Before leaving San Francisco, we checked what the weather would be like in Lake Tahoe so I knew what to wear for the day. What I saw surprised me to say the least; it was going to reach a high of 10 degrees! All I’ve been wearing for the past 2 months is denim shorts and strappy dresses, so I was in a bit of a panic. We dug deep into Big Red and pulled out a pair of Lululemon leggings that I’d placed there in a well intentioned but laughable attempt to lure me into working out during the trip. Needless to say, they hadn’t been touched since I packed them. I stole a fleecy jumper of Ewan’s to wear with them and was ready to go!
We didn’t check in to our hotel in South Lake Tahoe until 2.30pm as it was quite a long drive. After dropping Big Red off in the room and brushing up on our knowledge of what to do if a bear attacks, we headed up to the Van Sickle trail. The hike was short but very steep, which thankfully meant that it didn’t take too long to get to a gorgeous look-out. We sat on the rocks and watched the bright blue lake below us for a while. It was beautiful! The chairlift runs all year for $50 per person if you don’t fancy hiking.
On the way back down, we stopped at Heavenly Village to nosy around the cute shops and restaurants. I can imagine that this area is stunning during winter and an amazing place to ski, but as soon as we walked down to the beach and had a little chill out on the sand, I realized that it would be just as gorgeous in summer. The water in the lake was crazy clear and calm.
We had a very unexciting dinner in Applebees because the BBQ restaurant we’d planned to go to was closed for the season. I had the Bourbon Chicken & Shrimp and I don’t mean to sound like a greedy guts but the portion was so small and therefore depressing!
The following day we headed to Napa Valley, which was wonderful, boozy and sunny. I’ve done quite a lot of wineries over the past 2 years while living in Canada and the thing that surprised me in Napa was how expensive tastings are. In Canada, I’ve generally only paid $5-10 for tastings at a winery, and that usually gets deducted if you buy a bottle. In Napa, you’re looking at around $30-50 per winery visit! We had made tour reservations at the stunning Domaine Carneros winery in Napa, about a 15 minute Lyft ride from downtown. The building is very pretty and they specialize in sparkling wine. We only got 4 small tastings during the $50 tour but it was very informative and interesting. Did you know that to get the yeast residue (gross) out of every bottle of prosecco/champagne, wineries have to turn each bottle upside down, freeze the neck of it and pull out the ice plug that forms?
Downtown Napa has some smaller, cheaper wineries and tasting rooms, but they are obviously not set in beautiful vineyards like the out of town ones. We had a few wine flights at different locations in the city and my absolute favourite was JaM Winery. They have a Chardonnay called ‘Butter’ that genuinely smells like melted butter and I was very enamoured with! We also got to try the difference between their Napa region wines and their wines made in other areas of California and it’s safe to say that the Napa ones were SO much better.
For dinner we went to Mint Mango Thai in Napa downtown. They are great with gluten free requirements and very knowledgeable. I had a yellow chicken curry and it was yummy.
We stayed at Wine Valley Lodge in Napa which is famous because Marilyn Monroe and Elvis have both stayed there at some point. It was a cute place but all I can say is that they must have stayed there at the VERY beginning of their careers because it wasn’t exactly lavish….. it was perfect for us though and I slept like a log after all that wine!
Final wine rating: Loved Napa but I think Niagara on the Lake in Ontario is still my favourite place to go wine tasting!
Gluten Free Piggy 