Day Seven: Mission Impossible

Welcome back friends and family!!

If you didn’t already know, today was Joey’s BIRTHDAY!!! I KNOW!! What a crazy few days we’ve had!!

His parents were kind enough to bring all of us on a vineyard tour of Napa Valley. We visited three different (and insanely beautiful) vineyards and drank a whole lot of wine. Oh yes. Much wine. This resulted in Joey confronting several “impossible tasks,” as he called them. Let’s begin:

Impossible Task #1:

Stop number one was Rutherford Hill, where we all shared a bottle of wine while overlooking the beautiful scenery from one of their picnic tables! Because this was our first stop, it hadn’t yet reached “impossible task” level yet, but it definitely contributed to the difficult of future tasks.

Impossible Task #2:

We then headed over to Frog’s Leap, where we all had a flight of different wines. (For those of you keep track at home, we’re up to about 5-6 glasses each). They also brought us an extra glass to celebrate Joey’s birthday! (6-7 glasses). Joey’s dad was serving as the designated driver for the day, so the vineyard brought him different flavors of sodas so he could have a tasting too. So nice!!

The grounds were gorgeous, and our host told us so many interesting facts about wine and the growing process! For example, this vineyard doesn’t attach any water systems to their vines. This means that the roots need to grow deeper into the soil to get the moisture from elsewhere. They grow less than other vineyards, but it makes the plants stronger and provides better fruit! The more you know.

Impossible Task #3:

Following our time here, we headed over to our last vineyard for the day, Domaine Carneros for our final tasting of the day! This was the vineyard where Joey literally uttered the words “this is an impossible task.” We all got to choose our flight (three of us got the “sparkling flight” which was their best sparkling wines), and WOW. These were FULL glasses. Here’s what I mean:

So at this point, Joey is faced with the impossible task of finishing four full glasses of sparkling wine after just having at least 6 other glasses. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Following our flights, we got to walk around a bit and take in the breath taking views.

For the record, he drank all of the glasses. And then immediately proceeded to nap in the car.

Impossible Task #4:

So after driving an hour and a half back to where the hotel is, we stopped for dinner. Joey chose Italian, and he apparently also chose for us to morph into our final forms as super round tourists. Impossible task #4, eat the entire meal. Joey did not pass impossible task #4.

Impossible Task #5:

Even though Joey didn’t pass task #4, he still took on task #5 which was eating dessert. He did, in fact, pass impossible task #5.

So, all in all, AN AMAZING DAY. We laughed, we cried (of laughter), and we consumed more than our bodies can handle. A HUGE thank you to Joey’s parents for such an unforgettable day. And now, we rest. Tomorrow Joey and I leave for the next part of our adventure! Stay tuned!