Hey, we had more visitors last weekend.  Always fun.  At least it’s fun for us, I have to imagine our house guests usually leave feeling rather….  Underwhelmed.  As long as I am entertained, that’s all that is important I suppose.  So, anyway, our friends the Martins made it down for a weekend of fun.  Granted, they weren’t really here to see us, just passing through on the way to see their real friends.  That’s just semantics though.  We kicked things off on Friday with a short trip up the hill to Chateau Davell Winery.  Their new place is great, I’m glad to see them doing well there.  We enjoyed a few sips and then headed across the road to one of our favorite restaurants, Smith Flat House.  Always good food, and the place is just cool.  After that we headed home and got into a rousing game of 10 point pitch.  I do miss that game, the local savages out here refuse to engage in such high-brow entertainment.  I’ll mention that the boy’s team won handily, although I suppose that goes without saying.

Saturday was slated for a quaint afternoon of wine tasting in the convertible.  Because, well, it’s just fun.  Alas, the weather did not cooperate.  I won’t say it was COLD, per se, but it was maybe “chilly.”  Not an ideal day for zipping around with the top down, at any rate.  So, we made a last minute change of plans and did a little brew tour instead.  We started out in Auburn, visiting the venerable Moonraker and Knee Deep locations.  I must say, these are my two favorites out here.  They are great spots, and I’d put the beers up against anything.  Luckily for my belly they are pretty far away, so I don’t get to go there very often.  After that we made a quick stop at Goathouse Brewing, mostly out of curiosity.  I wouldn’t say the pint I had was anywhere close to the one from KneeDeep, but it was OK.  The main draw was, they had goats.  Lots and lots of goats.  I don’t really know why, but it was fun to watch them.  We rounded out the day at the new Out of Bounds back closer to home.  They’ve still got a few more chances left, but they are sort of struggling getting the kinks worked out.  We planned on having dinner there, but eventually gave up and left.

Sunday we got up early-ish and rolled down the hill to the Napa area.  Martins were meeting up with their Fancy Friends for a day of wine and food, so we kicked them to the curb and headed out on our own.  Actually, we met up with Michael & Alaina, who happened to be in the area, and took a little tour of our own.  See, we’ve got Fancy Friends too, so there.  We enjoyed a great lunch at an outdoor cafe, hit a few wineries, and then suffered a miserable traffic jam all the way home.  I still declare the day a success, despite the sketchy drive at the conclusion.