We're moving from a 5 star hotel to a tenement on wheels

Today we're leaving San Francisco and heading to Phoenix to pick up Harvey.  Huge thanks to the McDonough family for hosting us the past 4 days.  James, Colleen, Charlotte and Alexander were so  kind and gracious and truly made our time here special. 

To catch you up, after we had breakfast with Colleen yesterday we headed out to Napa Valley. On the way we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge to walk over it.  We were all dressed in shorts and t's because it was going to be in the 80's in Napa. It was cooler at the bridge but we were fine.  Some guy walked by Amy and  made a comment she should have known how to dress properly. If looks could kill, not only is that guy dead but his whole family is probably dead too.  I may need to tick Amy off this trip just to get a picture of her death state for all of you.  

So once we walked back to the car and went to Drive over the bridge, and, of course, it cleared up. 

You've gotta love that San Francisco smog!

So now we were off to Napa. It was about a 2 hour drive. 

Clare got things off on the right or wrong foot (however you see this) by grabbing some guys grapes. 

We then went on to take a tour of the Beringer Winery including 'the cave'.  I'm wondering if I can steal this and how much extra I'd need to pay in oversized luggage fees to get it home:

The vineyard was beautiful and Candi and I each bought some wine to ship home.  We are wondering when Massachusetts will wake up and allow alcohol to be shipped there!  We we told that we couldn't ship to Maine either so it's all going to a friends house in New Hampshire.  

This is only what I ordered:

I also came across this and wondered if Ann's dog (who loves to drink wine and beer from your cup) posed for this model:

After leaving Beringer we headed to Sterling Vineyard.  We took the tram to the top and did the self guided tour. 

After Sterling we headed to Sonoma to go to the Francis Ford Coppola winery. Absolutely fantastic.  The only vineyard in the world with a pool and cabines (and a tee pee).  

We got in the elevator to go up and realized after a few minutes no one pushed for a floor as we were all checking out the photos on the wall. 

Shelly, our tasting guide, was also from the Boston area.  I became a member of a new family (you got to love a family that will send you wine every 3 months and give you a discount on the wine we bought there, our dinner and the wine we had with dinner). 

As we walked over to the restaurant for dinner we saw they had Dracula memorabilia in the bar area.  Amy was ecstatic as this is one of her favorite movies.  

This was our view while we had dinner.  

Candi got the fish that's baked in a salt crust.

 Clare asked them to bring the most substantial meal they had as we didn't have lunch. And of course there was wine with dinner. 

Even Super Grover got to enjoy his time in Napa Valley / Sonoma

 

So today we are off.  I drove Candi to the airport at 3:30 for her flight back to Boston (sniffle sniffle...we miss her already) then headed back to say goodbye to the McDonough's (sniffle sniffle...we miss them too).  

We drove to the airport, dropped off Charlie and headed to the United terminal.  Note to everyone out there, if you're flying US Airways, don't go to the United terminal....they won't be able to give you a boarding pass and won't just let you on their planes:-). Thankfully we had left enough time for mistakes like this!  

Oh and did I mention we forgot to call and confirm our reservation with the RV place yesterday?  Have no fear we called as we boarded the plane and Harvey the RV is awaiting our arrival.  We also arranged for a shuttle to pick us up.  Carlos found us quite easily and we're on our way to meet Harvey!!!  Here's what we're looking at on the drive.   So far, Arizona is gorgeous and 85 degrees!  We'm post more after we meet Harvey but until then we'll enjoy the gorgeous scenery!