The Napa Valley Trip

This past weekend Eddie surprised me with a weekend getaway. All he told me on Thursday was for me to pack our bags, no details, nothing. I asked him a million questions of course: hot or cold weather, heals or tennis shoes, jeans or dresses, etc; but he did not bend. However, I love surprises so that didn't bother me too much. On Friday after picking him up from work and going to our chiropractor's appointment we hit the road.

We drove about 2.5 hours northwest from Merced into the beautiful city of Napa, California. For those who don't know anything about Napa or Napa Valley, they are known for their beautiful wineries. Napa produces 92% of all of the United States' wines. Does that not sound crazy? It's not a big place either. People go there from all over the world for wine tastings, but we just went sight seeing of course.

We drove around quite a bit, just admiring the beautiful place that it is. On the pictures you can see the gorgeous landscapes and the surrounding nature. There are hundreds of vineyards lined up one next to the other, many say it is a lot like Italy. There are old city centers with the cutest shops and cafes, an old style train that takes you around for tours, small houses that look like they have been there for many years, and beautiful gigantic mansions that really look like little castles. It is an incredible place. I couldn't believe that I was only a few hours away from home, because I felt like I was in Europe.

I would have to say that the highlight of our trip was visiting the Castello di Amorosa, or also known as "The Castle." It is an actual castle built on 120 acres of land and it is 121 k square feet. The owner is in his late 60's and took 14 years to build his castle. Outside it is made to look exactly like an old world, Renaissance castle. It has towers, and those drop gate things, and the water that runs around it...it's legit! All of the material used in the construction is from Italy and Austria; and I mean every single brick. The stones on the outside of the castle were hand carved and chipped. The paintings on the walls and ceilings are hand done by professional Italians. It has a church, a great hall, and dungeon, a prison, a torture room...everything that you would find in a real castle. There are 107 rooms, well..you get the point, and the pictures make it so that I don't have to explain in too much detail. Not the whole castle is like that though, most of the castle is an actual winery. Almost every room is used for producing wine, it's amazing.

Everyone should go visit Napa Valley. We took tons of pictures, but obviously I won't put all of them here. If anyone would like they could go on facebook and look at the whole album. We had a wonderful time. It was so nice of my hubby to do this surprise for me, it shows me how much he cares; I am a lucky girl!