Part 2 of the honeymoon!

So it was my intention to update a few times during the honeymoon so that I could properly keep track of everything we did without having to go back and think. Needless to say, that did not happen. Oops! Well, at least I can give a broad overview of what an awesome time we had.

We spent 6 days in Napa and Sonoma (stayed in Santa Rosa). The second day we went to the Petrified Forest where Supercat followed us for the entire walking tour. Also visited the Calistoga Old Faithful and a few really tasty wineries -- Charles Krug, Ehlers Estate (bought a bottle, proceeds go to the cardiovascular institute), Beringer and Flora Springs. The first two were the best, and the others were interesting but I didn't like the wines at all. We had dinner at the Culinary Institute of America's Wine Spectator Graystone Restaurant, which while not being the best meal I've ever eaten, it was a great experience and pretty good food. They sat us in front of the fireplace and we had a bottle of wine -- I had the loin of lamb, and Christen had the flank steak. Both tasty. The best part was the dessert -- some sort of frozen custard with strawberries ... yum! Day three we took Hwy 12 down toward Carneros and hit Chateau St. Jean (fantastic, bought a bottle of reserve Malbec) Ravenswood (also tasty, but did tasting with pretentious wine guy from Chicago who drove us up the wall), Benziger, Sebastiani (the Cherryblock was amazing) and Kenwood (not so much). The best place of the day was Moon Mountain, where we ended up on a private tour of the winery which included the working wine caves (as opposed to historical wine caves like at Beringer) and a barrel tasting of different Cab Franc years (I personally liked the younger one, but I'm not a Cab Franc drinker -- it's too dry for me). It was awesome, and we got a bottle there but I don't remember which one.
We had some time to kill after the last winery, so we decided to drive out to Yountville so I could take pictures of French Laundry for Brad and Jordan (eat there? I don't have that kind of money). We ate at Bouchan which was a block away and was also fabulous.
Day four was rainy and nasty, so we drove down to Fairfield and toured the Jelly Belly factory -- smelled so sugary! After that we went to the Charles Schultz museum (very neat) and ate dinner at a fabulous Indian restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa -- it was likely the best meal of the trip. I had the Lamb Saag and Christen had some Indian venison concoction, and we had a bottle of wine to wash it down. Uh! I wish I was still there!
Day five was still a bit rainy, so we drove north to the Ave of the Giants to see the Giant Redwoods. It was neat, but I can only see so many trees, so I fell asleep while Christen drove out to the coast. How gorgeous! We drove down the coast and stopped on one of the beaches, and I took crazy amounts of pictures!
Day six we left for Yosemite, but first we stopped at Dariouch for a tasting, as I had heard about them from 3WineGuys and I was interested. They were way over the top! Very Persian .... the wine was good, but I think we had better on the Route 12 day, so we headed out to Yosemite.

Our first night in Yosemite we drove through the south part and made it up to the snow -- this is only the second time I've seen snow, and the first time I was able to enjoy it. The only other time was a band trip to Indy in '98 -- how sad is that! We spent 3 nights in Oakhurst, which is right below the south entrance to Yosemite. It was spectacular! We hiked to 3 falls, saw all the Ansel Adams sights, made a snowman (he was 6 inches tall, but still), had snowball fights, saw the Giant Sequoias, and ate fantastically. Sushi two nights, and Ducey's resort restaurant the middle night. We had a cottage at Houndstooth Inn, and it was beautiful -- and huge! Fireplace, Jacuzzi tub, 2-head shower .... I can't say enough about the place. Wine country was wonderful, but that bed and breakfast was amazing.

After Yosemite we headed to Vegas. It was a long drive, but we hit Hoover Dam first, because you have to see Hoover Dam at least once. I've seen it, so I'm good for the next 20 years. :) We stayed at the Stratosphere on the end of the Strip, and they upgraded our room from a regular one to a honeymoon suite for very little more! It was a very nice room, but we hit the rest of the strip for most of the time. I loved all the casinos -- so crazy! We saw Beatles Love by Cirque Du Soliel, which was phenomenal and indescribable ... if you go, spring for the good seats, it definitely made a difference! The second night we saw Spamalot, which was hilarious. In between we saw as much as we could -- Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excaliber, Paris, the Venetian, NY NY, Belagio, Treasure Island, Wynn, the Mirage, Ceasar's ... I think that's everywhere we went. We actually missed very few on the strip. I didn't get to see anything off the strip, and I have several friends in Vegas that I didn't get to see because I had very limited internet access between Sonoma and the airport, but I guess there's always next time! I had a blast!
Anyhow, I'm sure there's more, and I'll definitely post pictures but for now, ta ta!