Ok, I know I haven’t written for a while.  But I have a really good excuse this time, promise.  More on that in a little bit.

Friday I worked in the San Francisco office.  Which means that I actually changed out of my sweat pants for work.  Don’t believe me?

Photographic evidence doesn’t lie!  Especially a quality shot in the bathroom like that one.

The office building there is really nice, too.   Here is the view from where I was working.

Not too shabby, eh?

It seemed like 4:30 would never come.  But it did… and S picked me up and we were off!  Off… into the worst traffic I have ever seen as we headed across the bay bridge.

We were in the carpool lane to cross the bridge, since we had two people in our car and it was moving much faster.  And by much faster, I mean we were crawling rather than just sitting still.  All of a sudden a cop pulled up next to us.  My window was down, and he asked me “Do you have two people in your car or three?”  I answered “two”… not thinking anything was wrong.  He then proceeded to ask us to pull over.  Uh oh.

So… it turns out that the definition of a carpool on the Bay Bridge (and maybe in the whole SF/Oakland/Berkeley area???  Not sure…) is 3 people.  But in the south bay, where we live, it is just 2 people.  So, we got cited for having just two people in the car.  It wasn’t an official ticket… but a summons to court.  S (since he was driving) will have to show up to the SF superior court some time in the next three weeks.  Not the greatest start to the trip, but what can you do?

S swore that he had never seen any sign stating that a carpool had 3 people.  This was the closest we could find:

It doesn’t say 3 people… all it says is that a 2 seater with 2 people was ok.  So you are supposed to know by default???  Grrrrr….

It took us a longer time to get there than expected, due to the insane traffic.  The drive was fun, though.  I love just watching people in their cars in traffic… it is so interesting.  Do you ever just watch the people driving by you? 

When we finally arrived, we pulled into the resort entrance in S’s old mustang.  We were instantly surrounded by Porsches, Bentleys, Teslas…. S just looked at me.  Total deer-in-the-headlights look.  We pulled up to the front entrance where three men opened the doors for us and proceeded to take the car to valet parking.  They also unloaded all our bags and loaded them onto the golf cart as we checked in.

When we walked into the lobby, the woman at the front desk offered us glasses of champagne as we checked in.  I got another panicked look from S.

After checking in, they took us (and our bags) up to our cabin.  Our cabin was one of the furthest ones away from the front entrance – S had gotten a really secluded and private one!  It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the front entrance.  But the resort had golf carts to take you anywhere you wanted to go.  All we had to do was call the front desk and ask them to pick us up somewhere. 

So they drove us up to our cabin and brought in our bags.  By the way, we had to be tip-crazy this weekend.  Tipping everybody!  Bell boys, valey drivers, room service, housekeeping… etc.  Its insane.  I think we spent more in tips for the weekend then I typically do on an entire weekend trip away!

The cabin was amazing.  Fully stocked with fruit and complimentary food and drinks.

Well… complimentary as in… we already paid for it

Even wine and champagne!

I was really excited, I have been wanting to try these bars.

Some chocolate to compliment the wine…

And lots of other goodies.

The bed was huge and fluffy.  Look at those pillows!

You literally sank into it… like you were sleeping on a cloud!

The bathroom had a side for each of us

With our own sinks, areas, etc. and a beautiful bathtub and shower in the middle.     

And the shower garden was outside.

We were starving, so ordered room service.  All their food is made locally and is organic – they really emphasize how they support the local farmers.

Which is good, considering that pretty much all we saw in Napa were wineries and farms! 

We relaxed for the night, enjoying the cloud bed and watching a complimentary DVD.  I slept like a dream and woke up the next morning to this:

Reading the newspaper outside on the deck by the outdoor fireplace!  In the comfy robes, of course.

We got room service for breakfast.

The pastries were warm, Holy yum!!

Fresh fruit,

Beautiful berries.

Coffee, milk, juice, tea, cereal.  Heaven.

After we finally put on clothes (did NOT want to get out of those robes!) we stocked our backpacks with picnic lunches we ordered from room service and left the cabin.

We walked down to the road, and then down to the front of the resort.

Everything was so beautiful… the trees and bushes, the fountains. 

And it was incredibly silent and peaceful.

The resort had complimentary bikes that they let you use for as long as you want.  So S and I each grabbed a bike and we went on a bike ride through Napa. 

We rode to a park where we did a short hike and had a picnic in the grass.  The picnic lunches that room service packed us were awesome!  I got a grilled veggie sandwich with goat cheese.  The lunch boxes themselves included cheese (I think brie?) with crackers, an apple, and two delicious cookies.

They also gave us each a bag of chips, a clif bar, a drink, and a big pack of m&ms! 

It was windy up there, but a perfect picnic.

On the ride back, I snapped a few pictures of the wineries we were biking past.

When we got back to the resort, we took a hike there too.  They had several available on resort grounds. 

It was only a couple of miles, but was pretty steep.  I was sweating by the time we got to the top!

By the time we got back to our cabin (we walked back… every couple of minutes a golf cart passed us and asked us if we wanted a ride!  I don’t think these people had ever seen anyone walk anywhere before….) we just had a little while to relax and then it was time to get ready for dinner.  We had reservations at the Lakehouse, the restaurant at the resort. 

We got all dressed up…

It was really nice because we could just walk there and didn’t have to worry about getting rides – particularly back home. 

We had the four course dinner with wine pairings.  They matched us a glass of wine with each course.  I don’t drink alcohol all that often, so I was a goner after the first course and first huge glass of wine!

Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera to the restaurant.  And truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have taken any pictures if I had.  But it was literally one of the best meals, if not the best meal, I have had in my entire life.

We got back very late, very drunk, and very happy.  After another incredible nights sleep, we woke up to a similar Sunday morning as our Saturday morning – room service, reading, and talking in the beautiful sunshine by the fireplace outside.  We checked out at noon and headed back home.

The weekend went quickly, but it was perfect.  And it was VERY expensive, but worth it.  S and I talked about it, and although taking longer vacations is nice (and cost the same amount), this one was so incredible and so relaxing that we felt just as good, if not better, for the weekend getaway.  I felt way more refreshed coming home from this than I did after 3 weeks in Switzerland, that’s for sure! 

Gotta go for now.  I will be back with another post shortly with my exciting news!