Napa Nirvana

Well, I've just been absolutely worthless since I got back from Napa.  It's been almost 2 weeks ago since my long weekend getaway with my friend, Shawn.  It was her birthday and she decided to get a group together to go to the wine country.  Ten of us originally signed up to go and Shawn rented a 5 bedroom house on VRBO that would sleep 12.

You probably already can guess what happened.  Only 3 of us ended up going on the trip.  We had this huge house all to ourselves.  It had a hot tub and swimming pool and a huge deck with an amazing view of Napa Valley.  

Awesome view, right?  Every morning I would get up and get some coffee from our built in Miele coffee machine and sit out on the huge deck and check out the view.  The deck of course had a huge sectional outdoor couch with an ottoman that would fit with the couch to make a huge bed.

I was in heaven.  I definitely need to purchase one of these sectional couches for my balcony here at home.  It would be the perfect place to hang out and read a book.

When we weren't enjoying our view at the house, we were going on winery tours and tastings at some very small boutique wineries that I had never heard of.  Shawn's longtime friend, Scotty, who is now living in Napa Valley and is in the wine business had our itinerary all set up.  He even took us to dinner at Calistoga Ranch which me and Shawn didn't realize that you can't even eat there unless you stay there at their $1500 per night cottages or have a Vinter's membership.  We went to Solage for some spa treatments as well and on our last night had a small dinner party at our house including a wine tasting from some guy's very own winery that ended up showing up to our dinner.  It was unbelievable!  

It was just so nice to get away to great weather, great food, great wine, and good times.  It was so relaxing.  I really had a hard time coming back home other than the fact that I missed my husband.  

Something really interesting happened on the trip.  Many of you knew that before I went to Napa, I had told some of you that I was worried that I lost my sense of humor.  Nothing was funny to me anymore and I wasn't laughing at all anymore.  It was making me really sad.  Well, all I can say is that it was a good thing I couldn't laugh for a while.  I ended up laughing hysterically at Shawn on the first day of the trip at something she did and I guess I must have strained a muscle in my abdomen or maybe pulled some scar tissue from my incision because I was really sore in my abdomen the next day.  So bad that I couldn't bend over AT ALL!  The good thing though is that the pain had disappeared by the 3rd day and I felt even better than before my surgery.  It was like I needed a good belly laugh to loosen up the scar tissue or incision.

So I'm back to laughing now!  Things are funny and I am found my sense of humor, at least what I have of one.  

Thanks Shawn for inviting me on such a wonderful trip.  Happy Birthday!

Shawn and Saki at Fischer Winery

One more thing I wanted to add...here's the link to Great Day Houston's TV piece of Pink Pigeons Sporting Clay Tournament from September.  It aired last week.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSDZdh9v4uY&feature=plcp