I will be back to regular blogging .... Yay!!

Hello readers,
I will be back from Germany on Saturday 20 June. Let the blogging begin!!

Trip to California---Part 2

Hey awesome readers! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday? I know it has been such a long time but I am back now and I intend to update more often. I now have my wonderful Macbook pro but that is another blog for another day.

So where did we leave off? Oh I remember……. Staying at the Best Western in Sonoma.

Once we checked in to The Best Western, we made reservations to go eat at Saddles Stake house, which is part of the MacArthur Place Inn and Spa. The food was really good but I wasn’t wowed by the service. We pretty much ate and then left.
Check out the pics.






We went back to our hotel room and hung out drinking one the wines we bought during one of our earlier in the day at Napa.

The next morning is was pouring down raining …. YUCK!! But that wasn’t going to stop us from touring some wineries. I am so glad we did because we ended up liking the wineries in Sonoma than Napa. Also the wine tastings were cheaper and weren’t as crowded as

We started out with Valley of the Moon winery because someone asked us to get a particular bottle of wine there. The wine tasting was only $5 dollars for five tastings. While we were doing our tasting the winery lost power so they had to close. All in all I liked the wines I tasted but I didn’t remember much about how good or bad they were because we had to leave. Therefore, I can’t recommend any particular wine from there.






We moved on to our next winery and one of my favorites Chateau St. Jean! I love this winery from the moment we drove through the gates and the walk from the parking lot into the tasting room I was in heaven. The architecture and landscape were to die for. The tasting was I think $10 or $15 and we must have tasted about 9 different types wines. The guy even got me to taste and like white wine, which is very rare. If you ever you ever go to this winery please do your tasting with Matt! You will thank me later he is knowledgeable and very personable. We were pretty much the only group he had for about 2 hours there and it was a loads of fun. If you go to Sonoma you have to this winery. For whites I will recommend the 2007 Fume Blanc (Lyon Vineyards) and for the reds I will suggest the 2003 reserve Cabernet Sauvignon by Margo Van Staaveren it is pricey but damn good!




We asked Matt what other winery are great and he suggested Ledson Winery. What a great suggestion that was! This freaking place was beautiful!! Matt also suggested we go to his roommate Cyrus who works at Ledson and that was also a great choice. We ended up spending about 1 12 hr there. The tastings were about $15 and the ambience was awesome! Cyrus was funny, knowledgeable, and had a great personality to go with everything else that is so great about Ledson. Lets just say I ended up joining the wine club there. Also, I was beyond drunk by the time we left the Ledson. For wines to try I will suggest the Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2007 and The Lodi “old vine” Zinfandel 2005.





After the Ledson we went to Nicholson ranch Winery and to be honest I can’t remember the drive there or my time there. I didn’t taste any wines there but I plan to go back since I was the one that really wanted to go to this winery. Here is the only picture I have of the winery.

So there you have it our trip to Napa and Sonoma! We had a blast and I can’t wait to go back again. We went back to Sacramento after we left Nicholson Ranch and we were tuckered out from the last two days.

The style for the day I spent in Sonoma was again jeans, Uggs, sweater and a jacket. It rained the whole freaking day but I had a wonderful time. I loved Sonoma and if I ever get married I am so getting married there.

Next I will wrap up our trip to California with stops in San Fran and Carmel.

Also, I have an announcement I will be going to Germany for work for about 6 weeks starting the middle of May. After my work obligations are over in June, the boyfriend and I will spend some time in the South of France. Time permitting I will try to blog as often I can while I am in Europe…. I love Europe!!

Until next time take care of you1

It has been such a long time

Hello everyone,
I know I just disappeared but I have very good reasons. Lets just say I was burnt out from been back to the states and back to work.This is the first time after 4 deployments that I felt that way. Also my computer is dying so I am going to buy a MacbookPro tomorrow.....YAY! Finally, my external hard drive where I keep all my pictures is on the Fritz so I have to recover all my pictures to continue the recaps of my trip to Northern California. I am hoping that by next week I will be back to regular blogging.

Until then for those of you getting married Rue La La is have a sale on Nicole Miller wedding dresses that will end tomorrow at 11am!! They are such a steal the dress below is going for $650 it was originally $2800.

Trip to California---Part 1

Hello Beautiful people,
I am so excited to tell you all about my trip to California! Remember this post where I talked about my excitement of going to Napa/Sonoma? Well now is the time to live up to my part which is to do a a full review. I don't know how many parts this recap will be but I will try to keep everything to a maximum of 3 parts. During my recaps, I will talk about different styles in terms of clothing that I wore. Also, I will review all the wineries, hotels, and restaurants we went to. Finally, I will try to give lessons learned and tips on how you can do things better.

We arrived San Jose on Friday and we had lunch with my Boyfriend's mom at the Fisherman Market in Santa Clara off El Camino Real. I have been to this restaurant before since my boyfriend's mom didn't live too far from it. The food is good nothing extravagant but pretty good.

I had the Red Snapper with rice pilaf

My boyfriend had a shrimp and Avacado salad


After eating went off to see his grandparents who live down the street. Once we were done there we left for Lincoln to spend time with his sister and Nephew. It took us about 41/2 hours to get to Lincoln because of traffic so we were really tired by the time we got there.

The next morning the plan was to wake up early, eat breakfast and head to wine country by 10am. Well we didn't wake up early but we ate breakfast and then around noon we left Lincoln for Napa. If I had my way next time I will try to leave early because most of the wineries have tastings from 10am to 4:30pm. Since we left at around noon took us about an hour to get there and by the time we started wine tasting it was around 2:30pm.

We stopped at Yountville to grab a bite. They have the best strawberry macarons I have ever tasted. I wished I got some to go because they would have come in handy once the drinking started. If you get a chance try to stop at this bakery and please do get the macarons. My BF's sister got a ham sandwich and she said it was pretty awesome.

Me feeding my face full of macarons.


After we were done there we went to the surrounding marketplace to take a look at some art and then we were headed to the wineries.

The first winery we stopped at was Robert Mondavi you can read more about him here. I really like this winery the grounds are really beautiful. They let you have two options for tasting one for the regular Vintage and another for some of their reserves. The regular is $15 and you get to taste 3 types of wine from the preselected menu. The second option was $20 and the same concept as the first. Once they pour the wine you can walk the beautiful grounds enjoy the views and your wine and then come back for your 2nd and 3rd pour. Oh and you get a wine glass to go and a 10% discount on any wine you tastes and then buy. If you like reds I will suggest: The M-bar Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon. I had to buy a bottle.

Here are some pictures







After that we went to Franciscan Winery, my BF's sister really wanted to go there since she loved it there the year before. I am glad we got to go because their wines were freaking great!! Plus their dipping oils were to die for. They had tasting menu of 5 to 6 options. I didn't get a chance to get pictures because I was too busy eating their bread and drinking. I tasted the reserve option which cost $25 (I think). I think the other options started from $10-$20 and you get 3 tastings in all. If you like whites I will suggest: Cuvée Sauvage Chardonnay. For the reds I will suggest: The Clos Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I bought both because they were that good. We really didn't take too many pictures because the tasting was inside and we didn't get the option to walk around and explore the grounds while we were tasting like Robert Mondavi.






The final winery we stopped at was Beringer which happens to be the oldest
continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley. The grounds were beautiful and huge! I loved the house where we had the tasting. The tree outside had lanterns so I was in love. LOL.....little things make me excited. This place was so crowed even though we got there towards the end of the day. By this time I was pretty drunk partly because I am a light weight and I drank too much at the other wineries...LOL. I had the $15 tasting and the wine was also great here. To be honest I can't remember much since I was too busy drinking and talking to others who were also there for tasting. If you like reds I will suggest: The MT. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you see a trend here? I love reds and I love love Cabernets.

Here are some pictures of our time at Beringer







So there you have it the three wineries we went to in Napa. If you go make sure you go early so you can go to more than 3 wineries. Next time I think I may go on the Napa Train that way my BF can drink too.

In terms of fashion it was kinda a warm fussy boots (Coach)day,long sleeve sweater (Abercrombie & Fitch),half sleeve jacket(priorities from Rue La La), the jeans were Armani Exchange. And I kinda put my hair half up and down. I wanted to let my new hair cut out but the weather wasn't playing fair.

After all is said and done we left Beringer and drove to Sonoma where we stayed at The Best Western. Thanks to this post I went ahead and booked the hotel. It was truely the best for the money and I will recommend it to anyone staying in Sonoma. We had a nice room with a fire place plus free continental breakfast. Excuse the blurry iPhone picture.





Next, I will cover our trip to Sonoma. Until then take care of you!!

I am back!!

Hello wonderful readers!!
I am finally back from vacation. I came home to this



I can't wait to start my recaps!! I have to say a special thanks to Renaissance Trophy Wife for all your recommendaions,they were certainly helpful.

Here is a sneak peak at two of the places we went to on vacation.




Depending on what my day looks like tomorrow, I will start doing my recaps.

Until then take care!!