Get the next car!

IT's A LONG ONE. Complete details of Day 1 and 2

Tuesday the 18th

2:45am Jax, I'm getting up and taking a shower
Okay. I'll hop in afterwards

3:10am Wanna play cards? It is still too early to go to Logan Express
Okay...War?
That is probably the worst card game, but whatever. Just to pass time

3:30am Sorry sir. If there is room on the bus before we leave, you two can come along.
Why can't we go now?
Employees only right now sir.

We ended up on the bus. It was full of TSA, vendor and airline employees. After we checked in with US Airways and strode through security, we chilled for a bit until boarding. We had plenty of time. Our flight left on time (5:30 am), but Philly was a different story.

For those that have read my past stories involving traveling through the Philadelphia airport, and for those that have been through it themselves, you will know the outcome already. The facility is a dump. It smells like open ass, the bathrooms are disgusting, and you wait on the runway forever just to take off. Our plane left the gate on time, but we were 15th in line to take off and it took over an hour of waiting on the runway.

When we finally arrived in SF, I noticed something very similar. I felt as if the same people that were charged with the upkeep of the bathroom facilities in Philadelphia are also charged with the upkeep of San Francisco. That airport sucked big time too. It took forever for Jax's bag to emerge.

By this time, we are starving. We had been up since 3am East Coast time, with little odds and ends to get us through the trip. We were told that there was an In n Out burger near the airport, so all we had to do was get the car and drive over.

We took the tram from the terminal to the Rental Car Depot area. I rented from Dollar. It will be my last time. Just to give you a heads up, I was supposed be renting a Dodge Charger. I will elaborate on this sentence in a few.

The majority of the times when renting cars, I go in, the process is quick, and I'm out. I think I waited in line for 25 minutes before being helped at the Dollar counter. After I specify that I don't want insurance, and I want to fill the tank myself, yada yada yada, the woman asks me

"Would you like to upgrade to a minivan at no cost?"

How is a minivan an upgrade? Yes, may I please drive around with empty McDonald's cups in the back seat cup holders, with a mesh bag of soccer balls in the rear? While you're at it, install a kid seat because my non-pregnant girlfriend is about to pop at any second.

"No thanks. I'll take the full-size"

"Well, we don't have any available right now. They need to be cleaned. Please sit and we will call you in 10 to 15 minutes"

You don't have any cars available? I specified the time of arrival, I specified that I am reserving a car and you don't have one. Here I am, after trekking across the country, barely having eaten anything, and I've got to wait longer. So, Jax and I sat, making fun of the agents at the counter with the other people unfortunate enough not to have their cars waiting for them.

"Mr. Schlemiel?"
"Yes"
"We have a Chrysler Pacifica. Will that be ok?"
"What is that?"
"It is a combination SUV/Minivan. It is a luxury car"
"OH....um...okay, I guess"
"It is a luxury vehicle"

It was a luxury station wagon more like it. And, it guzzled gas like you wouldn't believe. But the car rental companies don't care that they guzzle gas. If you don't fill it, they make out like bandits

So, we were off. But not before asking for the location of this In n Out Burger. I got 3 separate directions, although one person had it right, to their credit. After Jax and I fought about McDonald's or In n Out, we finally stopped for directions and found the bloody place. It was worth it.

We drove north, through SF, over the Bay Bridge and into Wine Country. I was surprised to see that there was a $4 toll in the middle of nowhere. We finally get into Napa and park at our hotel. The lovely River Terrace Inn.

If you ever go to Napa, I definitely suggest staying there. We received exceptional service.

Jax and I really weren't in the driving to the vineyards mood. That and the fact that we got checked in at 4pm Western Coast time, and the vineyards closed at 5. We walked towards downtown Napa and ended up at a place called the Bounty Hunter. As it was our first wine tasting, we brought our wine guy up to speed. He had us both try a bunch of different wines, each costing about $3-$5 for 2oz of wine. The people in there were very friendly and had we not had plans to grab something to eat somewhere else, we definitely would have tried their BBQ. Apparently they have a nice cheese plate as well. There was a young couple tasting at Bounty Hunter too. They were probably in their early - mid twenties, just like us, however the guy seemed to be acting a little immature. I noticed he was wearing a Sox hat, but I didn't question his loyalties because they seemed like an odd couple. He definitely wasn't from Boston because he had a different type of accent.

We left Bounty Hunter and walked around. The whole part of downtown was dead. We eventually walked back to our hotel, chilled for a little bit and made our way over to Cuvee, which I think is part of our hotel. We sat at the bar and met the bartender, Ben. He was the man, and because of such, we started each of our 3 nights there before going to the restaurants we tried. That night, we didn't feel like going out out, and it was just before the end of happy hour, so we got half priced apps. We also tried a bunch of different wines. Wouldn't you know it, Ben's family owned a vineyard. It seems everyone around owned one. I got the Chipotle and Honey BBQ Pork Ribs, which were exceptional. Jax got some sort of cheese thing, and we finished it up with their churros. After eating, we left, headed off to bed because Wednesday was going to be a long one.

We woke up early on Wednesday. The majority of vineyards don't open until 10am, but we wanted to map out our routes and grab some breakfast. The hotel's breakfast was awesome. They have great coffee, cheeses, eggs, hash browns, pastries and more. We left our hotel to go to the liquor store because we wanted a Styrofoam cooler and ice to keep our wine in (if you buy wine and leave it in the car to cook, it'll come out awful). After getting our supplies, we were off on the Silverado Trail.

I just want to give a heads up to those that don't have a clue as to how the whole wine tasting thing works. You drive to a vineyard, and you get to try the vineyards wines. Occasionally (and more often than not), they will charge you a fee to try X various wines that they offer. Sometimes, if you buy a bottle, they will wave that charge. Sometimes, you need to buy X bottles in order to wave the charge. It is a good idea to figure out how much the vineyard charges for the bottles before you go ahead and belly up. I learned this quick...actually, at my very first vineyard. Yeah, I learned the hard way. Also, some vineyards lie to their customers, saying that their wines are not available in liquor stores. We learned they were lying the hard way as well.

Jax and I arrived a little early to our first vineyard, Darioush. We pull in, look around and admire the building. All of the stone in the estate has been imported from Iran. The owner is a Persian who wanted to give his estate a Persian feel. It was absolutely beautiful. Our first tasting flight was $20. Luckily enough, Jax and I were able to share the flight. We tried many different wines they were offering. After tasting, we were asked if we'd like to taste anything else. I declined, said we were leaving, but would like to buy a bottle of their Pinot Noir. The bottle cost me $48. That is the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever purchased. However, he did wave the flight fee which was nice. Don't get me wrong, the wine is exceptional, but I don't know if my wine palate is developed enough to really sense a notable difference between a $30 bottle and a $48 bottle.

Next, we were off to V. Sattui. Frommers specified that the wine tasting there was free. When we got there, it did cost money, but not too much: $10 a piece for 5 or 6 wines each, but the salesman gave us probably closer to 7 or 8 each. We ended up buying 5 bottles of stuff from this place. They would have waved our tasting fee if we had bought 12. This place truly was awesome. It was the type of atmosphere we were looking for: Lots of talking, people looking like they enjoy their job, patrons looking like they were enjoying themselves, and a pretty laid back environment. The tasting I enjoyed the most was the Madeira. It is a dessert wine that reminds me of a Port. The funny thing is that while I hopped onto the Madeira web-page, I noticed that they are selling it for less online than what I payed for it at the store. I would like to note that this place really doesn't sell their stuff in liquor stores. They also had a bunch of cheeses to taste, and we ended up buying some sort of Gouda.

We drove to Taylor's Refresher to split a Wisconsin Sourdough burger, no mushrooms. The food their was awesome. It seems as if the places we didn't expect to be good were actually great, and the places we expected great things from were just good if not only OK.

After the light lunch, we headed over to Robert Mondavi. We ended up doing a tour of the estate. Everyone says that if you tour one, you tour them all. So, you might as well do the one where the tour is spectacular. The tour we had was exceptional. $25 gets you into the estate, behind closed doors and a tasting of 3 wines. I had always though of Mondavi as a household name because you can get it in the local liquor stores here. I was wrong. Mondavi has wine down to a science. He was the pioneer of the wine tasting industry. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. It was supposed to last only 75 minutes, and we bypassed 90. But, we were all hanging onto his every word. At the end, we sat next at a table that looked into the bottling room. He served a cheese cracker to everyone that we would try with the wines. The only problem I had with the tour was the tasting in that the guide was TOO into the drinking part. He had to taste every wine before pouring for others, and after every sip, you'd hear a

"I love my job" or "MMppph...this is sooo good"

Seriously, get over it. Remember, in the long run, it is a beverage. Nothing more. Sure, it may be a delicious beverage, but it's only a beverage.

Jax and I only bought a tool that removes the oxygen from already opened bottles of wine. We didn't buy any bottles there, but we will definitely look at their products when purchasing wine here.

The last vineyard we went to on Wednesday was the Modanna Estate. We had tried their wine either at Bounty Hunter or at Cuvee, but I don't recall. We also wanted to go to a smaller vineyard and this satisfied those requirements. $12 a piece got us the tastings of a Reserve wine, along with various others. Once again, we were poured more than what was advertised. In the end, we bought a bottle for Jax's parents, along with a Pinot for me and something else for Jax. Our tasting fee wasn't waived...instead, they gave us 2 wine glasses to take home.

We left there pretty happy, and headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for our dinner out to Ad Hoc.

We started out at Cuvee, grabbing a glass there and then drove about 15 minutes to our restaurant. I believe Ad Hoc is owned by Tom Keller who is the famous chef of French Laundry. If click on the FL link you will notice that French Laundry accepts reservations 2 months in advance and it costs a flat fee of $240 per person, not including alcohol. If you bring your own wine, $50 corkage fee.

After about a 10-15 minute drive, we arrive in Yountville to our destination. We sat down and ordered a couple glasses of wine. This restaurant has set courses, so after we perused what we were eating, we got started. Let me point out that I was expecting a real "Fine Dining" experience when arriving at Ad Hoc. This was not the case. It was Fine Dining prices with "Family Style" dining. I was expecting something a little more. First came out a salad of some sort. It was an Iceburg wedge salad I believe, with a champagne vinaigrette dressing. It was ok.
Then, our wine came out with our main course which was an herb encrusted pork tenderloin. I thought it tasted great, but once again, I would have preferred my own plate a la carte. Following the pork was a Detroit Blue Cheese with fig jam and pecans. The Blue cheese was great, but I wasn't a fan of the jam. Jax was in heaven though. The table next to us seemed a little snobby, and started talking amongst themselves when a certain individual walked in. I came to find out later that it was none other than Tom Keller himself. The table next to us was not a fan of the dessert course by any means. It was a banana upside-down cake with caramel ice cream. It sort of had 3 layers. The dry upside-down cake at the bottom, the cake that was soggy from the ice cream, and then the ice cream. I liked the ice cream and the dry part of the cake, but I left the soggy part alone. I finished my meal with a Shiner Boch. I haven't had one of those since January when I was in Houston.

After our rather mediocre dining experience, we hopped back to Cuvee for a nightcap before heading off to bed. In the next post, I will speak about the Vineyard de Doobie Bros and Prime NY Strip!