California Dreamin' - Part 2

For so much drinking the night before we actually woke up pretty early and ready to pick up our rental car. We took a cab over to Enterprise and were on our way!

Some scenes from the drive:

Flash flood!

Our first stop was Sausalito for some breakfast. We went to a little diner and I had a huge omelette.

I REALLY wanted to go to the Redwood Forest but it was about 5 hours out of the way, so we "compromised" with a stop at the Muir Woods. I say compromised because the woods were absolutely gorgeous. It was an amazing stop. It started with a very windy road up the mountain. We of course had to stop a few times to take in the amazing views:

Sadly my iPhone camera is pretty terrible and you can't see the Golden Gate and the skyline in the background. Luckily I have my brain to always remember the beauty!

I will never forget the amazing scent that came through the windows as we drove up the mountain. It was the first of many times I would experience pure, unadulterated joy on this trip. If I could bottle that smell up and sell it as linen spray I'd be a rich woman!

We spent about two hours wandering through the woods, chatting about life and other less serious things. Some photos:

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir :)

A few hours later we were in Napa! We arrived at our AirBnB, an adorable little cottage about 5 minutes from downtown Napa.

Love it. This house came with an ORANGE TREE!!!, a lemon tree, and a 2 year old snuggly kitten. Clearly it was made for me.

We hung out at the house for a little while and got to know our host Laura: an older divorcee from London. As she's giving us the tour of the house she tells us, "The house comes with a special surprise that wasn't in the listing: a 25-year old, 6 ft tall, former college swimmer lives in the other wing. He's at the gym right now." WHAT!?! Haha I love this lady!! We waited for the dude to show up so we could introduce ourselves, then made our way downtown for dinner. I had done some research ahead of time and really wanted to go to Carpe Diem Wine Bar but when we showed up it was closed because of the earthquake back in August! Sheesh. 

We walked over to another place I had bookmarked -- Celadon -- but it was a two hour wait for a table. We had time to spare, so we put our names down and went in search for some charcuterie. Downtown Napa is super cute:

We eventually stumbled upon Cadet Wine & Beer Bar, which was *literally* my dream restaurant come true. They ONLY served freshly made charcuterie, wine from smaller vineyards, and some uber local craft beers. They also had an old school record player and tons of vinyls -- you buy a bottle from them, you pick the next record! Amazing. Cadet had only recently opened so we spent a bunch of time talking to the woman who created the place. She was so great. I want to be her.

Yum. I also had my first few glasses of Napa wine! Unfortunately I can't remember anything about them except that they were delicious. The time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to Celadon. Despite the charcuterie I was ready to eat! We ordered mussels to start:

And I ordered the seared tuna for my entree. It was great!

We considered heading out to a bar after dinner but opted instead to head back to the house and try to get a decent night's sleep. Luckily Sophie (the cat) was waiting or us!