4.14.18 - Anniversary weekend

Jack planned our entire weekend without telling me about any of it. That alone made me look forward to it so much because I didn't have to figure anything out. He even planned for Beth to take the girls overnight (Jane's first night away from me).

I woke up at 7 a.m. so I'd have plenty of time to shower, pump, pack my own overnight bag, and pack an overnight bag for the girls. Without children all of this would probably take me 45 minutes or so, but once Jane woke up it was much slower than that. She is very much a momma's girl and wants me to be at least within sight if not within touch very often, especially when she first wakes up. Sometimes it's frustrating but I have to say a lot of times it's adorable, as I pick her up off the floor or take her from Jack's arms and she is so cuddly, putting her head on my shoulder or putting her little hands to her eyes and then burrowing into my chest. Little cuddle.

Anyway we weren't in any huge hurry either way. Jack told Beth we'd have the girls there between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. so we had plenty of time. We got everything ready to go and headed out by 8:45 a.m. Jane fell asleep in the car but Clara stayed awake and pointed out trees, signs, trucks, etc. There was even a fire engine in the slow lane on the highway and Jack drove probably a bit too slow to let it pass us so Clara could see it. She was pretty happy about it.

Beth's apartment was so pleasant when we got there. It was totally clean, which in itself is so impressive given how often she watches a bunch of small children. It's certainly much cleaner than our apartment. And she was cooking bacon and the song "Tupelo Honey" was on in the background. Just such a relaxing atmosphere. I also got to meet her puppy, Max, who is a beautiful mutt (probably part husky). The girls seemed pretty happy to be there and there was no fussing as Jack and I left.

Then we were off! We actually went back by our own apartment which was on the way) to get his sunglasses and my wedding ring. I don't wear the ring often because after 5-7 days it makes my finger break out, unfortunately. But our anniversary weekend seemed like a good occasion to wear it, and I do enjoy wearing it. On the way back out the door Jack asked me if I wanted to know where we were going. "Only if you want to tell me." "Well do you want to know?" (laughing) "Only if you want to tell me!" Then he told me we were going to the Napa Valley area. Bit of a drive, but worth it.

On the drive there we talked about school and the future and my siblings and who knows what else. At one point GPS directed us to a road connecting 37 to 101 (I suppose to avoid traffic) and it was so idyllic. It was winding and green and sunny and we passed adorable farm houses with stone chimneys and lots of livestock including (1) a cow that Jack thought looked like a "Napoleon cow" because he seemed to be standing above all the other cows and surveying them and (2) a pasture filled with not just sheep but lots of little lambs. I've never seen so many lambs in my life. It was great. We also passed, of course, a lot of vineyards, which are charming to look at and remind me of wine and wealth and vaguely the Bible, I guess.

I purposefully didn't eat anything all morning because I knew we would be eating all day and I wanted to have the appetite for it. We got to Santa Rosa and went to the Irish Pub where he had wanted to have lunch, but there was some kind of mix up and it actually didn't open until 3 p.m. This threw us off for a minute because we had plans to go to two different wineries in Healdsburg that closed at 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. so it would be hard to fit both of them and the Irish Pub in for a late lunch. But then we realized the sushi restaurant Jack had planned on for dinner was not half a block from where we had already parked, so we just switched our lunch and dinner plans and grabbed some sushi. It was a quiet place with nice presentation (the wasabi was carved like a little leaf) and we enjoyed it.

From there we went to our Air B&B to check in. We were actually both kind of tired so we grabbed a quick but wholly uninterrupted nap before heading out to sip wine. Maybe it's a sign of me getting older but that quiet nap and getting to cuddle was already one of my favorite parts of the day.

Meanwhile Jack was actually sneezing a lot when we were out and about, so before we went to the wineries we stopped at a CVS to get some allergy meds and I decided to grab some chocolate. They had on sale raspberry crunch M&Ms, which I've never heard of and was curious to try. They were so satisfying to eat. The raspberry chocolate flavor was tasty, sure, but the real deal was the crunch. Jack and I both found them oddly wonderful to chomp down on and we spend several minutes trying to think of comparable foods with such a satisfying texture. It was like the culinary equivalent of popping bubble wrap.

Anyway, we ate a bunch of those and then went to the first winery: Family Wineries Dry Creek tasting room. When we walked in there were only two other customers: a pair of middle aged women also doing the tasting. The man behind the counter looked to be roughly 70s, and he was very friendly. Normally I don't like it when people want to chat a lot and I just want to spend time talking to Jack and not making polite conversation with strangers. However this guy was very sweet: down-to-earth, self-depracating, seemed very happy to be there. He didn't give us a ton of details on every wine, just the basics and then let us enjoy them. He did ask if it was a special occasion and we told him it was our anniversary, so he gave us two complimentary little tokens--I don't know what you call them but you can clip them onto your wine glasses to tell whose is whose. He told some clean goofy jokes and spoke with an accent I can't quite place, but something like East coast. He was very into the 70s rock he had playing softly in the background and he sang along to it from time to time. He also took our picture for us. It was just very pleasant.

The wine was good too, of course, but then I've rarely found a wine I don't like. Just sniffing the first choice stirred a vague sense of happy memories--not even anything specific but just a lot of delight from wine throughout my life. We each tried five wines, both ending with a very sweet Moscato. We sat at a sunny table in the corner overlooking vineyards and took our time finishing it.

Then we headed back to the center of Healdburg to the C Donatiello Winery. It was on a corner of Healdsburg square, and we sat at a corner table with windows on two sides where we could watch all the happy people (and many happy dogs) walk by in the absolutely perfect weather. This wine tasting came with food pairings, including Brie cheese, some other cheese with a Moscato jelly, proscuito, salami, and some fancy mustards including a "violet" mustard that involved raisins somehow and that Jack absolutely loved.

The tasting were supposed to include 4 wines for each of us, but since we shared glasses of everything it seemed like much more. I actually really liked both of their Chardonnays even though usually I'm not as into Chardonnay. In fact there was so much food and drink that near the end I had to stop eating it because my stomach was starting to bother me - I couldn't even finish the fancy piece of chocolate that came with the last petite sirah. Oh well. It was still delicious.

The sommelier was a bit more hands on, especially in the beginning when were the only customers in the place. She sat with us and talked a lot about the details of the wines and other chit chat, and it was okay but I kind of wanted to just spend more time visiting with Jack. However once other customers came around she got busier, so we were able to close out the session just the two of us, and that was nice.

Then we walked around the square and sat on a park bench in the middle of it and people watched and talked about dating and our relationship and how nice it is to not have to worry about finding a mate anymore. The weather was just perfect the whole time and walking around helped settle my stomach a bit.

Jack wanted to get some ice cream but the only open ice cream shop nearby had kind of a limited selection, so we drove back to the town where our Air B&B is (Windsor) and got some Baskin Robbins and sat on another park bench enjoying that. Then we came back to the Air B&B so I could pump and Jack could take a nap before we go out to dinner. And that's where I am now, writing out all the details before I forget.