Father's Day - Our getaway

happy father's day to all the fathers out there! 
(lots of pictures)

This year I treated Jay to a romantic getaway as my appreciation for everything he has done in our marriage and as the father of our child. Once we returned home, as a family we celebrated father's day (on the actual day). It's nice having a specific day to celebrate the special people in our lives. Life can get busy and without days like this it is often hard to stop what we are doing and say THANK YOU & I LOVE YOU!

Our getaway consisted of an overnight trip to Napa including the wine train tour with dinner and spa treatments. We left Friday afternoon. Bri'elle had a slumber party with Jay's parents (her 1st time staying the night). We checked into our hotel and then headed to Gott's Roadside for a quick little snack before getting ready for the evening train ride. A friend recommended to eat there if we got a chance. I googled where it was from our location and it was only about a 6 minute drive and right next to the wine train. We figured we could scope out the location and get a heads up of directions if we went there. 

It was so yummy. We ordered a Western Bacon Cheeseburger (it was a double double had onion rings and BBQ sauce), garlic fries (they were green), and a pistachio milkshake. One of the best American hamburger joints ever. I would definitely drive up there just to have a meal there. 

After filling our bellies up we headed back to the hotel to freshen up & rest before our night out. We took a 20 minute nap to recoup and boy did that 20 minutes make a difference. We got ready on time and started for the train. We were so excited since neither of us have done it before. 

Once we got there they had already began the check in process welcoming and giving directions of how everything works on the train. Jay and I headed over to the wine cellar to see if there is any wines we want to purchase for our ride. I'm not a wine drinker at all; I just haven't acquired the taste for it yet. The only types of wine I can handle are the sweet dessert wines (mostly moscato's). Luckily they had a good selection of moscato wine. We bought two bottles to bring on the train. Right when we finished up with our purchase our name was called, perfect timing! You then board the train... 

The setup was so cute! For the type of dining we had you go to the cocktail lounge train. Here you are seated in these cute swivel one person couches with your own window. They took our drink order of pina colada & cucumber & rose collins. Both were yummy. Also served with our drinks was appetizers which included bread toast, prawns in a seaweed salad, cheese, grapes, goat cheese, & baby corn. It was delightful. We had so much fun enjoying the scenery of all the wineries and old houses. The best part of it was our conversation and being with each other. It makes you appreciate your relationship with your spouse. We laughed about silly things, awed at the hopes of owning a old Victorian (one of my faves), & just all around had a good time. 

-Some of what we were viewing on the train -

Next was the dinner train. Once it is time for dinner they move you to your dinner car. For us it was three cars down. We brought one of the bottle of wines they put in an ice and water bucket to chill it. The dinner had the same type of setup except you are sitting at your own table with your own window. We had a menu of choices to pick from for dinner of five delicious looking items. It was so hard to pick. I chose the pork tenderloin in sun-dried tomato & apricot paired with celery root mash potatoes and sauteed collard greens. Jay chose a beef in a Cabernet sauce served with sauteed asparagus & carrots and Gorgonzola toast. The salad that was served as the first course was a mixed green salad served with honey cider vinaigrette. After our salad a mix of three favor sorbet is served as a refresher before your main course. For dessert Jay had a vanilla bean creme brulee & I had a chocolate decadent mountain cake with Belgium white chocolate shavings. The meal totally impressed us. Oh and it was oh so good. Almost too good to believe we were eating it. 

After the train ride we headed back to the hotel. The next morning we went downstairs to the grill for breakfast. It was an all you can eat and had a great selection including omelets, crepes, & scrambles. Again, yummy food! When we finished with breakfast we headed back to pack all our stuff. I also gave Jay the gift Bri'elle and I had gotten him for his day, running shoes that he has been wanting for a couple weeks now. We scored! Jay was so happy and totally surprised. He has been messing up his feet trying to workout in his regular shoes. Since we haven't had the extra money to buy it I thought it would be a perfect gift for Father's day. :)Before we left we prayed to thank God for the trip and to continue to bless us and keep us safer through the remainder of our trip. And of course, had to pray to keep Bri'elle safe while we were away to bless Jay's parent's for watching her.

The next stop after checkout was Calistoga for some spa treatments. On the agenda was couples mud bath, cool-down, & massages. Oh how it was much needed. A couple years ago for Jay's birthday I treated him to an overnight stay at the same place in which we had the same treatments. It's always nice to get pampered.  

 

When we were on the wine train on our way to St. Helena we noticed a cute winery that had a garden with a slogan that read something like, "from farm to table". Immediately this caught our eye so we decided that the next day on our way home we would stop there and check it out. And that we did. On our way from Calistoga we were pretty hungry since we hadn't ate anything since breakfast. We stopped at the Long Meadow Ranch. There we started with wine tasting which I will say for the record I hung in there, haha. I only did three tastings since I knew it would be hard for me to swallow down the sip of grapeness especially the red. The wine selection I had was really good, I could actually taste all the flavors it just wasn't my kind of drink, I'd rather have a cocktail. Jay on the other hand selected the 5 tasting selection. His favorite part was that he was able to taste an $85.00 bottle of wine. What a deal! After the wine tasting we headed over to the restaurant, which we got $10.00 off of our tasting since we were doing both. The guy was so nice, he even gave us a little run down of the actual winery located in the hills of Napa Valley. The restaurant was so cute. It had decor from a barn and farming. I checked in at yelp while we were there (yes, I'm a yelp-a-holic) and I received a notification on my phone for a free order of cheddar biscuits as a thank you from the restaurant. And boy o boy were those biscuits yummy. We started with a caramelized beet salad with goat crem dressing. Jay had the Kobe hamburger & I had the chicken dumplings. Again we were impressed with our meals. For dessert we shared a chocolate creme pie with graham cracker crust. Such a good way to end a meal. After our lunch/dinner we headed over to the garden area. It was so amazing seeing all the different fruits and vegetables growing right in front of you. The way all of them sprouted. Knowing you were being served fresh items. And after our nice viewing of the garden we both agreed it was time to go home and get our little girl. (It was Jay's first time away from Bri'elle for 24 hours and more).

Soon we will be back to visit! Until next time....