We had breakfast at one of my favorite Napa stops, Bouchon Bakery. This time D opted for the cranberry orange muffin, while I shared the cream cheese danish with k. I also could not resist getting one of their famous macarons, which I ate later. I chose the espresso, and it was soft and crisp and chewy all at the same time…divine.

After breakfast, both kids fell asleep on the way to our next stop.

Our destination? A castle! Or, more precisely, the Castella di Amorosa. It is a winery located in an amazing castle that opened not too long ago. D’s dad said it took them ten years to build, and looking around, you can see why. (I also read that this was the castle used in the movie “Bedtime Stories”).

The Knights’ Room

The Dining Hall

Of course, this is a winery, so D and his dad did some wine tasting.

Some people at the bar joked that we should put some wine on n’s gums since he is teething, like they do in Italy.

k and I settled for breadsticks and “moat water” (aka Capri Sun grape drink). On the website, it says kids get grape juice. I was expecting some specialized juice, since it is a winery, after all. However, I guess the Capri Sun is more kid-friendly in terms of packaging. k was kind of too young to be into the whole castle thing, and the tours are limited to kids over 5. It was fun looking around, though, and if you are looking for an interesting winery in Napa, (even if you’re not into wine) this is it.

D’s friend invited us to his wedding in Sacramento, so we decided to make it a 4 day vacation. On Thursday we left for Napa to visit D’s parents. k and n did OK during the 7.5 hour car trip. I would give k an “A” and n a “B”. (Of course, n receives special consideration since he isn’t even 6 months, plus he is teething!) For our late lunch we ate steaks prepared by D’s parents. For dinner, we went to the Oxbow Public Market. We’ve been wanting to eat at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher ever since D’s parents moved to Napa, and now there is a location at Oxbow!

The place is casual and you order at the counter. We all ordered hamburgers and split sweet potato fries and garlic fries. k really enjoyed the sweet potato fries, along with the ranch dipping sauce (no surprise there!) The garlic fries were a bit much, however, since they are tossed in butter. This gave them a weird too-hard texture, although I liked how they were not shy with the garlic.

The one thing that really hits you in the face at Oxbow is how eco-friendly everyone tries to be and how much they want you to know it. At Taylor’s their plastic cups are made entirely of plants!

Their meat is from Niman Ranch. D did some internet research and found out that their cows “don’t consume human fecal matter”. Makes you wonder what all the other cows we eat consume.

Of course, we had to partake in some dessert. Since we couldn’t choose between cupcakes and ice cream, we had both! First we stopped Kara’s Cupcakes, which we had boxed up for later at home. D’s dad chose vanilla coconut, D’s mom chose passion fruit, and I chose Chocolate Velvet, so k could have a bite. D originally wanted vanilla chocolate, but I convinced him to go with the more adventurous Fleur De Sel (w/caramel filling!)

Such a cute place, and the cupcakes were $3.25; expensive, but still cheaper than Sprinkles.

Next we went to Three Twins Ice Cream.

D, k and I shared a single in a waffle cup. You get to choose two flavors. D wanted to “go healthy” after all of our overindulgence so we had lemon sorbet (the healthy choice) along with lemon cookie ice cream (the not so healthy choice). The two lemon flavors contrasted nicely, tart and creamy. D’s dad had mocha and cardamom. I had a taste of the cardamom, and liked it a lot. If I didn’t have to share with D and k, I would probably get that one since its different. (When D and I were dating I used to balk at him choosing vanilla ice cream if we went to an ice cream parlor. I guess I still do that–see above re: vanilla chocolate cupcake).

It should be interesting to see how Oxbow does in the future. There were a lot more stores open than during our previous visit. It’s sad to see that Copia, which is next door, is shut down for now. Hopefully all of the Bay Area foodies (and tourists) can keep it going.