For our first day trip away from the city where we are staying, we decided to go to Napa Valley; wine country. We figured we would see the countryside, eat lunch, taste a little wine, and get dinner on the way back. So we packed a picnic lunch and hit the road.
It was hot. Not Death Valley hot, but close. That made for a long ride. The fire trucks putting out the burning car on the side of the road (spontaneous combustion? It was hot enough) slowed things down even more.
The countryside was beautiful. Rolling hills colored gold from the long dry grass, dotted with dark green trees. A color contrast unlike anything we had seen yet.
Our neighbor, who likes to go to Napa and has kids about Will’s age, told us there are some “kid friendly” wineries in Napa Valley. We stopped at the first one we came to and had a nice picnic lunch. Well, the lunch was nice for Amy and me. Will and Matthew munched a bit; Collin and Alex refused to eat – Collin because he did not like the food and Alex because he was mad about something.
After we ate, we went to taste wine. When we saw that they charged $15 to taste the wines, we left. We went to the next “kid friendly” winery, and saw that they charged $15 to taste wines. We were starting to wonder what the deal was. We had been wine tasting in the Leelanau Peninsula a half dozen times and never paid to taste test wines. When I was here 17 years ago, I don’t remember anyone charging for wine tasting. Pete didn’t tell me anything about charges for tasting after he visited Napa a few years ago. It can’t be a fuel surcharge because they don’t need a motorized vehicle to walk the wine from the bottling room to the tasting room.
We went to the next “kid friendly” place. They wanted $20 per adult and $10 per kid to ride the tram to the top of a hill where we could do a self guided tour of the winery. We went to the next “kid friendly” place. They wanted around $20 per person for a tour of the wine cellars, and allowed only one child (at least 14 years old) on each tour. We gave up.
Everyone charged for tasting the wine. I refused, on principle, to pay to taste test wines. Instead, on the way home, we stopped at the (Rayleh expensive) grocery store to buy frozen pizzas and six bottles of wine for the same amount it would have cost the two of us to taste four wines at one winery. We tipped Alex a dollar to be our wine server (they only have to be 18 to serve wine in a restaurant, right?) and enjoyed our evening.
If we were not exactly the target market for merchants on the Las Vegas strip, we were miles from being the target market for Napa Valley wineries.
It was hot. Not Death Valley hot, but close. That made for a long ride. The fire trucks putting out the burning car on the side of the road (spontaneous combustion? It was hot enough) slowed things down even more.
The countryside was beautiful. Rolling hills colored gold from the long dry grass, dotted with dark green trees. A color contrast unlike anything we had seen yet.
Our neighbor, who likes to go to Napa and has kids about Will’s age, told us there are some “kid friendly” wineries in Napa Valley. We stopped at the first one we came to and had a nice picnic lunch. Well, the lunch was nice for Amy and me. Will and Matthew munched a bit; Collin and Alex refused to eat – Collin because he did not like the food and Alex because he was mad about something.
After we ate, we went to taste wine. When we saw that they charged $15 to taste the wines, we left. We went to the next “kid friendly” winery, and saw that they charged $15 to taste wines. We were starting to wonder what the deal was. We had been wine tasting in the Leelanau Peninsula a half dozen times and never paid to taste test wines. When I was here 17 years ago, I don’t remember anyone charging for wine tasting. Pete didn’t tell me anything about charges for tasting after he visited Napa a few years ago. It can’t be a fuel surcharge because they don’t need a motorized vehicle to walk the wine from the bottling room to the tasting room.
We went to the next “kid friendly” place. They wanted $20 per adult and $10 per kid to ride the tram to the top of a hill where we could do a self guided tour of the winery. We went to the next “kid friendly” place. They wanted around $20 per person for a tour of the wine cellars, and allowed only one child (at least 14 years old) on each tour. We gave up.
Everyone charged for tasting the wine. I refused, on principle, to pay to taste test wines. Instead, on the way home, we stopped at the (Rayleh expensive) grocery store to buy frozen pizzas and six bottles of wine for the same amount it would have cost the two of us to taste four wines at one winery. We tipped Alex a dollar to be our wine server (they only have to be 18 to serve wine in a restaurant, right?) and enjoyed our evening.
If we were not exactly the target market for merchants on the Las Vegas strip, we were miles from being the target market for Napa Valley wineries.
1 comment:
That's incredible. Never been wine tasting myself, but I will be sure not to go to CA when I finally get a chance!
Looking forward to a nice glass of wine after this baby arrives!!!!
:) Katie
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