We had a good night’s sleep at the Carneros though it was overcast and still a bit chilly when we initially stepped outside. The complimentary breakfast was actually pretty decent and exceeded expectations. We had some good pastries, fruit, oatmeal, and quiche. We wore long sleeved shirts whilst we downed our hot teas with breakfast before exploring the property for a bit again.
As a Hilton Honors Gold member, Nicole is entitled to free late checkout. Regular checkout was noon and we got (brace yourself!) a late checkout of 12:30pm — a truly excessive amount of time. The Carneros has truly gone above and beyond to graciously grant us those 30 minutes. By the time we concluded our breakfast, the sun was beginning to poke through the cloud layer. By 10am, it was blue skies and intense sun. We had to change our attire accordingly.
I showed Nicole a vegetable garden at the edge of the property that I had discovered yesterday evening. She’s into growing things now. She was intimidated, however, by the sizes of the produce that were being grown such as some sunflowers that were quite sizable.
We then sat by the pool relaxing for a spell. We observed others with plastic faces having an early glass of champagne. Who am I to judge? But I am. I’m done with wine. While the pool on this side of the property is adults-only, you would be surprised at how many children under the age of 5 were running around elsewhere considering that we are in wine country. Most of the wineries won’t even allow anyone underage on their premises. When I came here with my Dad (half of Salt, everyone’s favorite senior travel couple) in 2003, I was not of age, but it was a different time. If you even show up to a winery now and are like, “I’m the designated driver,” they’re like, “Cool, $35 for property access.” Wine people are the worst. Done with wine.
Ensuring that we used up all 30 of our extra minutes, we checked out of the Carneros and hopped into our little hatchback to explore a few towns of Napa valley. We first stopped at off in Yountville. I parked across the street from the French Laundry restaurant. With the Mitsubishi Mirage now within its eyesight, the high class restaurant immediately lost one of its three Michelin stars. We went for a walk around the town which was very quaint — full of small cafes, restaurants, stores, and of course wine tasting rooms. I’m done with all that though. We ventured into a small store that made exclusively macarons. When you limit yourself to one thing, one hopes it will be executed well, so we grabbed six of them.
Most were pretty good. There was salted caramel, mint chocolate, vanilla bean, honey mustard, and espresso. I’m sorry, what was that second to last one? Yes, upon my encouragement, I thought Nicole should try the honey mustard one as she is a big fan of the genre. In macaron format however, it was just a little . . .weird. We walked back toward the car and took a lap around the French Laundry. After starting the Mitsubishi and it made its trademark T-Rex roar, the French Laundry found itself down to one Michelin star.
We then drove until we got to St Helena. It was just after parking the car that I had a revelation that for inexplicable reasons the Enterprise car rental closes early on Saturday — like 2pm. It was now almost 3. Indeed they were closed, and AI said there would be no after-hours dropoff. Also, they’re closed all day Sunday so this was a bit of a pickle. Since it was already late, we didn’t rush back — stopping off at a very tiny (and overpriced) bookstore and later on to take a picture of the famous Napa Valley sign.
We ultimately did find a key dropoff for Enterprise, so I guess AI was wrong. How can that be? We also intercepted an employee who was going into the office after hours and she claimed she would process the car for that day. We shall see. A Lyft was soon there to take us back to the Napa Co. Airport. Fortunately this time, our driver drove more even footed. We arrived at the JSX lounge 45 minutes prior to our flight — far excessive of our usual last minute drop-ins. We were given a few different seat options and chose to be in the first row for something different.
We departed on time and it was a smooth flight over to Santa Monica. We enjoyed our requisite snacks and beverages. Most passengers take advantage of the free alcohol and cocktails. This could have been another chance for some wine, but I’m done with wine. The approach was interesting because we’ve never flown into Santa Monica before. We flew right over the Hollywood sign before dropping down over Century City and ultimately touching down at the Santa Monica airport. To fully complete our journey, I decided to summon a Waymo. I’m done with drivers. Our Waymo decided to take a bad route to our house nonetheless, and we couldn’t really yell at it to tell it a better way. Way-mo time amiright?
After not tipping the robot for its circuitous routing, we settled in to briefly reflect on our mini trip up to Napa. I feel as though we are playing pretend when we go on trips like this — not really paying full price for anything and having to suffer being around people who did. Nicole thinks that only 12 or so of the rooms on the Carneros can be let out for free nights, and the place has 100 such cottages, so the vast majority of people are unfathomably paying for this experience. And they seem to be just the worst. Wine people are awfully whiney. If you go to the TripAdvisor reviews, the bad ones are frankly absurd. “Our waiter didn’t know what kind of salmon they were serving.” “We wanted an umbrella moved at the pool and they said it was too heavy!” “We had to call for our robe and slippers!” They say money corrupts, but it also makes you out of touch.
We enjoyed ourselves in wine country and at the Carneros. It was a nice place and it did seem a bit more grounded (other than some other guests) than last year’s trek to Orange County. Of course, I can’t imagine it ever justifying its hefty price tag, but if one were to either get a free night or suddenly fall into a lot of money, I could recommend the Carneros experience.
And it should also be mentioned that getting to Napa isn’t necessarily easy for most people. You could fly into SFO, but it’s a fairly distant drive. Santa Rosa airport is expensive because it has very limited flight options. And even more expensive is flying JSX directly to Napa. Janet at the Inn on First spoke of a relative flying JSX and said she didn’t understand why. “It’s just so expensive!,” stated Janet as she rolled her eyes. Janet didn’t read the room well. We had said we had flown JSX, but we held our tongue about the fact we paid $30 per person instead of $560. So what does it all mean? If you live in the Bay Area, Napa is probably a relatively easy and fun little getaway. Everyone else can expect to drop a lot of coin for the experience. Fortunately for Bricole, everyone’s favorite celebrity couple, we did not.
passports & pepto bismol 