Someone else's vacation

Christopher had another management retreat this last week.  And don't get me wrong: we had a wonderful, relaxing time in a beautiful hotel, in a picturesque city.  But it sorta felt like we were on the wrong vacation the whole time.

Because why on earth would people who don't drink alcohol go to Napa Valley, California?

Of the eleven couples, I think 3 or 4 actually drink wine.  But in Napa Valley, our room had a complimentary bottle ready for us.  You are surrounded by winery tours that have a tasting at the end.  Even our breakfast at the hotel had champagne for us.

Not that I am going to complain about it.  Just laugh!

Our first event was actually really serendipitous.  It turned out that we flew into Oakland just hours after my dad flew into San Francisco.  So he drove over and had dinner with us the night we flew in.  Jackpot!  We knew some other people who lived in the area, but had decided ahead of time that since we only really had two and a half days there, we weren't going to try and drive all over the bay area.  Especially since we had company things almost every day.

So the next morning was taken up with a group breakfast and meetings.  I dragged my husband out for a walk after that, but then he declared he wanted to chill in our room.  And, in his defense, it was a really nice room.  We actually had our own little building!

So I went off to explore the shops, and when I came back, Jasmine was asleep.  And then, a few minutes later, we had this:

This is my husband's ideal vacation.  Relax, sleep, lay by the pool.  But I love to explore new places and check out museums and GO!  So I wandered out and took a photo walk.

This restaurant, just steps from our room, is "ranked one of the top three restaurants in the world!" and created by some world famous chef I had never heard of (that my mom knew right away).  At $250 a plate, I suppose it better be amazing.  They did have a cool garden across the street where they grow the food they serve.

I went back to our room: everyone was still asleep.  So I found a rose garden across the street.  Taking pictures of flowers in such a perfectly manicured garden is so easy it is like cheating, but it's fun anyway.

When everyone finally woke up, I was still in camera mode and Jasmine was happy.  So I had fun taking pictures of her.  I figured I would document what actually happens.  See, when Jasmine smiles, all the arms and legs go into happy dance overdrive!

I usually have to wait for them to settle a bit before I - CEILING FAN!

It's like the squirrel in the movie Up.  Gets her every time.  And then her daddy makes her laugh.  She loves smiling at him.

So hopefully I can get the perfect shot, like this one . . .

Before she decides she needs to lunge for me and eat my camera.

Anyway, the next day, I informed Christopher that it was time to go and do and explore.  My turn!  So we went to go see a castle, built by someone who has far, far too much money.

He was so crazy that he built this 105 room castle using the methods and techniques of ancient castles.  Most of it is for the winery, but there are some regular "castle rooms" too.

And at the end of our tour, we got to ask the baffled server for some grape juice to taste.

After that, we headed to the Petrified forest, where a volcano and thousands of years of geology turned trees into stone.  But when we got there, Jasmine was sleeping, and Christopher said he wished he could just stay and sleep too.  So I, once again, left them and headed off on the adventure alone.

Only it wasn't that cool of an adventure.  As one person said in their review online, "trees turned into stone.  Yep.  That's it."

It was amazing, but they basically look like fallen trees unless you touch them.  So I finished and went back to the car.  And then this guy pulled up!

Shop owner: "Wow!  What made you decide to put pens and markers all over your car?"
Pen car guy: "I don't know, I just woke up one morning and decided it would look cool."
The amazing part is that he looked like a normal guy.  With a really, really, not normal car.

And I told Christopher to check out the gift shop, because they had really cool, polished versions of the petrified wood that were more fun to look at than the big ones.

The next day was my favorite though.  It was Christopher's birthday, so we slept in and stayed at the hotel as long as we could before checking out and heading down to San Francisco to see the redwood trees.  And that was one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen!  I couldn't stop taking pictures, but the pictures can't do it justice.  The trees are too majestic to fit in one frame, and the cool, damp smell of their wood made it a spectacular day in nature.

And of course, my husband is so in love with burning wood in our stove at the cabin that one his way of measuring how awesome they are is "wow, one tree alone might be 80 cords of wood!" (A cord of wood is a cut woodpile that measures 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet,)

Nerd.  All joking aside, we did talk about that atrocity of that.  I'm not an environmentalist that tries to protect tiny bugs or anything, but the fact that people cut down acres of these trees astounds me.  How could you not respect trees that have survived fires, earthquakes and anything else thrown at them for a thousand years or more?

How could you feel anything but awe as you walk quietly in their presence?

This forest doesn't even have the tallest ones.  These cap out at a mere 258 feet, instead of the 379 feet tall ones further north.

What amazed me the most was their determination.  Fallen trees would sprout new growth.

They even have a blackened tree that burned, and all the roots around it grew up into their own tree.  I saw trees that had fallen over sideways, and then sent up shoots vertically from there.

If only we all had such resilience.

After that, we figured we would run through the major San Francisco stuff as quickly as we could before turning in our car.  We drove over the Golden Gate bridge and down Lombard street (the really, really curvy one).

And we stopped at Ghirardelli square and bought way, way too many chocolates to bring to everyone at home.  It was a great trip, even if Jasmine has developed this noise we entitled "the pterodactyl screech" that she made whenever she wasn't getting what she wanted.  We aren't fans of that.  But she's cute enough that everyone forgives her for it quickly.  And the kids had a great time at Grandma's house, as usual, so all is well.