Friday, July 22, 2011

Book Review, From Napa to Atl

Before recapping our LAST day in Napa (boo!), I wanted to share a book review. I raced through this one during our trip - Emily Listfield's The Last Good Night. I thought it was a total page turner. It was about a female newscaster with a great job and happy home. However, she seemed to have a lot of image issues, which was interesting and made her very human. She also had a secret - and someone from her past shows up to expose it. So the story unfolds by giving a major glimpse into the good and bad of being in show business, as well as her past, how she got here, and what happened in her past that's threatening to ruin her present. Lots of twists and surprises - I really enjoyed it and give this one a 4.5/5 - great pace, suspense, and well edited, but to me there were a few parts that seemed to be added for sensationalism but just made me a little uncomfortable if that makes sense. Overall, a great vacation read that I would recommend!

K - last day in Napa was Monday. Here's pics!
We got up early and I ran to the gym with Austin's dad. We worked out, then ran back to the lodge - awesome! I then got ready and packed up quickly, we needed to get to our first stop above - Staglin Family!
Here we are walking down through the vineyard to the tasting room!
We passed this on the way - can you even imagine having an entertainment area like this?! I can't!
We enjoyed our first tasting on Staglin's huge back deck overlooking the vineyard and the mountain - beautiful views!
Then it was time to tour the cave (i.e that beautiful building covered in vines in the first pic!)
Loved this shot from inside the cave to outside
Then it was back to the tasting room - I sat in front of those flowers at the table for the rest of the tastings and we seriously looked out into that view - AMAZING!
Here we are with our two other testing companions, a couple from Dallas, and our host at Staglin.
Loved this shot of Austin on the balcony overlooking the vineyard - so pretty there!
Afterwards we were running out of time! So we stopped by a couple of wineries - one we just looked at  Chateau Montelena Winery (above) and another we had a tasting at Rombauer Vineyards. 
I snaggged this in the car at about 25 mph - nice! We were headed to our last in-town stop before the airport - Hope & Grace.
This winery was named after his two daughters, Hope & Grace. We loved the wine!
Here we are outside after becoming Wine Club members! Our first winery membership - we start getting shipments in October - woo! We also bought a glass jug - so cute!
After our last stop, we headed to San Francisco to fly out on a 10:30 flight, which arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday at 6:35 a.m. We had a horrible flight - true story. I was all ready to get cozy and sleep, but an 8-year-old boy decided to talk in his outside voice and kick the back of our chairs even though we asked his mother several times for him to stop - but she just shrugged and asked him to "shhhhh." Oh my. So Tuesday was pretty much a wash: more sleeping, unpacking, laundry, getting pups (eeee!), walking around like a zombie, etc. Wednesday was my first day back at work - so I was tired. I did get up early and work out, but I wasn't feeling it. Just ran a mile, did abs and a bunch of jumping jacks and called it a workout, before heading in, working, using lunch to run to Ikea, more work, and then I hosted my boss's going away party, so I didn't get home until 8. OY. BUT, i'm glad to be back and got rest night after her party!! (and WOW am I going to miss her - but that's a whole other post!). I'll recap yesterday tomorrow - I went to a fun concert! And I have another book review to share and a recipe - woo! HAPPY FRIDAY!

Q: What's your favorite vacation read?


Q: Have you ever taken a red eye flight? Any tips?


Q: Whatcha doing this weekend?

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