Gadling

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Summer Monday giveaway: stay in touch with an iPad {Gadling}

Jul 6th 2011 7:43AM I would keep in touch with my family because they like to track where I am going on the map!

:)

Sylvia

Win a trip to Bangkok from Gadling and lebua! {Gadling}

Feb 21st 2010 7:13AM Thailand is on my life list!

Enter Gadling's "Perfect Road Trip" Contest! {Gadling}

Jul 15th 2009 10:28PM A relaxing weekend of wine, friendship, and laughter will begin in San Francisco. With the windows down and our spirits up, we will cruise through the roads in our Cadillac SRX, crooning to the melodies on the radio. The wind will help carry our carefree laughter and stories toward Wine Country. It will take us about an hour to get to the south end of Napa Valley from San Fran, but we will take U. S. Highway 101 north across the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge with spectacular views and picturesque scenery.

We will drive through Napa Valley on Silverado Trail in one of the directions because not only is Silverado Trail less busy than the main highway, but it is more scenic, too, which will only add to the relaxation of the road trip.

This visit to Napa will be about savoring what it has to offer, not speed-drinking. Rather than packing in a bunch of winery visits in one day, we will pick one winery tour and one wine tasting from Napa Valley, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our winery tour will be at Spring Mountain, the perfect backdrop for sampling fine wines. Later, we will drive the SRX over to Darioush, whereupon we will sample wines from the acclaimed châteaux of Bordeaux and Burgundy,

We will end our first day at Domaine Carneros, south of the town of Napa. They are open a little later than other wineries, and the views from their patio are supposedly extraordinary.

After a long and eventful day, we (the SRX and us) will dream of grapes galore in the comfortable beds at the quaint Napa Inn Bed and Breakfast.

The following day, after eating delicious pastries at the gourmet breakfast in the Inn, we will take a leisurely drive with the SRX (which will have a name by this point in the road trip) around Napa, exploring the beautiful, rolling hills, redwood trees, and crisp, fall sky. We will have lunch in one of the Napa Valley's many fine restaurants. Centrally located St. Helena may be the most convenient place before we embark on our adventure.

The friendly folks at the MicroCrush facility amid the vineyards on the Silverado Trail will help us with our next task. We will encounter the blissful experience of making our own wine, filled with fruit sourcing, barrel aging, stomping on grapes, blending, and bottling our masterpiece. It truly will be our masterpiece. There is just something about food and drinks. They just taste better when you know that you helped make it yourself.

Later on, we will buy some food from the Sunshine Market (with a name like that, how could we not?) and have an easy wine country picnic before driving the SRX back to San Fran. We may have to return the Cadillac, but the memories will stay with us forever.
Would you like some wine with that cheesy closing statement?