A Week Off!

What a wonderful week. I had originally planned on just having a staycation this week, (reading, stitching and gardening) but when my girlfriend, Wilbur, came to visit a couple of weeks ago, she invited me up to visit her and her hubby at their beautiful home in Calistoga. (They welcomed Liesl too, which made it even better.) Liesl loves vacation!

We had such a great time together! It was so good to see both of them. We laughed alot and had some really good talks catching up. I am so appreciative that they made me feel so welcome. My friend is an amazing cook and we had some nice meals sitting in their lovely backyard, talking and laughing. So nice.

On Wednesday, my girlfriend showed me around. One of the places we stopped to look around was the Culinary Institute of America, pictured above. The size of this building boggles the mind! It is huge! We both love to cook, so it was really neat to be in a place that trains some of the best chefs.

This is the Napa Valley Hall of Fame Barrel Room. It is a massive room filled with large vats that contain the names of some of the most important winemakers and founders of the Napa area. You can't really tell here, but the lighting is very dramatic and the vats are huge! Of course, Robert Mondavi is the first name as you come into the room.

This is a view from the staircase of the main hall of CIA.

Again, it was such a great trip and a great vacation. I also got to attend out inter-generational vacation Bible school at church a couple of days this week. It was so much fun. Lots of food, Bible study and fun. We also got to have 'smores. I love 'smores! As my friend at church said though, smores are a social food. It is just not the same if you heat up a marshmallow over your stove. You have to have other people around. So true.

It has been such a great week. I will share a few more photos of my trip in the next few days.