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napa day 1 : august 08 |
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Napa
was fun Yup, I'm back. I'm also very tired and can't quite seem to get enough sleep so I've been lagging and dragging. But it's time to get back into the journal thing and post something up here so you guys will know that I'm still alive. Napa was great. I have alot of fuckin weird stories to tell you all because when I'm on a trip, there are always strange things that happen to me. Go figure. In the end I opted for the regular camera instead of the digicam. So pictures will be forthcoming later on this week. I'm pleased to say that I took plenty of pictures for you to see but whether or not they are "decent" enough to post will depend on the final product. All in all, we tasted plenty of wines, shipped a ton back home, ate too much good food and spa-ed our way to lalaland. Did I miss the whole computer routine and all? Not really. I was enjoying myself way too much to even remember what a computer looks like. Shall we begin? We got into Oakland airport on Wednesday morning (August 2) around 10am. I haven't been up in the Bay Area in about 5 years so it was a nice treat to be back there to see the Bay Bridge and the view of the city from way yonder via the Oakland side. Oakland hasn't changed much and I doubt it ever will...same run down looking place but hey, that's good isn't it? We got our luggage and went to pick up our rental car accordingly. Lord have mercy, we got stuck with some burgundy/purplish Ford Contour. Ok OK, we'll have to make do with American engineering. Min was the aviator and I'm the navigator (as always) while Jane was our backseat passenger. We don't let Jane drive because she's a scary driver. So we started off following the directions I printed from the internet. Bad idea. Well, I really didn't have a choice because Triple A ran out of all the California & San Francisco/Napa Valley area maps so I was left with printing from the Internet It started off alright...80, 980, 880, 580 (not in that order I don't think). What's the deal with all the "eights"?? I know it's a Chinese inhabited city and all but must we have all lucky numbers on the freeways too? Very confusing. I was so absorbed with looking at the familiar scenery because it reminds me of going to my sister's old place, that I totally missed one of the freeway merges! Luckily I caught it soon enough before we went through the Caldecott (?) tunnels towards Orinda/Lafayette area. OK, slight detour. My bad. I must ask all of you SF people this question....does the 29 Fwy (Sonoma Rd.) really hit the 580? Because I couldn't for the life of me find the freaking offramp. God. I hate that. So we backtracked to the 12 to hit the 29. Give me an Advil. Everything went smoothly from thereon because we found the tiny city of Napa and got off the freeway to our Bed and Breakfast. We stayed at the Beazley House - which is Napa's first Bed and Breakfast. It's a very quaint Victorian style home done up in brown with a blue and white awning. We were early for check in but we decided to stop by anyway to see the place. I've never stayed in a house like that before with everything so...old & antique. The parlor was very homey with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and lemonade. I really dig it. We went to Downtown Napa for some lunch because our rooms weren't ready yet. The innkeeper suggested a restaurant called "Celadon". It's kinda an Asian inspired American food type of place but it was SO good. It's very difficult to find because it's tucked away behind a business building structure. We really love their calamari appetizer that was cooked up with the Japanese ginger that you eat with sushi. They made a very tasty sauce from the ginger - spicy, sweet and tart. Better than sex. You gotta try it if you're ever in the area. Celadon One thing I noticed while on this trip was that all the restaurant menus are very short with only a few things to choose from whereas the wine menu was like a dictionary. Damn. And did I mention that dining up in Napa is very pricey? My chuck beef burger was $14. Sure, it was yummy...but $14? Maybe that's why I'm broke now. We were still very early for our rooms, so we decided to hit the Napa Premium Outlets that were conveniently located about 4 minutes away from our B&B. The outlet was small in scale compared to the ones we have here in Southern California but they did have the following stores that I liked: TSE Cashmere, J. Crew, Kenneth Cole, Ann Taylor and a few others. We were absolutely exhausted already from our early start that morning and with the heat in the valley, we didn't have much incentive to shop. For all you shoppers out there, I would go to the Desert Hills Premium Outlet in Cabazon instead for a much bigger selection and I would use the time instead to see the wineries. Trust me on this. We got back to the B&B and checked into our rooms accordingly. Luckily our three bedrooms were right next to each other. It was a huge B&B with 6 rooms in the main house and 5 suites in the back for all you honeymooning, romantic couples. But for us gals, nah. Jane got the largest, most masculine room called Sherry. It was blue decor primarily with a huge bed that was super high (think: Princess and the Pea). I needed a step ladder to get onto the damn thing myself. Perhaps the extra box spring aided in better, ahem...procreation? Min got the Sun Room. It had a nice white wicker furniture, country theme with a patchwork quilt for a bedspread. She was also the only one with a balcony overlooking the garden and also the only one with the clawed foot bathtub a la Talented Mr. Ripley style. I think she enjoyed it because she didn't have that haunting Victorian style that Jane and my room had. *shiver* I got the room called Burgundy/Spring Rose. It was very beautiful as it was done up in colors of celadon and pale rose. Lotsa fluffy pillows, big teddy bear, wrought iron bedframe and lots of antique lamps lighting up the room. As beautiful as it was, I was slightly put off by the eerie feeling in the room due to its old Victorian manner. When night time came, it was a completely different feeling. Did I ever mention I have an active imagination? We unpacked in our rooms and decided to rest up before our dinner plans. I normally don't take naps but I fell asleep without setting the alarm. The next thing I knew, I looked at the clock which read 5:14pm. 5:14!!!!! Shit, I had to be at the Wine Train for dinner at 5:30pm! Fuck! I don't think I've ever gotten ready so quickly in such short notice. The idea of taking a relaxing shower, putting on my makeup slowly, getting dressed and making sure everything was perfect flew right out the window. Min and Jane were all ready and I came out of my room huffing and puffing with sweat beading on my forehead. I hate that feeling. Anyway, our dinner plan was on the Wine Train. It costs around $75 per person but well worth it. The train coasts along at around 35 miles per hour as you take in the fantastic scenery along Highway 29, all the way from Napa up to St. Helena. It was the most perfect time of day as the light from the sun setting along the valley casted a golden glow on the acres and acres of vineyards and the valleys itself. Wow. We chose to have dinner at 6:30pm. The food was scrumptious and the service was very attentive and I'm amazed to see how they balanced the food while the train rocked back and forth. Such skill. After about an hour and a half, we moved down to the lounge car for coffee and dessert, not to mention the ride back to Napa. By about this time, you're ready for bed bed because the train actually lulls you to sleep. After having your fill with all the great food - the dim lighting really makes you want to hit the sack. The lady at the next table was real friendly and snapped 2 pictures of us three with her Polaroid camera as a nice memento. I noticed that folks up in Napa were nicer than the ones in LA. Maybe it's because everyone's on vacation mode. Or maybe because they think 3 little Asian girls traveling together are very cute and defenseless. We spent the rest of the evening in Jane's room chatting away and to appease her fears of the old house. I finally returned back to my room around 12:30am and all of the sudden, the room looked really scary being all alone in it. Brrrrr. After making sure all the pillows were built up like a fort around me on this queen size bed and that the bathroom door was wide opened, I settled in for a night of rest. I turned off my lights. Not 3 minutes after I laid down that I began to feel something in my hair. Fingers. It was the feeling of fingers going through your hair. FUCK!!! My eyes snapped opened and then I froze. The sound then became more obvious as something scratching the pillow. It went from my hair to my pillow. FUCK!!! Hand of a ghost? Giant cockroach? Gargantuan rat? I counted to three and then jumped straight up out of bed and turned on the light. I braced myself for whatever I was going to see...supernatural or what not. There on my pillow was a giant moth. The so called fingers in my hair was obviously the wings fluttering about and it happened to feel like taking a stroll in my hair and on my pillow even though there were 8 other pillows not in use on my bed. Of all the fucked up shit to happen on my trip and in such a fuckin spooky Victorian house. I surprised myself in that I didn't even scream or yell out. The moth was gigantic. It had long spread out wings and it's body was a giant bulbous sort. To add to the torment of the whole situation, I remembered hearing somewhere that moths are actually the souls of dead people. Oh man. I can't kill it....it might come back in human shape. EGADS! So I turned on the bathroom light and lured the moth in there and quickly shut the door. I could not sleep for the rest of the night. Hung to the right side of my bed on the wall was an oval portrait of some Victorian lady. Her eyes are half opened, half closed. Obviously, I slept on the left side of the bed. The room was intensely hot that evening and that added to my restless night. But fear being the number one factor. I wouldn't even let my legs dangle over the side of the bed in fear that an arm might shoot out from underneath and grab hold of it pulling me under the bed and coming face to face with something I didn't want to see. Active imagination? I missed K. Stay tuned for Day 2. I'm out. |
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