...Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

After Nikki left after the conference on Friday, Niki picked me up at the hotel and took me to her apartment in Burlingame for the weekend. We spent the afternoon doing work - a thrilling pair we are! - and when Derek got home, he cooked us dinner, which consisted of two of my favorite things:

After dinner, Niki and I went to see a community theater production of Crazy For You at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. Derek declined our invitation, but we left him with the task of planning Saturday's agenda. He missed a very good play, but he did have an important job to do.

Saturday, we awoke bright and early to start our trek to taste wine. We set off northward out of Burlingame

toward a very cute cheese store in Berkeley. After acquiring sustenance, we continued to Napa Valley,

a beautiful drive that took us past gorgeous mountains with tons of grapevines,

lovely countryside,

and cows that looked like Oreos.

We visited three wineries. First was Peju, our favorite of the day.

A very entertaining guy named Richie served us samples of a number of different wines, as well as providing amusing banter with us and the other four people in the group. I would highly recommend this winery to anyone in the Napa area - in addition to Richie being away and by far the most entertaining person we met all day, the tasting was free if you purchased a bottle of wine. As Michael Scott would say, it was a win-win-win situation! One word of advice, though - if you use the upstairs bathroom, lock the door. This is Niki outside of the bathroom door after a lady walked in on Derek:

Peju had a beautiful courtyard,

and a garden area where we stopped to eat some of the bread and cheese we'd purchased in Berkeley.

Next, we drove to another winery called Trefethen.

Their wines were also very good, and their staff very friendly, although their tasting was not free if you bought a bottle like at Peju. They had a gorgeous courtyard where we enjoyed our last wine sample.

Our third and final winery was a bit further south. Called Madonna Estate, I had requested it specifically for its name. According to the gentleman who served us, it was a family-owned winery that had started at the end of prohibition by making wine for churches (hence the name they chose).

We arrived at the end of a large tour group, so they helpfully sent us to the Reserve Room, which was empty except for us.

They also had a wonderful invention - wine bottle-shaped bubble wrap bags for taking wine home in one's luggage! They worked beautifully, too, as the two bottles I purchased there made it home safely.

After our third winery, we headed back towards the city, with plans to go to Muir Woods. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously crowded by this time in the afternoon, so we decided to save that for Sunday and drive past Stinson Beach instead. We drove on a scary, curvy, cliff-adjacent, guardrail-less road of death to get there:

When we arrived, we were greeted by this cheerful sign:

Now, none of us had Suited Up, despite the name of the beach, and it was also way too cold, so we had no plans of swimming. But if there was any doubt in the matter, that sign decided it. The beach was lovely, though, sharks or not:

On the way back to Burlingame, we stopped by a lookout to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After we got back, we were very tired, but not too tired to make Maple Bacon Cupcakes. Derek and I did, that is - Niki refused to take any part in it. I think she secretly wanted to, though. They certainly made Derek and me happy!

Sunday, we woke up bright and early to get to Muir Woods before the crowds got as big as they were on Saturday. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to get there:

It was pretty cold at Muir Woods, so Niki stopped to get hot chocolate at the temporary concession stand:

The trees in Muir Woods were beautiful, and there was nature everywhere. Look, green nature!

Wet nature!

Slimy nature!

And really tall nature!

I even hugged a tree and let the nature touch me!

They had one tree that had a hollow big enough that Niki and I could stand inside it. If you look closely, you can see the stupid sunburn I gave myself the day before driving through Napa in a convertible.

We were smart to get to Muir Woods early - when we went to leave around 10:30 a.m., there were hordes of crowds outside waiting to enter.

When we got back to Burlingame, we stopped at a restaurant called Crepevine, which was fantastic. I had a crepe with chicken, pesto, mushrooms, and pretty much pure awesome inside it. I think Niki should bring me one when she comes to the East Coast in a few weeks for a wedding.

I had to leave at 1 to catch my plane, so we spent our last few minutes driving around the pretty houses in the area. Niki says I'm supposed to tell people that this one is hers:

But I would have personally preferred to live on this street...I hear they get a lot of owls.

My flight back was pretty uneventful (and on time, so definitely better than the last time I tried to come back from the West Coast!) - although the San Francisco airport does have a wine store, which was a good way to kill time! I made it back safely, albeit rather late, and got a ride home from the car service that my company got for me. The driver looked like Santa Claus, which was rather surreal. I bet he does good business in December. But he lifted my freakishly heavy suitcase for me (which was under 50 pounds - Derek gets a gold star in suitcase weight guessing), so I was pleased.

So yes...that was San Francisco. Thanks to my company for paying for most of it, Nikki for coming along for the work part, and Derek and Niki for housing and entertaining me all weekend!