Franeks Take the West Coast: Napa, CA

Hey everybody,

Napa Valley came next on our trip! We hopped off the train in Oakland and rented a car through enterprise. Literally the worst service ever at the broadway location. They were an hour and a half late to pick us up at the train station and we still waited an hour to get our car once we got there. I will definitely be making a call to corporate! However, once we got on the road we had beautiful views! We stopped at Gott’s Roadside for lunch. It was DELISH! Definitely recommend. Everything in California is pricey, so for a “fast food” type place, it wasn’t cheap, but it was WAY better quality than most quick service food. Next we headed up to Sterling Vineyards. I am so happy we picked this as our winery stop. Number one, they have an aerial tram that takes you up (it was so cool!). Number two, it had an AMAZING terrace and view from the top! We did the general admission tour, but got to learn a lot about how wine is made. We also had the opportunity to taste four samples of wine (they were decently sized). The white was really good, but the red merlot honestly tasted like an old shoe lol. Madis face was priceless when trying it. Needless to say, we still aren’t wine drinkers, but did it all for the experience. 

On our way back to check into our hotel, Springhill Suites, we stopped at the Welcome to Napa sign for some photos. After checking into our hotel and bringing our bags to the room, we headed over to Oxbow Market for dinner at Kitchen Door. It was pricey again, but delicious. I’m sure those of us who know Madi and I can tell who’s food is who’s from our pictures. Madi was craving frozen yogurt, so we found a delicious little place across the way that is a Christian store called, Yobelle Frozen Yogurt. It was really good and we got to jam to some Chris Tomlin. We hit the hay early as we had to be up at 4:30am for our hot air balloon tour. We called the weather line as instructed when we woke up and they said we were good to go. However when we arrived, got checked in, and loaded into the vans, they decided to cancel because of fog and high winds. I was SUPER disappointed. They did give a full refund, so I did some googling and found a place in San Diego that does hot air balloons, so cross your fingers that we will have good weather when we are there so we can participate! Hot air ballooning is on my bucket list after all!! 

Overall, Napa was a great stop. It is something you must do if you’re going to be near that part of California. Even Madi said it was worth stopping in. Our next segment will be in San Francisco. We have a chill first day followed by a packed second day. We want to try to see as much as possible in each of these cities since we don’t know when we will be back! 

Must dos in Napa Valley:

- Stop at Gott’s Roadside 

- Explore in Sterling Vineyards 

- Eat at Kitchen Door

- Book a Hot Air Balloon Tour (and pray the weather is good!!)

I also feel like in each place that we stop I associate it with a movie or TV show and then want to watch it. So here are what I’ve thought of on our stops so far:

- Seattle: 10 Things I Hate About You

- Portland: MTV’s the Real World: Portland

- Napa: The Parent Trap
Who wants a movie marathon when I get back! (Obviously these movies are in the Franek collection already ;))

Thanks for keeping up,

- Olivia :)