This summer's heat was brutal. What the heck sun? Why you gotta be so hot? Though I suppose it's something we expect living in Sacramento. Mildly rainy winters, disgustingly hot summers. I'm sure somewhere in the world there is someone who appreciates the sweltering summer, I, on the other hand, am a fall girl through and through. Yes, I am basic. But I don't care, there's something lovely about the autumn breeze, the falling leaves and layering up, that really pleases me. Though I am firmly against this ridiculous notion of putting pumpkin into a latte. Hard pass on that one.
As the weather here begins to cool, I should probably recap my quick travel in July. In an effort to escape the heat, and to celebrate my Mom's birthday we hopped into the car and headed to Napa for the shortest day among the vines.
Our first stop in Napa was the Oxbow Public Market. It's a frequent destination anytime the family heads to wine country. They have this restaurant there called Kitchen Door. It's so Instagram-worthy. Have a look:
After an amazing lunch, we headed off in search of wine. My friend had told me about this winery/castle in Calistoga so naturally, we had to go there. We pulled up to Castle Di Amorosa, and it's actually the most stunning place. I'm sure there are hundreds of people that get married there. While it definitely had that Italian vibe to it, I could only think of the castles in Windsor and Kent that I visited in England. Did I pretend like I was back there? Hell yes. All the castles, all the time, please.
We wandered through the vineyards, the castle's walls, and eventually headed downstairs to taste the wine. They keep all their wine in the cellar, and in order to get to the tasting room, you have to wander through dusty, empty bottles. It was a bit crypt-like down there. The wine itself was pretty great, and while I'm typically a cabernet kind of girl, their rose´was worthy of the ultimate basic swoon.
Pressed for time, we sped off towards Sonoma. My dad was desperate to get to Enkidu's tasting room. We had opened a bottle of theirs a few weeks prior, and it was fantastic. In a fashion very typical of my family, we got lost on the way and just barely made it in time to purchase wine.
The owners of Enkidu recommend we head in Glen Ellen to the Girl and the Fig's sister cafe: The Fig Cafe. Apparently, Glen Ellen is a very tiny town, and they have a similar bridge to the opening credits of One Tree Hill, so you can bet that I sang Gavin Degraw's "I Don't Want To Be" the whole way across it. The Fig Cafe was excellent. It's just this little tiny place, but their food was all farm to fork; and they had figs everything -- the walls, the food, the drinks, even the soap in the bathroom was fig.
We sufficiently stuffed our faces with delicious eats, rolled ourselves back to the car, and returned to the heat of Sacramento.
