Napa wedding

A couple of weekends ago Jeff and I went to a wedding up in Napa. I had never been to Napa valley before (hey, I'm not a wine drinker, ok!?) and was excited to check out the area.

Before the wedding we went to downtown Napa where we discovered the Oxbow Market.


It's kind of a smaller version of the Ferry Building with several different vendors selling artisan foods. We started with gluten-free empanadas (Jeff is allergic to wheat so this was great) and then I went a little crazy buying chocolates, breads, cheeses and anything else I could fit in our cooler. I also had some awesome ice cream from Three Twins Ice Cream shop. If you think their name is silly check out some of their offerings:

We then took a walk downtown to check out the newly renovated river walk. They have a series of new buildings with high-end cuisine including a restaurant owned by Matsuharu Morimoto from Food Network's Iron Chef America.

After that, we had to get ready for the wedding which was located on a small vineyard up in the hills of Napa. It was a small wedding with a sunflower and honey theme. The ring bearer was their cute little dog Rudy.

The give-aways were small honey jars with custom labels and I might have taken a few more than my allotment. The food was excellent and they had cupcakes for dessert instead of a wedding cake. Yum!

After dinner we hit the dance floor to burn off some of that yummy food.

The only down side of that day was that our shuttle driver got lost and arrived a half hour late to pick us up. Apparently the people after us waited more than an hour before giving up and calling a cab for a $90 ride home. Fortunately, they squeezed several people into the cab with them!

The next day we went back to the winery (we drove this time) for breakfast which included frittatas and an assortment of fruit.

Then we drove up to Calistoga to check out the downtown. I had originally wanted to see the geyser but was told at the wedding it wasn't all that great. Maybe some other time though. We ate at Brennan's where I tried my first raw oyster - and loved it! Jeff bought some wine and then we hit the road again.

Our next stop was Mecca, er... Yountville where we stopped at The French Laundry. If you're not familiar with The French Laundry, it's owned by Thomas Keller and is considered one of the best restaurants in the U.S., if not the world. You have to make reservations at least two months in advance though and expect to pay a minimum of $200 for one of their 9-course prix fixe meals. No, we didn't eat there, but I did wander around to check out the property. Even though the building had no signage, a couple of tourist buses stopped and people were taking pictures all over the place. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who does stuff like that.

Across the street was their garden/small farm. I absolutely love kitchen gardens so I was in complete heaven. I probably walked the whole garden twice and examined every plant they had before reluctantly going back to the car and leaving for home.

The day after we returned home I went straight to Barnes & Noble and picked up Thomas Keller's gigantic cook book, Ad Hoc. I've been reading it meticulously for days now and have warned the cats not to even look at it funny. I store it in the cabinet though, just in case.