Happy New Year!

[Mara]

Just wanted to take a quick note and wish everyone on the forums




HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!




We are heading to Napa in a few minutes for an overnight stay in this awesome Inn/Hotel that we found during the summer...and are having our New Years Eve dinner at Cole's Chop House in downtown Napa....we walked by it last time and were intrigued because we are both meat-lovers; but we did the Wine Train so we didn't have any other nighttime meals on our last visit. We are also hoping to visit some of the great furniture places they have there and pick up some items for our new house!




Hope everyone has a happy, safe and healthy New Years Eve with minimal next-morning hangovers!

To a great 2004!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Mara - Happy New Year to you too! Hope you have a nice time on your little get away trip

Michelle

 

[KittyTiger]

Mara~~


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO!


Have a fun trip.... be careful...

 

[Patty]

Happy New Year Mara and everyone else!

 

[pqcollectibles]

Happy New Year to you and Greg! Have a safe and fun trip filled with glorious food and shopping!

2004 is looking to be a Fantastic year for you, dear Mara!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[Lanee]

Happy New Year to everyone. Good idea Mara and I hope you guys enjoy yourselves. Let us know if you find some furnishings.

 

[Mara]

We actually got an amazing piece of furniture from the store we were hoping to visit! They were closed early on New Years Eve because Napa had a flash flood warning, so most of downtown was sandbagged. We were keeping fingers crossed for being open on New Years Day but felt hopes were slim! So that morning we called and someone answered the phone, I asked if they were open, they said no but if we came tomorrow they'd give us 25% off. HAH! Well I said thanks but we are only here today. So he opened the store just for us!

We hustled on over and tried not to feel obligated to buy something. The owner was great. Told us to take our time...so there were a couple of pieces we liked, this store has some older antique pieces, newer ones and also has some unfinished pieces as well.




We ended up with this amazing older french country type bookcase with a door. It's so hard to explain. Imagine an old distressed black bookcase, but it has a swinging door on it, which is an antique glass window. The window has panes but instead of them being straight, they are in this awesome curvy pattern and they are painted an old red color (not bright). It's completely amazing and it looks like a blend between old and new (modern) because of the colors and the curvy panes. It's on little feet. Very cool. We bought it but are going back to pick it up in a week or two with Greg's truck. Yay our first piece of furniture together....now we only need about 5 other pieces and we'll be ready..hee hee.




The piece is going to go outside our downstairs bathroom, the bathroom itself is TINY and doesn't allow for any storage, it's a pedestal sink, so I wanted something like this outside the door in the hallway niche, so that we could store TP and soaps, towels, etc and not have to run upstairs every time to get more stuff for guests. The new piece is fun to look at which is a bonus because it does get displayed every time someone goes to the bathroom.

I'm sure it will get lots of conversation since most of our things tend to be Pottery Barn-ish and this is definitely more of a blend of different styles. We love it.

But the 25% would have come in handy, about $100 off. DAMN but we didn't want to ask since the guy was soo nice and opened the store for us. There is also a huge desk (one that opens and then completely shuts with doors so you can hide all your stuff) that we like as well which we are going to do some competitive research on and then maybe get next time.

 

[Mara]

Oh and we had a room on the Napa River and got to see the river rise 4-5 feet in one night!

We checked it all night long. They had flash flood warnings as we were leaving town, but the rain had stopped so everything looked like it would be all right. Really interesting though and I wish we hadn't forgotten the CAMERA because I could have taken some great shots of before/after etc not to mention us all spiffied up for NYE dinner

Oh well!

 

[Kamuelamom]

Happy New Year to all!

Mara, we were just talking about the Napa wine train at the NY party I attended. It's on my list of future must-dos. I l-o-v-e Napa Valley, by far one of my favorite places to visit in California. I've been there 3 or 4 times and love it each time. I'd love it if you could post of picture of your new treasure.

 

[Mara]

KM I'll snap a pic the next time we see it, when we pick it up.

It's hard to imagine!




The Wine Train was SO much fun, we did that this summer and we had a blast. Greg loves wine and so he had a heyday, and the ride was amazing...in the summer you can stand on the back of the train outside and just watch everything go by. Romantic as well. We did the 2nd seating for dinner which gave us the best scenery watching options (outside) and we eat late anyway.

Oh and the owner of the furniture store (Napa Valley Furniture Co) gave us a little present for our new house, he was so sweet...it's a replica of an art deco clock, older with black and red that looks perfect for Greg's garage!!

 

[KittyTiger]

hi Mara and K-mom...




I live here in LA and I've never been to the Napa wine tasting.... Can you fill me in on where to get information for this? I'd like to take my boyfriend there on a long weekend or maybe like a bday or anniversay thing.

His birthday is coming up in a few months. Do I need to make reservations ahead of time? Mara, can you please also give me some info on the place you guys stayed at? It sounds nice.




Thankyoooooou

 

[Mara]

I highly recommend staying in downtown Napa on Main Street. The hotel we use is the Napa River Inn (www.napariverinn.com) and you can get deals on their website or by using Orbitz.com. We got a superior room for $179 a night...awesome price and the rooms are great! We were right on the river. I'm pretty picky about my hotels and this one is great. It's in an old 100 year old mill building and onsite they also have a 'General Store' which has the cutest gifts and fun things and also has great cheeses, and local made sauces and spreads, jellies, etc. Then there is also Sweetie Pies, this great bakery onsite as well. Each morning you get your breakfast from SP's delivered to your door, and they have this great egg and bacon cheese croissant, homemade..yum, also they give you wine tasting coupons usually for their General Store so you can get your first taste there.




Then we walked up the street (Main) where there are alot of cute kitschy shops, coffee houses, etc and stopped at the Vintner's Collective building where we did some wine tasting, great wines and cool glasses.

Great convo too, we were the only ones in there that day and the guy told us lots of great stuff about the wines and where to go etc.




We did the Wine Train this summer which was amazing, www.winetrain.com, you can make reservations before but we just made them when we got to the hotel and they had room still. It's about 3 blocks up from Downtown so you can walk or drive. It's a 3 hour voyage and they serve you dinner and apps, drinks etc. One thing is that the wine is not included, which is kind of funny, but they have alot of selection.




Some recommended restaurants in the downtown area is Cole's Chop House which we just went to for NY...it was awesome and very cool inside with stone walls. Also Celadon which is in the Napa River Inn/Mill complex is very good as well I have heard...owned by the same person as Cole's Chop House.




Another place is the French Laundry which is in Yountville I think (about 5-10 min drive from downtown), the famous restaurant, very hard to get in, reservations are taken 2 months in advance. It's real French so know that before you go, and we have not been but of course it gets rave reviews. They have a website too I think.




For other wine tastings, you can do some research beforehand and then drive to the wineries, most of them do tastings all day long...choose a few fun ones (e.g. Coppola) and make the drive. Napa is not that big, and there are wineries literally all over the place.




Anyway we like the downtown hotel because it's boutiquey (small) and semi-luxury but doesn't carry the hefty price tag of a real luxury hotel. Plus it's within walking distance of great restaurants and shops, a must for me.

And Greg got to do some tasting without us having to drive anywhere.

One last thing to note is that Downtown Napa was kind of 'undiscovered' until the last year or two. More people would go out to other more rural areas and /or to just the wineries and do tastings then stay somewhere else. But they are really starting to get more traffic as people discover that you can come stay in a great place, still taste wines, and shop and have it all within easy reach. Since I am a big fan of having everything closeby so that I can be very lazy on my vacations

, this worked out so well for us. I'm not a B&B person, don't like staying in someone's house, so the hotel works nicely as that bridge of 'not too big and fancy' and 'not someone's house where I share a bathroom' with a great price of course.




My suggestions!!

 

[winyan]

Hi everyone!!

Have a happy healthy New Year, and many more![/b]​

win

 

[KittyTiger]

dam*!! How do you type so fast! Thank you for all the great info! I love to plan trips!! I'm just not at expert at it yet! My boyfriend is definitely not a planner .. but he does enjoying anything I plan and he has a lot of fun..

If it weren't for me, I think we'd just sit around doing nothing.. which is nice .. "sometimes".




But I will sure look into all the info you provided me ... and maybe plan something for spring.

 

[KittyTiger]

Mara,

did you ever get a chance to take some pics of the new piece you're putting outside of the downstairs bathroom? I just remembered today that I really wanted to see what it looks like.. =P

 

[Mara]

Leota...yes I actually did take some pix of it a few months back, but now that it's all ensconced happily in it's spot in the new house I will take another one and post it!