There are many reasons why we moved from Boston to CA, but New Year's Day just reminded me even more of why we moved. While Boston was finishing the month getting the most snowfall it'd ever had in over 30 years in December, we were spending the day in Napa, where it was a sunny 60F, clear and beautiful. Ok, admittedly we'd gotten rather lucky. It'd been raining a few days before, and we currently have a downed tree in our back yard after a day of torrential rains yesterday. My little sis had come up to visit and she wanted to take her bf, Ben, to Napa. Tom had also never been, and I invited Kjell and Huong who are also in town (and they brought along a friend and Huong's mom). So all of us spent the day in Napa.
We started off by visiting V. Sattui. It's a winery, but it's more well known for its well stocked gourmet marketplace and picknicking area. After spending a while picking out the meats, cheeses and breads we wanted for lunch, we headed outside and I picked a sunny spot for us.
After lunch, we headed over to Domaine Chandon, just 10 minutes down the road, for a winery tour. Let me just say that I've been to a handful of wineries in Napa and Domaine Chandon was very impressive and beautiful. It's just built on a gorgeous piece of land and the architecture itself is just lovely. However, the tour was sort of a dud. When you pay someone $7 for a tour, during which they get to promote their brand, restaurant, etc., and have a captive audience, they should at least give people a sample of wine. Instead tastings were an extra $15. While some of our party opted for that choice, Tom and I headed outside and took pics of the lovely surroundings.
After the tour, we headed into downtown Napa to visit COPIA, a food and wine museum. We got there at exactly 3 and found out that they'd just closed since they were having a special event for New Year's eve. So we headed next door to the newly built Oxbow Marketplace. The thing with Oxbow is that it literally just opened. It's a huge building and you can tell it's going to be an amazing place that will showcase local food artisans, but for now, it only has like 6
vendors.
We checked out the olive oil store
After the tour, we headed into downtown Napa to visit COPIA, a food and wine museum. We got there at exactly 3 and found out that they'd just closed since they were having a special event for New Year's eve. So we headed next door to the newly built Oxbow Marketplace. The thing with Oxbow is that it literally just opened. It's a huge building and you can tell it's going to be an amazing place that will showcase local food artisans, but for now, it only has like 6
vendors.We checked out the olive oil store
and sampled some very good olive oil.
We also visited the organic ice cream shop
where Tom got an organic root beer (he said it was pretty good) and we shared an ice cream.
I actually enjoyed the coffee ice cream quite a bit. And it was served in this funky biodegradable cup with a biodegradable spoon.
We had a couple hours left to burn before dinner. (I had expected to spend that time at COPIA) but we took a trip to Walmart instead and then walked around downtown Napa a bit. Soon it was time to head to dinner. We had early reservations at Pilar, a small restaurant focusing on local ingredients.
Of course with such early reservations we were the first ones at the restaurant. The menu was pretty short and we had already decided what to order while we waited outside for the doors to open. I ordered a crab cake to start. 
It was pretty good and I especially liked how it was served with the side of fresh grapefruit.
For dinner, I had a chicken dish.
Ok honestly, it's been nearly a month now, and I don't remember what was in this. But it was pretty good. Nothing amazing.
And lastly, I finished with some type of warm chocolate mousse, which was truly incorrectly named cause it was more like a warm chocolate cake, though not as good. I didn't finish it (it wasn't worth the calories).
After dinner, we drove home, with the idea in our minds that we'd play Monopoly. But we ended up watching Shrek 2 on TV and going to bed by 10:30. Yeah, that's what you do when you're old. We couldn't even manage to stay up until midnight. Overall, we had a lovely New Year's day- a great way to start off the New Year's in our new CA home.
We also visited the organic ice cream shop
where Tom got an organic root beer (he said it was pretty good) and we shared an ice cream.
I actually enjoyed the coffee ice cream quite a bit. And it was served in this funky biodegradable cup with a biodegradable spoon.We had a couple hours left to burn before dinner. (I had expected to spend that time at COPIA) but we took a trip to Walmart instead and then walked around downtown Napa a bit. Soon it was time to head to dinner. We had early reservations at Pilar, a small restaurant focusing on local ingredients.
Of course with such early reservations we were the first ones at the restaurant. The menu was pretty short and we had already decided what to order while we waited outside for the doors to open. I ordered a crab cake to start. 
It was pretty good and I especially liked how it was served with the side of fresh grapefruit.For dinner, I had a chicken dish.
Ok honestly, it's been nearly a month now, and I don't remember what was in this. But it was pretty good. Nothing amazing.And lastly, I finished with some type of warm chocolate mousse, which was truly incorrectly named cause it was more like a warm chocolate cake, though not as good. I didn't finish it (it wasn't worth the calories).
After dinner, we drove home, with the idea in our minds that we'd play Monopoly. But we ended up watching Shrek 2 on TV and going to bed by 10:30. Yeah, that's what you do when you're old. We couldn't even manage to stay up until midnight. Overall, we had a lovely New Year's day- a great way to start off the New Year's in our new CA home.
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