Girls Weekend 2011 Blog #2: Napa and The Gossip Girls

"Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” ~William Saroyan

Well we started off Girls Weekend 2011 with a wine tasting trip to Napa. Even before we left on our trip, I said to the girls that we would be "those girls" on the bus who were loud and having fun and the life of the party. I mean, we pretty much are always those girls. Well, we did not disappoint.

I have tried for like an hour to put into words how much fun this day was, only to decide there are no words. I'm doing my best to just summarize and hit the high points.

It all really started with this photo:

We asked a random guy standing around from our tour group to take the picture, and a friendship was born. Turns out, he and the guy he was there with had discussed on the bus who they would befriend on the trip...they thought we seemed fun, so they chose us and deemed us "The Gossip Girls." (Ironic that they name four backwoodsy country girls this considering that the show is about rich brats in Manhattan!) Anyway we were inseparable for the rest of the day. They moved to sit by us on the bus, fed us chocolate pretzels that they remarked, "Tasted somewhat like dog biscuits, but were actually quite good," informed us that Alec Baldwin was "gorgeous" and that Australians hate kangaroos.

Turns out these crazy fellas were a ton of fun and up for anything. We have named them The Swan (in blue) because he is from Australia and we tasted a wine named after the eye of some Australian swan. (This made more sense on our 4th glass of wine at the 3rd winery....) The other (in pink) is called Word Up Bro because that saying, via Spencer on the Hills, is his favorite American term. (NOTE: There is a chance that they will have a guest starring role in Meet the Cast Monday....let's all encourage them to join in!)

In addition to this friendship, we struck up friendships with lots of people on the bus...the nice couple from Texas after commenting on the man's full quill boots, the woman from Minnesota who was an attorney and does yearly girls trips herself, the two girls who didn't speak English, but loved me because I showed them free chocolate at one winery, the angry Canadian woman who cussed out Carrie Underwood for "stealing" Mike Fisher, the grandma and 10 year old grandson who could only smell the wine....we met them all.

And they loved us. The bus driver, however, did not. In fact, during one heated discussion of college football involving us, The Swan, Word Up Bro, and the man from Texas with the boots, the bus driver totally called us out on the microphone for being loud and distracting and yelled at us for 10 minutes. Jerkface. How could you yell at these faces?

Whatev. He got a pretty measly tip after that. Anyhow, we toured 3 wineries....

First was Madonna Estates, an organic winery between Napa and Sonoma. Wines were good, but sort of expensive. I liked to Pinot Grigio the best.

Next was Sutter Home Winery. The downside to this winery was that it's not a vineyard....which honestly seeing the vineyards is my favorite part of wine tasting. But, they had all sorts of snacks, the best wine of the three, a beautiful garden, and this good looking wine server. We hit it off with him right away when the Blonde Oklahoma Girl announced to the group that one of the wines "tasted like Christmas." Who knows.

Did I buy some wine? Yes. I LOVED the 2010 White Zinfandel Reserve and the Moscato. Did I get the cute wine server's email address? Yes. Are we now facebook friends? Yes. (Look hot tall he is....sigh!)

Then we took a little lunch break in some small town between Napa and Sonoma. We had lunch with our new friends (of course) and had a great time chatting and asking questions about our different countries and jobs and travel experiences...all in all...perfect lunch!

After this, we were off to Sebastiani Vineyards in Sonoma. This tour was the best because they really explained the winemaking process and grape growing and you know that was right up this farm girl's alley. I liked their wines the least of the 3 wineries, but Loud Oklahoma Girl, who is much more a red wine fan than I am, liked them the best. Go figure.

Like I said, words don't do it justice. It was the perfect day---beautiful weather, great new friends, hilarious quotes and stories and sayings, great food and wine----it really was perfect.

That's it for now, but stay tuned. Karaoke night is up next.

From Napa Valley, California with wine glasses in hand....

Xoxo,

Gossip Girls!