A Visit With Rita and Chris

This has been a busy few days!  Saturday morning, October 12, we drove up to St. Helena, in Napa County, to visit Kathy's cousin Rita and her husband Chris.  They invited us to stay over the night so that we would be free to do some wine tasting without having to worry about driving home.

When we arrived, Chris and Rita had put together a wonderful little tapas lunch, including artisan breads and cheeses, and various deli meats.   David was so excited about the breads and cheeses that he snapped this photo:

To walk off our lunch, we took an almost-9-mile stroll over to the Napa River, through some vineyards, and on to two nearby wineries Chris and Rita favor.  As we started our hike, we passed the Napa Valley Wine Train, which had paused at its northernmost point before starting its return journey southward through Napa Valley:

Autumn was in the air, which was crisp and clear after the heavy morning fog and clouds burned off.  Even the vineyards displayed a bacchanalian Octoberfest with rusts, reds, oranges and yellows to set off the greens in the leaves of bushes and trees:

Some vineyards had side plantings of wildflowers, and one of these fields of wildflowers was still in bloom:

We stopped first at Charles Krug Winery, sampling a variety of white and red wines.  We bought one bottle there, and hiked on to Freemark Abbey Winery, where the hostess was kind enough to let us sit out on the patio while we conducted our wine tasting.  Here are Chris, Rita and Kathy enjoying the tasting at Freemark Abbey.  No, that's not sunburn on Kathy's nose:

Chris and Rita love and collect wines.  Once we had finished our wine tasting and purchases, we walked back to their house to prepare for dinner.  What better way to prepare for dinner than to sip a little wine?  Here's Rita demonstrating the proper method of enjoying a red wine (Breughel print optional):

The right way to cap off a wonderful steak dinner accompanied by grilled vegetables and corn on the cob, is to . . . have more wine!  Our hosts brought out their extensive music collection, including a large stack of old, original vinyl 45 rpm records, and we sipped and chatted (and then danced) to some golden oldies.

George and Eddie made a cameo appearance and sat on the sofa (well, perhaps virtually) along with two scary looking Halloween characters that appeared to be holding Rita and Chris hostage.

Whatever those were, we know that it was the wine that held Kathy and David hostage.  David mumbled something the next morning about experiencing "missing time,"  but no one else could remember where to help him find it, so it just remained lost.

This morning, we all leisurely slept until we awoke and partook of a scrumptious Stuffed French Toast that Kathy had prepared, and conducted our own syrup tasting with a selection of maple, hickory, birch and black walnut syrups.  This provided ample fuel for another hour or two of conversation before we had to leave around 11:00 am to prepare for our next social event.

By 2:00 p.m., we pulled up outside the San Rafael home of Katie's friend Carly, her husband Zach and their son Stephen.  Carly and Zach hosted a barbeque, to which Katie and other of their common friends were invited.  Katie's boyfriend Justin came along with Katie, and Justin's sister Jamie and her husband Ted joined in on the fun, along with Carly's sister Dana, their friend Sarah and her husband Andrew, Carly's college friends April and Paolo.  The highlight of the afternoon (other than Stephen, who completely stole the show, and the extraordinary table of food) was a rousing Cornhole Tournament, of which everyone agreed that Andrew was the dominating champion.  However, Carly and Dana made a strong run at Andrew and Paolo in the last match.  The festivities wrapped up a little after 5:00 p.m. and we headed home to prepare for . . . yet ANOTHER Napa Valley wine tasting adventure with Katie and Justin tomorrow.