Napa-licious

Our twelve-day stay in Napa, California was a pleasant surprise. As I mentioned in a previous post, we chose this location because we had some days we could spend at any Wyndham Resort and this one happened to be close to our California travel route.

There are several things I liked about Napa…

1. Beautiful Weather – It was sunny and cool, but warm enough to get in the pool.
2. Rolling Hills Covered in Lush Vineyards – The acre upon acre of green vineyards stood in stark contrast against the brown hills. Irrigation makes all the difference.
3. Nice Resort – The resort itself was full of amenities, very friendly staff and had its own vineyard! Almost every morning I spent more than an hour in the vineyard walking, reading and praying. There was also a Catholic Conference there and it was fun seeing all the nuns and priests in uniform.
4. Family – Dallas and Adrian stayed with us for one week!
5. Napa Valley – The town of Napa and Calistoga were beautiful. We didn’t get to visit any of the other towns, but I can imagine they are just as charming.
6. Relaxing – Our room did not have a full kitchen so I did not cook, and the onsite staff took care of cleaning. We ate a lot of sandwiches and microwave oatmeal. The resort was also located in a business park, which made it more isolated and calm.

I have to say it was a bit challenging for Dale though. He works from 6am – 3pm each day, so he would get dressed quietly in the bathroom and take his laptop to the lobby or some other location to work until all of us were awake. And once he got back to the room, he worked from a tiny table against the wall. He has been so flexible with his work environment while we travel. I strive to make it as easy on him as possible but the Napa stay was certainly the most challenging.

At this moment we are sitting in another Wyndham Resort in Anaheim. I’ll write more about that in the future.

Beanboozled!

On our last night together, we played a game called Beanboozled where you taste jellybeans and hope you don’t get a nasty flavor. It was so fun, and gross! The kids had visited the Jelly Belly factory and brought home a box of Beanboozled jellybeans. You download their app and take turns tasting the jellybeans. You can see a paper plate with the nasty tasting jellybeans we spit out. The crackers were used to cleanse our palate. I think the stinkbug flavor was the worse. When I chomped down on it everyone could smell it too. Dale refused to eat a barf-flavored jellybean. What a wimp! Below is a photo of the flavors in the box. When you pick one up you don’t know if you will get the good flavor or the disgusting one.