Vacation - Day 1

Sunday, September 18th - We left on a week long vacation in California.   The first part of the vacation we would spend 3 nights in Napa Valley (wine country) so that means "high-tailing it" out of town ~ across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Doug took his motion medicine and away we went. The views were spectacular. 

View driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a very large suspension bridge that spans the opening of the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The deck of the bridge is 245 feet above the water.

The bridge is 8,891 feet across....It's a long way!

We continued our drive around the bay to our first accommodations, DoubleTree American Canyon.

It took almost 3 hours to drive what should really take 60 minutes.
But this allowed us plenty of time to take in the scenery.
The landscape was not as green as I thought it would be and it was is brown (like Texas)
This was a free stay though, due to Doug's Hilton Honors points.
We had a nice quiet room facing the lagoon and not the busy Hwy29.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the hotel and then freshened up for dinner.

We would celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary with a very nice dinner out the first night.
We chose the Ristorante Allegria located in a Historic Bank in Napa Valley.
This restaurant had excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and has a Zagat rating of Excellent!

We started with the Napa Valley - Frog's Leap 2009 Zinfandel 

We then ordered an appetizer: BRUSCHETTA AL POMODORO with Fresh Tomatoes, Garlic, Basil, Olive Oil Shaved Grana Cheese

Then we were on to the Salad course.
Doug had the Zuppa Del Giorno (soup of the day) - Minestrone
and I had the Napa Cabbage Salad: Several cabbage types with
Crispy Pepper Bacon, Mushrooms, Crumbled Blue Cheese, Warm Red Wine Vinaigrette.
This was very tasty!!!!

On to the entrees.......Doug had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin -  Marinated With Garlic, Rosemary, Whole Grain Mustard, Served On Yukon Gold Potatoes, Crispy Pancetta, Sauteed Spinach, Whole Grain Mustard Merlot Wine Reduction and I had the Marinated Grilled Teriyaki Skirt Steak (pictured below) with garlic mashed potatoes, homemade onion rings and seasonal vegetables.

We followed the meal up with sharing a classic italian tiramasu. Very authentic and delicious!

http://www.ristoranteallegria.com/

We finished up the day by stopping at a nearby Walmart for some bottled water and a local Safeway store to get a bottle of wine(Ghost Pines) to enjoy in the upcoming evenings back at the hotel.