Arlington National Cemetary

Going to the Arlington National Cemetary while in DC was a must for me. Mom had gone last summer when she visited, but she went anyway. After walking around the basin, from the Washington Monument to Jefferson and then Lincoln, we headed that way. It did not look near as far away as it was. When we arrived, we were exhausted. It was so worth the walk though.

I loved this quote.

This was the most moving part of the cemetary and really the whole trip.  The precission that they guard the tomb with is just amazing. 

Cherry Blossom Festival Part 3

I realized it's been a month and a half and I still haven't finished my posts about my trip to DC.  There are just two more, the Smithsonian museums and the Arlington National Cemetary.

We only went in a few of the Smithsonians and didn't spend a lot of time in any of them.  I'd like to go back at a less busy time of the year and spend much more time.  The first day of the trip, we went into the American History museum.  The second day we ended up in the Air and Space museum in order to stay dry.  We also checked out the Natural History museum so that I could get a few pictures for my students and then took some pictures outside The Castle.  With the all the crowds in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival it was packed to the point of not being enjoyable.  Here are a few (very random) pictures through the museums.

American History Museum

First Dumbo ride for Disney 

 George Washington statue that was basically rejected by citizens.

Air and Space Museum

Natural Science Museum

The Castle

My favorite was American History museum.  I'd love to go back and just spend hours looking around, especially without rude and rowdy children all around!  If you've been to the Smithsonians, what was your favorite?

Meg in the City-Day Three

Sunday, Kimmie had another fun day plan.   After a wonderful breakfast, we got ready and headed out to Fisherman's Wharf.  We started with lunch at Hardrock Cafe.  Kimmie had found a great buy one get one free coupon for hamburgers.  After lunch, we walked around some, admired the sea lions at the pier and then found our dock for our harbor cruise.

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf

Kimmie had found a really great deal for a harbor tour on Groupon.com.  It was a 90 minute tour through the harbor on double mast sail boat.  We got to see Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, and a great view of the city.  It was a bit chilly on the water, but not too bad as I was prepared.  Although, a beanie/tobagan/hat (whatever you call it) would have helped some, both with the cold ears and the crazy hair.

Our Sailboat

Alcatraz

Our view

Golden Gate Bridge-Notice all the fog

Me a bit windblown

Next on the itenerary was Ghiradelli Square.  It wasn't a bad walk at all from the pier and the sun felt great.  While there, we had some great cupcakes at Kara's Cupcakes.  It was the best strawberry cupcake I've had.  We also stopped by the Ghiradelli store (of course) to pick up some of the new Caramel Latte chocolate bars.  Yum!

Wonderful Organic Strawberry Cream Cupcake

Our last stop for the day was at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park.  There we admired the sites, took lots of pictures and enjoyed some tea.

My tea and rice cakes (I think)

Fun bridge in the gardens

Meg in the City-Day Two-Part 2

After leaving Castello di Amorosa, we set off for Sterling Vineyards.  This was another "must" on Kimmie's list of wineries.  Our tour began with a tram up the hillside.  Once we reached the top, we began our self paced tour.  Throughout the tour, their were 5 tables set up, each featuring on one of the wines for our tasting.  It was a beautiful winery with beautiful views of the area.

Us on the tram

View from the winery

Our next stop, V. Sattui Windery.  This winery had a beautiful picnic ground; however they did not allow you to bring your own food in.  Kimmie had packed us a wonderful lunch of cheese, crackers, salami and grapes...what else are you to eat when wine tasting?  So, we found a parking spot and had a picnic in the car.  The grounds were very pretty.  We chose to do a wine tasting and chocolate pairing with 5 white wines and 5 chocolates.  It was delicious!  While most wineries in Napa do not allow for weddings (think if 100 wineries had weddings on the same day with 100 guests each, that would be 10000 people in a very small area with a two lane highway), V. Sattui is able to have weddings.  It would make a beautiful setting.

Fountain at V. Sattui

Our chocolates

Our last stop, Cakebread Cellars.  Cakebread is a small family ran winery.  The people here were all very friendly, and very forgiving of the fact that we were five minutes late due to traffic.  Here we did a tasting.  The wines were more full bodied, a bit much for the end of the day, but still good.  With each wine, we heard about the history of that particular wine.  As it was the end of the day, we didn't really have much time to look around as they were getting ready to close.

The sign at the front

Us at Cakebread Cellars

Cakebread Cellars

What would be a better end to a wonderful day of winetasting you ask?   Cupcakes, of cours.  Kimmie found a wonderful cupcake place in Napa, Sift Cupcakery.  It was a cute little cupcakery in a dress shop, the Cakeplate, I believe it was called.  I decided to go with the Keylime Cupcake and it was amazing.  It was a vanilla cake with key lime filling and key lime mousse.  It tasted very natural and not overly sweet.  Yum! 

  

Key Lime Cupcake

It was a wonderful day!  I can't say thank you enough to Kimmie for all of her work in planning such a great trip!  Check back Monday for the last day of Meg in the City. 

Meg in the Cit-Day Two-Part 1

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Napa Valley.  I'm not going to lie, this was the part of the trip that I was most excited about.  Kimmie and I had started doing Texas wine tasting 4 years ago and it became something we enjoyed together.  I was so excited to go to see what Napa was like.  Kimmie was such an amazing host.  She spent lots of time searching blogs and websites to find the wineries that we would.  And she did an outstanding job at selecting. 

The first winery on our stop...Castello di Amorosa.  WOW!  I was in awe.  We drove past many wineries on the way, but none had compared.  It was a castle!  Kimmie had signed us up for a tour and we were a bit early (due to having reschedule for being a bit late) so we looked around and took a few pictures. 

Castello di Amorosa

Us standing outside the castle

Me in front of the castle

 The view from the castle

When our tour started, we were relieved to find we had a wonderful tour guide.  The tour was about an hour long.  We saw the chapel where they actually hold Mass.  We saw the dining room and other various rooms.  But, my favorite part was the tunnels and caves.  The owner wanted this to be just like a "real" castle so he had created underground tunnels and caves.  The caves were build in the side of the hill and were used as cellars to store the wine in the oak barrells. 

If you are a Bachelor watcher, you may remember this castle from Jake's season.  The show had the girls staying the night in the castle and sneaking through the caves.  I was very sad to learn that the girls didn't realy stay the night there, as the castle doesn't allow overnight guests.  They had just pretended. 

Oak barrels in the cave

Chapel

The dining room-all handpainted

Inside the castle

After the tour, we were able to taste the wines.  Our tour guide was so kind and suggested we each share our wines so that we could taste more of them.  She even let us try a few extras.  In addition to our pairing, Kimmie had signed us up for some chocolate pairings.  Very yummy!  I think both of us decided our favorite was their muscat cannelli- Il Raggio del Sole.  A nice "bubble bath wine" as we like to call them. 

Our Chocolates

It was by far my favorite winery of the day.  If you are lucky enough to to go Napa, I strongly suggest going to Castello di Amorosa.  I would recommend though, that you save this tour for the last, as no other tour or winery will compare. 

Us in the grapes

I had originally planned to fill you in on all the wineries we toured on Saturday, but that would end up being one long blog.  So stay tuned for the other wineries and for day 3.  And if you want to see more pictures or read Kimmie's take on it all, head over to her blog and check it out.

Meg in the City-Day 1

Kimmie named the trip Meg in the City and I loved it.  I'm going to start with Friday, because Thursday was mostly traveling, nothing very exciting.

Friday was Kimmie's birthday, so we set out to celebrate.  The day started off kind of rocky and I was really worried about Kimmie having a good birthday, but in the end, I'd like to think it turned out to be a pretty good day.

We started with lunch at Leland Tea Company.  Kimmie picked out the Tea for Two which was just perfect (minus the cucumbers).  If you're ever in SF, I strongly recommend checking out Leland Tea Company.  Lunch was amazing.  And the tea was wonderful as well.  Look at the presentation!    

After lunch, we dealt with the fun SF traffic and headed over to Tru Day Spa for a Moji-Toe pedicure and a Vanilla Sky manicure.  We got an amazing deal on the service through Groupon.  It was a very relaxing experience and we even got to enjoy a wonderful mojito while being pampered.

What else can a girl do for some fun after pampering?  Cupcakes and shopping, of course.  So, we headed to Union Square.  While the cupcakes looked delicious, the unfortunately were disappointing.  They have a Macy's and Nordstroms to die for.  We're talking like 5 floors.   

After shopping, we headed back to Kimmie's apartment to get prettied up and then off to Kimmie's birthday dinner at Absinthe.  We enjoyed steak, olives, french fries, and a cheese plate.  And of course, drinks. 

 

After dinner, we called it a night.  We had to get our rest for Napa on Saturday.

Note:  All pictures are courtesy of Kimmie.