being annoyed that this trip is costing a lot more than planned can really ruin your time here.

The only downside this year?  We missed another TCU home game.  On the bright side, at least the game was on at 9:00 am Napa time, giving us the entire rest of the day to enjoy afterward.

Lots more to come!  Cheers!