California...Part II

Saturday morning found us bright and early!! We got up and watched another beautiful sunrise over the mountains (boy is that a motivation to get out of bed!!) to head to the Napa Valley for our tour of the Beringer Vineyard. We stopped at another favorite California haunt, Jamba Juice for a smoothie, and headed out! The Napa Valley is gorgeous, and we saw a golf club, Chardonnay Golf club, that was situated right in the middle of the vineyard. Greens right there in the middle of the fields of grapes. Pretty cool. We got checked in at Beringer and started on our tour. One of the first things we saw was the grove of Redwoods on the property, so amazing....those trees are awesome....cant even describe them...the grounds were immaculate. It would be so cool to get married there!! They also showed us a very old oak tree called the leaning oak that they have a label after, which we took pics in front of. After that, we headed in to the aging rooms in the mountain, where all the old barrels are kept. They are HUGE!!! Then they led us in to where they keep the ones they use today...just row after row of barrels...mom snuck down to the other side and I took a cool pic of her peeking down the tunnel ;). We learned a lot about the process of how its made and aged, and then we got to taste some! Some was pretty good...some was not! One bottle was $215, and it was gross (to me) but I sucked it down 'cause it's easily the most expensive wine I'll ever drink!! When the tour was over we got some souvenirs, then headed to downtown St. Helena to eat some lunch and do some shopping. After that, mom and I headed to the wedding we were going to, and on the way we got....lost. Pretty funny...we asked a lady to help us and when she found out we were from Oklahoma, she started talking really s-l-o-w-l-y...I'm not kidding!!! It was soooo funny!!! We finally found the wedding, and it was at a beautiful ranch, mom had fun catching up with all her old pals, and we ate some good food. And they had a chocolate fountain, which makes any wedding worth going to! After much fun, we started home.....we finally got there and crawled into bed. Up early the next day to catch out planes out...we drove over the mountains as the sun was coming up,but mom got to get one last glimpse of her "whirly gigs" (they are big wind catchers for energy) that she loves. The pic didn't turn out so great, but they really are amazing to look at on the sides of the mountains. At the airport, while waiting for my flight, they told us that coming out of our gate, they're were 24 marines returning from Iraq...we clapped and hollered for them. Mom and I were crying...they were just babies!! It was an awesome sight. The whole trip was wonderful...it was great to spend some time with just my ma....we laughed until we thought we needed new underwear, ran ourselves until we couldn't keep our eyes open and farted like men! (I think mom, Uncle Dave and Aunt Kay agree with my friends, I'm the most gaseous girl they know!) It was great. I love you mom...thanks for such a wonderful trip...