A late start to such a wonderful warm and sunny day. A late start to a day after coming home from Amita's so late. Linus had given me a ride.
It wasn't until after 2:00 p.m. today that Anh-thu, Linus, Nobuko, and I headed off to Napa Valley, wine country.
I had already been to the Ashby flea market, and then I was to meet Nobuko and Anh-thu at the Lake Merritt BART station. Nobuko was on time, but Anh-thu? Sometimes we expect too much. Nobuko and I headed towards another flea market not far from the Lake Merritt BART station. After looking around briefly, we went back to the BART station and Anh-thu had just arrived. We left to pick up Linus and headed off on the hour-plus drive to Napa Valley.
We knew we were pressed for time since we started off so late. We had to choose our wineries carefully. Beringer was a name we all knew, so we went there. We were too late for the tours, but we were able to do some tasting. The sun was well in the west and the air was getting ever so slightly chilly. I don't know if it was the wine or just the atmosphere, but there was a certain joy and serenity in the air.
The second winery we went to was Krügs and that was more interesting. Only Nobuko and I did the round of tasting and the bartender was informative. It developed in me a new appreciation for wine. A return for a full round of wineries is definitely called for.
We ended the trip shopping for a briefcase for Anh-thu at an outlet she heard about in Napa Valley, and then we had dinner at an A&W's that we were fortunate to spot on the way back. We drove back through Marin County, straight into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge.
