Nicole and her AMex card give us one free night at any Hilton property per year. As such, the only acceptable way to use this free night is to choose the most absurdly expensive place around. Last year we went to a Waldorf in Orange County that was about $1100 per night. This year, Nicole has outdone herself and found a property in Napa Valley for about $1500 per night. Those with some geography knowledge of California would know that Napa is not exactly around the corner from Los Angeles — and would probably take 8 hours of driving without stopping.
Flying was therefore in order. Santa Rosa would be the closest airport served by a normal airline (Alaska by either Horizon or SkyWest), but we took it a step further. People who stay at $1500 per night hotels do not fly commercial. So we did what normal out-of-touch people do and headed to the Santa Monica airport to once again fly JSX straight to Napa airport, an aerodrome that is typically used by private jets. This in fact was an issue for renting a car. While Hertz has a facility on-site (with an average price of $350 per day), they close on weekends and don’t allow after-hours dropoff, so we would have to catch a rideshare into town to collect our vehicle from Enterprise.
The weather in Los Angeles today was very unusual — 90º on the coast with a mugginess that would seem more at home in the Caribbean. It was frankly a little disgusting. I returned from my morning run drenched in sweat, and my usually animated and wavy hair was matted down on my forehead. When we got to our JSX ATR-42, we were roasting on the tarmac. Once the engines finally started, cool air began to spread around the cabin and we settled in for the 90+ minute flight up to Napa. There were storm clouds over the central coast, which is also highly unusual — especially this time of year. Nevertheless, the flight was fairly smooth and we touched down in Napa County Airport around 4pm. We rode in a very slow, but also erratically accelerating and braking Lyft, so while we did eventually get to Enterprise, we did it quite slowly.
The lone Enterprise employee was apologetic that all she had was a tiny Mitsubishi hatchback since half the Enterprise fleet in Napa appeared to have a manufacturer’s recall. The little Mitsubishi roared to life and will surely be at home at the parking lot of a $1500 per night hotel. But not quite yet! As we were coming all this way and not getting in until after 4pm, it seemed a disservice to such an overpriced hotel if we couldn’t even attempt to get some bang for our buck. So that hotel reservation is for tomorrow and we will be staying at the much more economically priced Inn on First near the town of Napa for night one. We were welcomed tepidly by a woman named Janet who seemed eager to drive home for the evening. If you read my recent blog post on Flyin’ Brian about Sacramento, you may have already been introduced to the NorCal/Socal rivalry that makes no sense. Introducing ourselves as being from Los Angeles hasn’t been getting enthusiastic welcomes, even though we are Bricole, everyone’s favorite celebrity couple.
We relaxed for a spell in the Inn’s garden where I played around with my new macro lens — capturing flowers and such. It wasn’t long, however, before it was time for our dinner reservation (so adult right?!) at the Brasswood Winery Bar & Kitchen. It was about a 30 minute drive away near the town of St Helena. The scenic highway passed through endless vineyards on both sides. The signage alerted us to the locations of well-known brands such as Robert Mondavi, Beringer, and Sutter Home. After 20 miles of vineyards, we arrived at the restaurant.
We had a couple of wines from the estate and were convinced to try an off-menu appetizer that was freshly-made mozzarella on bread with fresh tomatoes. The waitress tried to explain that the mozzarella is made to order and I have no idea what this means. They got cows in the back? Anyway, it was fantastic. For something so simple, the combination of olive oil, bread, and cheese was delicious. Nicole was equally as fond of her Gorgonzola and fig pizza (not even Margherita!). For a region famous for its wines, the food scene is on point as well.
After all, America’s handsomest governor, Gavin Newsom, was willing to risk his entire political career for some Michelin-starred action at the nearby and now infamous French Laundry restaurant. But did he get to try freshly made mozzarella? Maybe such delicacies are worth the risk. Let a boy eat with his buddies during a pandemic, right? Bad optics when you’re trying to set an example for sure, but it’s not like he started a pointless war, entered nonsensical trade battles with our allies, rigged the markets, conducted insider trading, accelerated inflation, revoked hundreds of thousands of visas, converted ICE to be his own little soldiers, unconstitutionally disenfranchised voters, or encouraged his supporters to overthrow the government. It’s important to remember the big picture. Or to paraphrase Gavin, “There were three walls, and one was open to the outside so it wasn’t entirely enclosed.”
After dinner, we drove back to the Inn and sat outside listening to the insects. It has been a very pleasant temperature, but I don’t know enough about the climate for this time of year in these parts to know if this is standard or not. Tomorrow is the big move to the Carneros Resort and Spa. Of course, at $1500 per night, you should not be surprised to hear that check-in is not until after 4pm to really screw people. These overpriced hotels tend to be horrible value for money, even when they’re free, but we shall soon see for ourselves.
passports & pepto bismol 