Napa / San Fran, Day 2

We stayed at the beautiful Avia hotel downtown Napa.  The location made it very convenient to walk to dinner at night, which was a huge benefit to Hal. 
Thursday morning Hal had scouted a local place for breakfast, ABC. A wonderful small restaurant with some yummy food.  It's highly recommend that you put food in the belly before all the wine tastings.

What a handsome man and full of joy. 

Chris and Melissa gave us a wine tour on Platypus bus tours.  We highly recommend them.  Great atmosphere, small group of 12 and a delightful tour guide...Rod  We met up with 4 other couples Thursday morning for a day of tasting! 

Our tour guide...Rod .  Like so many people we met in Napa, Rod was a former hi-tech IT guy and gave it up for a more peaceful slower pace lifestyle.

These days all wineries charge for tastings, anywhere from $10 - $70.  Rod lined up several smaller wineries for us to visit which mean you are usually tasting with just your group.  It's a very intimate setting. 

We were greeted at the Ballentine Vineyard with a glass of wine to take with us on our tour....It's 10:30 AM!

 Kim was the Ballentine representative.  Very Knowledgeable, sweet and entertaining.

Our next stop was Lava Vine vineyard.  Joe, the owner gave us his story of how he came about being the  owner of his vineyard.

We had a nice picnic lunch on his patio.  Very relaxing.
Our next stop was the Arger Mattuci vineyard sitting out next to a pool overlooking the vineyards and mountains.

On to our last stop of the day, Hopper Creek.  We have a ton of pics here...so get ready.  Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Dan was our tour guide.  What a great way to wind up the day!

After our tastings inside, we got to go hang out side on his patio...lovely.

 Now this is living.  No stress here!

Thank you Chris and Melissa for a wonderful day!