Girls Weekend in Napa Valley - October 2010

I had never been on a girls' trip and always thought it would be fun.  Some friends that I’ve known since high school invited me to Napa for a long weekend.  Good friends and good wine, I could hardly wait.  We all flew into San Francisco and had our flights timed within 20 minutes of each other.  We all ended up being delayed due to the fog in the bay area, but still managed to all get there about the same time.  We rented a car with Fox Rental and got a Chrysler 300 and it looks like a Bentley, so we kept referring to it as “The Bentley” the whole weekend.  We got some really strange looks when we called it that in public around other people.

Santa Ynez Valley - Sept 2010

A weekend filled with wine tasting and scuba diving seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit Santa Barbara.  I grew up watching Santa Barbara soap opera.  I had an image of beautiful coast line and a peaceful place. 

Mammoth and Bluesapalooza - August 2010

Mammoth is a cool destination for skiing in California, but we usually ski once a year and go to either Colorado or Lake Tahoe.  I’d always heard stories of the traffic being a nightmare trying to go to ski resorts in CA.  Mike is a member of the website Meet Up and joined a group that likes to camp and hike.  A member made up an event to attend Mammoth’s Bluesapalooza.  Mike forwarded me the info and I said sure, let’s go.  If nothing else, it would be a good excuse to finally get up to Mammoth to check it out. 

Yosemite May 2010

Traveling during holiday weekends is usually not recommended, but we both had a 4 day weekend.  Why not go somewhere?  I had been looking into visiting Yosemite National Park for the past couple of years.  We had a trip planned for Labor Day weekend a couple years back, but cancelled it due to other plans and the fact that the waterfalls would have all been dried up.  Memorial Day weekend sounded like a good time to go as the waterfalls would be in full flow. 

Belize - April 2010

This trip was planned to attend a friend’s destination wedding.  They got married at a resort in Hopkins and we decided to go a few days early to go diving in the Cayes (keys).  We chose to stay on Caye Caulker instead of the popular tourist destination, Ambergis Caulker.  Caye Caulker is smaller and more laid back according to my travel guide.  I used Moon Handbooks Belize guide to help plan the trip along with the trusty TripAdvisor website. 

Next Trip: Belize

I'm in the stages of finalizing plans for our next trip, which is to Belize.  We have planned this trip in order to go to a friend's wedding being held at the Almond Beach Resort in Hopkins, a small place south of Belize City between Dangriga and Placencia.

We are flying into Belize City on Continental Airlines, our first time flying with them, a few days before the wedding.  We will be taking a water taxi over to Caye Caulker (CC) to stay a few nights and go scuba diving.  (I'm not about to get on one of them propellor planes if I don't have to.)  We will be staying at what looks like a fun place called Seaside Cabanas.  The more popular place to stay in The Cayes is San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, but CC supposedly has a more laid back feel and is not as touristy.

Belize has the second largest reef system after the Great Barrier Reef.  I'm hoping we can get a refresher course in before doing any major diving as it's been 2 and 1/2 years since we've gone diving.  We didn't make a dive trip on the GBR as the dive boat in the area was out of commission for repairs.

After a few nights in CC, we will take the water taxi back to Belize City and pick up a car rental to drive down to Hopkins.  Our friend's wedding is on a Sunday, so we are hoping to dive again or find some hiking to do on the Saturday before the wedding.

I'm using my usual online source, TripAdvisor to help plan my trip and also a Belize guide book by Moon.  We were actually looking into going here the summer of 2008, but it didn't work out.  It's amazing that we are going now...it was meant to be.

Anza Borrego March 2010

We went camping for a weekend in Anza Borrego State Park.  We decided to go in March to see some of the wildflowers.  Anza Borrego is known to be really pretty when a lot of flowers are in bloom.  We were able to see quite a few flowers during our hike on Saturday, but there were still a lot of buds.  I think we missed the full bloom by a week or two.

Sydney, Australia - January 2010

Day 1, Jan 10 – Arrival

As I mentioned before, flying domestic Qantas flights are great.  We flew them again from Cairns to Sydney and during our 3 hour flight enjoyed a pasta meal and an ice cream bar.  They also played a movie, but we chose not to watch it.

We arrived in Sydney in the early evening and were picked up by a friend of Mike’s.  We were staying with him, his wife, and their new baby girl during our stay.  Their apartment was located in Potts Point and had a fantastic view of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. 

Cape Tribulation, Queensland Jan 2010

I'm writing this entry in a journal style, because our accommodations kept journals where guests could write what they did during their stay for other guests to read.  This is basically very similar to what I'd written in the journal, with a little more detail...

Day 1, Jan 5 - Arrival 

We flew Qantas from Melbourne into Cairns in a huge plane with a 3 seat middle row.  It was only a 3 hour flight and they showed a movie and served lunch.  I found this to be luxurious as we fly 3 hours from San Diego to Kansas City a lot and only get a bag of pretzels and cookies!

We had cooler weather than we expected while visiting Melbourne.  When we got off the plane in Cairns, we were slapped in the face with humid, warm weather.  I am not a fan of humidity, but tried to take it all in stride during our stay in Cape Tribulation.  We rented a car and made our way up to Cape Tribulation.  It ended up taking us 3 hours to get to our accommodations, but we had to stop for supplies and a map with directions to our B&B.  I forgot to bring a printout of the directions before leaving home.  I figured someone would know where the Fruit Farm was located.  The tourist map for Daintree and Cape Trib, which we picked up from the Daintree Discovery Centre, actually has the B&B on it.  Crossing the Daintree river requires a car ferry, which is $20 round trip.

We arrived at the Cape Tribulation Exotic Fruit Farm (TA Review) at about 4pm and were greeted by Alison right away.  She took us back to our cottage, they have 2 on site, and gave us an orientation of the cabin and farm.  She invited us to join her and Digby for a drink at their home later that evening to discuss the area and decide what to do during our stay.  

After our orientation, we walked to the nearby Cassowary Cafe for lunch (meal $35).  I ordered a chicken avocado baguette with fries and Mike had the vegetarian pizza.  The food was just ok, but the restaurant is pretty cool.  It had a tree house type look and setting.  We were the only ones eating as it was an in-between meal time, but they serve food all day.  We came to realize pretty quick that you can't always eat wherever you want whenever you want in Australia, especially in smaller areas.  We always had breakfast at the farm, lunch is 12-2 and dinner is 6-8.  Other than that, you can't always find anything to eat during those in between times.  We also discovered this "fake chicken" that is used in Cape Tribulation in several restaurants.  I don't know what it is made from, but it is not good.  I made the mistake twice of ordering chicken and this was the first place I did. 

After filling our stomachs, we went back to the farm and met Alison and Digby for a drink on their porch.  Their house is completely open in the front.  There are no walls or screens.  You can walk up and see their kitchen and living room.  They wanted to build their 2 cabins that way also, but didn't think guests coming from other countries would appreciate it as much as they do.  We all drank some wine and talked about the area, how they met, how they started the farm, and what were good activities to do in Cape Trib.  We also met their neighbor that runs another B&B farm, Farm Stay, close to them.  This farm inspired their farm and they are all friends!  When I researched places to stay in the area, I thought for sure they would be competitors that weren't necessarily friends.

After getting some ideas of things to do, we went back to our cabin and enjoyed another drink on the balcony before turning in for the night.  The cabins and balconies are right at the edge of the forest and you can hear some amazing sounds at night.  There are no TVs in the cabins, but who needs them when you have the forest to entertain you.

Day 2, Jan 6 - Forest Hiking, Ice Cream Tasting, Wine Tasting, Swimming Hole, and Crocodile Tour

The first thing we heard when we woke up was rain!  Rain in the forest sounds really cool.  The cabin was left open the whole time because it was really hot.  They have a sliding door and you can shut the windows, but during the summer, you want to leave everything open.  The rain only lasted about 10 minutes.

Breakfast is served to you on the balcony of your cabin.  Digby usually serves the breakfast and starts with the exotic fruit.  About 30 minutes later, he brings a hot breakfast.  This morning our fruit was Abiu, Pineapple, Papaya, Mango, and Passion Fruit.  Our hot breakfast was banana pancakes with Black Zapote chocolate sauce, which was my favorite breakfast of our trip.  These breakfasts ended up being our favorite meal of the day and we very much looked forward to them.  

After breakfast, we went on the guided walk behind the cabins.  Alison had mapped out the walk that had stops along the way to point out the flora, plants, or particulars of the forest.  Supposedly, their real estate agent had recommended they cut out a big chunk of the forest to build their house up higher than it is located now.  They didn't want to ruin such a special place!  

After our hike that left us dripping in sweat from the thick humidity, we cleaned up and headed down to cross the Daintree River on the car ferry and on to Mossman.  We had booked a crocodile tour on the river for later in the evening, so we took advantage of exploring the other side of the river while we were down there.  On our way, we stopped at the Daintree Ice Cream Company to taste some exotic fruit ice cream.  We tasted Banana, Wattleseed, Jakfruit, and Mamey Sapote.

We then headed to Shannonvale Winery outside of Mossman.  The winery specializes in exotic fruit wine and we really didn’t know what to expect.  We pulled into the driveway and followed signs for parking and the wine tasting room.  There was no one in the covered tasting room when we arrived, but there was a bell to ring to let someone know we were there.  I think they saw us pull in, because as I rang the bell, the owners were coming out to greet us. 

He explained that his wine tasting included 13 tastes that day ($5 pp if we didn't buy any wine) and asked if we were interested.  Whoa!  When we went to Napa, we only had about 4-6 tastes at a tasting.  We sat down at one of the long tables with bar stools and he gave us a couple of glasses and got the first bottle.  He gave us a form for our tasting notes.  The first wine he poured was made with Mango and he explained it was a dry wine that was recommended with lighter foods such as prawns.  Mike really liked it, but I thought it was a little too dry. Out of 10, I gave it a 5, Mike gave it an 8.  We went through 12 more wines this way.  Half of the wines we tasted were port-like, sweeter wines.

During our tasting another couple showed up and then the wife came out and finished our tasting.  They said during the busy season all their tables are usually full. 

The owners are really serious and passionate about their exotic fruit wine and it shows during the tasting.  We tasted wine made of Mango, Lychee, Passion fruit, Jaboticaba, Ginger, Orange, Purple Mangosteen, Lime, Grapefruit and Black Sapote.  We bought Lychee, Ginger, Purple Mangosteen, Lime Cello, and Black Sapote. We knew we'd never be able to buy something like this anywhere else!

After our wine tasting, we headed to some swimming holes to cool off.  We went to Mossman Gorge and Mike jumped in and swam around.  There were lots of people swimming and lots of others watching.  There was a little rapid on the river that people were riding down and Mike made friends with a local kid to tell him how to ride it also.

We left the Gorge after an hour or so and headed back towards the river to grab some food before our crocodile tour.  We stopped at 2 places that weren’t going to be serving food until dinner an hour later, so we settled for fish and chips at a gas station in Wonga Beach.  The fish was pretty decent and very hot, but I was a little disappointed that it was hard to find food.

We ate quickly and then drove down the road to met Dan Irby for our Daintree River Tour ($50 pp).  He’s a nice guy originally from Oklahoma.  He drives a small boat with about 10-12 seats total, so you don’t get a big group.  We only had 2 other couples with us on our tour.  Dan took the time to learn all our names and asked questions throughout the tour to get to know us.  We rode up and down the river looking for crocs, birds, frogs and whatever interesting things Dan could find.  In 2 hours, we only saw a few baby crocs.  Regardless, being out on the river at dark was amazing. 

Day 3, Jan 7 – Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Exotic Fruit Tasting

Our fruit this morning was Mango, Papaya, Pineapple, Abiu and finally the Mangosteen…queen of the fruit and the B&B’s pride and joy.  Our breakfast was potato pancakes with green onions and tomatoes.  We also had some Jakfruit jelly for our bread.

After breakfast, we were picked up by Ocean Safari to go snorkeling on Mackay Reef ($108 pp).  We picked up a few other people and went down to their office to sign waivers before walking out to the beach to get on the catamaran.  There ended up being about 20 of us on this snorkel cruise and we were out to the reef within 25 minutes.  We snorkeled around for an hour in 2 different places and saw some great colorful coral and fish.  Someone on our tour was lucky enough to see a reef shark.  One of our guides pulled a sea cucumber off the ocean floor and showed its defense mechanism.  I wish we could have stayed longer or gone again.  We were back to the beach by 12:30.     

We had lunch at PK’s Jungle Village (meal $28).  This place caters to backpackers and younger people.  I really liked the atmosphere.  If there was any place in Cape Trib with nightlife, it was this place.  I had a vege burger and Mike had a prawn roll, both were pretty decent.  We both had a beer also.

We went back to the farm and did the Fruit Tasting ($20 pp).  As if we weren’t getting enough with our breakfasts, we were hoping to sample new stuff.  Trish ran the discussion and she did a great job.  I discovered that I really enjoy Mamey Sapote; it tastes like sweet potato to me.  We tasted Breadfruit, Jakfruit, Mamey Sapote, Salak, Abiu, Black Sapote, Davidson Plum, Carambola, and Jaboticaba.

For dinner, we ate at Whet (meal $100).  This is the nicest place to eat in Cape Trib.  The seating is outside on a covered patio with torches lit around the patio.  The service was very friendly.  We ordered a pork and scallop appetizer that was absolutely yummy.  The portion was really small, but very good.  Mike had the trout and I ordered the tuna.  My tuna was a little overcooked for my liking, but the trout was very good.  They ended up running out of that right after our order.  For dessert, we had chocolate mangosteen ice cream with mango syrup.  Yum!  Our meal was a little bit of a splurge for the area, but worth it.  We didn’t have any drinks with our meal.

Day 4, Jan 8 – Sea Kayaking and Hiking

Our fruit this morning for breakfast was Star Fruit (Carambola) Sugar Bananas, Papaya, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, and Mangosteen.  Our hot breakfast was a cheese and herb omelet.  The eggs come from the hens that run around on the farm.

After breakfast, we walked to the local campground and rented a kayak to take out in the ocean.  We had it for 2 hours ($40) and paddled from the camp up a ribbon reef around the Cape Trib point to the bay on the other side.  We were looking for the dugong (similar to a manatee) that had been spotted in the area.  We didn’t have any luck finding it. 

After our kayaking adventure, we drove to the Cape Trib Beach House for lunch (meal $35) on our way to go hiking.  We really liked this place.  I had some pasta and a salad and Mike ordered a chicken sandwich.  We also each had a beer.  The pasta dish was a huge serving, but somehow I managed to finish it.  I was craving some pasta! 

With full bellies, we drove on to Emmagen Creek to find the trail back to a swimming hole.  At first we went the wrong way and Mike jumped in a swimming hole that wasn’t the one we were looking for.  We joked around that there might have been crocs in that swimming hole.  We referred to our map and discovered we had to walk a little down the road to get to the trail.  Finally on the right trail, we headed back to a nice secluded swimming hole.  There was another couple from San Francisco that were on their honeymoon, but other than that, no one else was there or came during our time there.  We swam around and relaxed a little in the shaded place. 

For dinner this evening we decided to walk to PK’s Jungle Village (meal $45) to experience the place at night.  Being in Cape Trib, you are pretty secluded and don’t always see a lot of people.  I was looking for some lively atmosphere, if just for a couple of hours.  It was pretty busy and there was some music playing.  We ordered the BBQ chicken pizza, but picked off all the chicken.  We forgot that the chicken isn’t always good as I’d mentioned earlier in this post.  We had a couple of beers each,

Day 5, Jan 9 – Sunrise, Hiking, Swimming Holes, and a BBQ!

We got up before breakfast and 6 am to catch the sunrise on the beach.  On the way to the beach, we saw a wild pig in the B&B’s orchard.  It was a little cloudy, so it wasn’t really spectacular.  It was nice however to be on the beach first thing in the morning.  It was quiet and the sand was cool!  The sand gets really hot during the day.  We walked along the beach a little and saw a reef shark swimming along the shallow waters. 

Back to the cottage for breakfast, our fruit was Pineapple, Abiu, Mango, Dragon Fruit and one of my favorites…Mamey Sapote.  For our hot breakfast, we enjoyed French toast with bacon and maple syrup.

After breakfast, we drove to find the trailhead to Blockade Creek.  This used to be a popular hike that locals would send tourists on, but the popularity of it had died out for some reason.  Alison & Digby said that none of their guests had gone on it in a while.  I think Alison had told us there was a trail, but we did what everyone else usually does and hiked up the river bed.  It was a little difficult climbing over the big boulders and some were wet.  I slipped and got one of my shoes all wet.  I wasn’t having the greatest time at first, but once we made it, it was pretty cool to see the little waterfall and swimming hole underneath it.  We shared the swimming hole with a Black Bittern.  We believe he was trying to fish, but he stayed there the whole hour or so we were there and barely moved.

The hike back down was a lot easier.  We drove back to Mason’s Café for lunch (meal $25).  I had a burger and it came with lots of veges on it (cucumber, beets, lettuce and carrots).  Mike had the fish and chips, the fish was little battered and very flavorable.  The food was very good, especially the fish.  We shared a coke.  After eating, we checked out their swimming hole.  It’s located in a river in tree shading.  It’s in a nice cool spot and it’s a big swimming area.  You could actually lie out and swim some laps.  There were several people that ended up back here while we were there. 

We decided that we wanted to go look for a Cassowary after our swim.  We had only seen one that we briefly saw run across the road as soon as we crossed the river our very first day.  Digby told us they have been seen at the Jindalba walk next to the Discover Center.  We drove down and walked around a little, but didn’t have any luck.  One our drive back to the B&B, we stopped at a Daintree Coffee Co. for a cup of coffee.  It was a nice little shop that had great coffee.  We noticed some rain clouds and the guy in the coffee shop said rain was coming! 

We made it back to the B&B barely and it started to rain.  It was raining pretty heavy to us, but the locals considered it a sprinkle!  The sound of the forest changed, the bugs started chirping really loud.  They were very excited for the rain! 

We had been invited by Alison & Digby to a BBQ they were hosting to celebrate the opening of their packing barn.  The rain didn’t keep everyone from attending the BBQ.  A lot of people were walking around barefoot under umbrellas.  We enjoyed a mango bellini made by Digby and lots of champagne poured by Alison.  It was a lot of fun and we met some fun people.  We had read in a book what to do if you get invited to a BBQ in Australia and thought that would never happen.  We actually were invited to a BBQ in Australia!

It rained and rained all night!  It was awesome listening to it rain in the forest. 

Day 6, Jan 10 – Departure

It was still raining when we woke up and we got up and sat on the balcony with our morning tea and coffee listening to it.  Our last morning of fruit was Dragon Fruit, Abiu, Mangosteen, Sugar Bananas, and Mangos.  Our hot breakfast was poached egg Benedict with spinach. 

It was so hard to leave, because we loved our stay at the Cape Trib B&B!  Being in Cape Trib was the best part of our trip.  It’s nice to travel to new places, but it’s even more fun and memorable when you go to places that are off the normal tourist path.  Cape Trib is definitely that place.  To fully enjoy your time, you have to be ok with the lack of amenities, the bugs, the humidity in the summer, and the rain.

Continue Reading About Our Trip:

3 Nights in Melbourne

6 Nights in Sydney

Melbourne, Australia January 2010

We went to Australia for 2 weeks.  We usually like to travel in October or November, but a job change forced us to wait until January.  January is summertime in Australia and we were expecting it to be quite warm.  

Our itinerary included:  3 nights in Melbourne, 5 nights in Cape Tribulation (visiting the Great Barrier Reef), and 6 nights in Sydney (visiting the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley).

We flew into Melbourne and out of Sydney on Qantas Airlines.  We also used Qantas for our domestic travel in Australia between Melbourne and Cape Trib and Cape Trib and Sydney.  We rented a car in Melbourne and Cairns using Avis.  We used Frommer's Australia guide book to help plan our trip. 

January is an expensive time to fly to Australia.  I checked airline prices almost daily for a year and the price never went down much.  We ended up booking 2 weeks in advance, as that is the required booking time for international flights, because I was hoping for a last minute deal that never came.  

3 Nights in Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne after a 14 hour flight from LA on a Saturday morning.  We went to pick up our rental car at Avis and the first thing I did was try to get in on the driver's side (since it's on the opposite side).  Mike was the designated driver and I was the navigator and the one constantly reminding him to KEEP LEFT.  We tried to go slow and it took a little time getting used to driving on the left, but eventually it started coming easier. I don't know that he ever got used to the turn signal being on the opposite side, however.  Most of the time when we made a turn, Mike turned on the windshield wipers.  We ended up with an Australian car, a Holden, that has their windshield wipers and turn signals on the opposite side than American cars.  Other European cars have them on the same side as American cars.  

After some backtracking, we finally made it to the St. Kilda area where our hotel was located.  I decided on St. Kilda and the Hotel Tolarno as I read that the area was beach-y and artsy and had great restaurants.  It wasn't as beach-y as I was expecting, but we liked staying there.  It was pretty quiet during the time we were there as Australians were still on holiday from Christmas and New Years and it wasn't as warm yet.  As soon as we left Melbourne, the temperatures started soring.  

LODGING

Hotel Tolerno (TA Review) - Lovely Hotel, Helpful Staff

This was a nice European type room.  The staff was very helpful when we needed directions or asked questions.  The tram also stops along the street in front of the hotel to take you downtown.

ACTIVITIES

Melbourne's CBD (downtown)

We hopped on the tram after arriving to Melbourne, checking into our room, and eating lunch to go visit the CBD.  The tram got us there in about 20 minutes.  We bought a ticket at the 7-11, but they have vending machines on the trams as well.  We got off at the Southern Cross stop and made our way to the free city tram.  We didn't really ride it but to get off a couple of stops down at Federation Square.  We checked out the area and then made our way to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail).  We ended up getting there around 3:45pm and they tried to talk us into coming back the next day to do tours.  We opted to pay the concession fee to just check out the jail house.  This is where Ned Kelly was jailed and hanged.  After leaving the Gaol, we walked back to the Southern Cross stop to catch the tram back to our hotel.

The Great Ocean Road (GOR)

Our second day in Melbourne, we got up early, had some breakfast and left the hotel around 7:30am to drive the GOR.  Our plan was to get ahead of the tour buses that usually left the city between 8:30 and 9.  We were making good time, but missed an exit and had to back track a little.  We started on the GOR outside Torquay and made a couple of stops at Bells Beach and the Split Point Lighthouse.  As soon as we left the lighthouse and passed the GOR sign that goes over the road, we came to a stop in traffic.  People started turning their cars around and heading the other way, so we did also.  We stopped at a store to find out what happened and discovered there was an accident and the road was going to be closed for at least 4 hours. The GOR is a 2 lane road, so there was no way to go around that accident on that road. We decided to ask at the information centers to see what our options were to get around. 

The info desk in Anglesea gave us a map with a dirt road that went around and we got back on in Lorne. Driving on the dirt road was a little scary at first since: 1) we aren't used to driving on dirt roads; 2) it was the first full day Mike was driving on the opposite side of the car and road; and 3) cars coming from the other direction were flying past us.  We joked about our experience the whole way and finally made it back to the GOR.  It ended up being a 2 hour delay, but we continued on our trip.

We stopped in Lorne, a cool little town, to get some coffee and stretch our legs.  We also stopped and visited the Maits Rainforest Walk, The Twelve Apostles, and other stops along the way. We grabbed dinner in Colac at Cafe Nu-Deli and headed back to Melbourne. We didn't get back until 11:30pm to our hotel.
It ended up being a really long day due to the back tracking, the detour and all the stops, but the Great Ocean Road was beautiful. I'm glad we drove ourselves, so we could stop and go whenever we wanted.  I think it probably would have been a good idea to stop somewhere for the night and relax a little, soak in the scenery, and then drive back to Melbourne.  That's something we talked about doing different after our trip.

Phillip Island Penguin Parade

We slept in a little before making our way to Phillip Island to watch the penguin parade.  We weren't supposed to be there until about 7:30pm as that was about the time the sun would start setting and the penguins would come out of the ocean from hunting all day.  


We ended up leaving our hotel around 11am and made it close to the island's turn off about 12:30pm.  We hit traffic and thought, oh no, not again.  Well, there was another accident, unfortunately a fatal one involving a family, that closed the entrance to Phillip Island.  


At first, no one knew if or when it would open back up.  We found Kilcunda beach down the road and spent some time hanging out there.  We also drove into Wonthaggi to go to the visitor's center for ideas of what to do in the area and to get some lunch.  We were heading back to Kilcunda about 5pm when we hit traffic and thought the island must be open again.  We slowly moved towards the round about to Phillip Island and got to the Penguin Parade a little after 7:30pm.  We made it!  It was worth all that waiting, because watching these little fairy penguins get out of the ocean in little huddles and then waddle along the beach back to their burrows was absolutely amazing.  We wished we could have seen more of Phillip Island, we had planned on going to the Koala sanctuary as well, but I'm glad we made it to the penguin show!

After the show, we headed back to Melbourne and made it to our hotel after 12:30am.  

RESTAURANTS

Chinta Blues - Great Malaysian Food

Our first meal in Australia ended up being one of our favorites.  When we got to the restaurant it was completely empty and that made me a little nervous.  However, once we got our food and tasted it, I was not disappointed!  I ordered the Ayam Ria Chicken (diced chicken fillets, wok-tossed in a blend of spices, fresh ginger and dry red chilli, finished with crisp carrot slices and peanuts) based on Frommer's recommendation in his guide.  Mike ordered the Hokkian Char Fried Noodles (soft hokkien noodles gently simmered in a dark soya sauce with fishcake, bok choy, prawns and calamari).  This place was delicious.  Our meal was about $50 which included 2 beers.

Cacao 

This place was a couple of buildings down from our hotel and we went in one morning for coffee.  The lady working the counter was from the U.S. and was really friendly.  

The Angahook Cafe (in Anglesea on the GOR) 

We stopped in here for a quick bite before attempting the detour around the accident on the GOR.  I ended up with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich although I tried to order something that looked better in the display case.  I guess I didn't say the right thing.  Mike had a pastry filled with stuff that he saw someone else order.  We had a small lunch for about $10.

Cafe Nu-Deli (in Colac on Murray St.) - Good Local Meal 

We stopped here on our way back to Melbourne from the GOR.  We made it to Colac with less than 1/4 of a tank of gas and was really starting to wonder if we were going to make it to a station before running out.  The first gas station in Colac we came to had just closed and we were hoping it wasn't the only one in town.  We finally found one and asked the attendant for a recommendation for food.  We didn't really want to eat at McDonald's in Australia.  She recommended a pub down the street that we never found, but came across this place instead.  It looked like a nice casual place.  We walked in and immediately felt under dressed.  We had been in the car for about 12 hours and were tired and might have looked a little run down.  There were two older couples dressed up and having a nice evening out.  We almost missed dinner as our server had to check to see if the kitchen was still running.  We were in luck and ended up having a pretty decent meal here.  I ordered the special which was chicken and shrimp sauted in peanut sauce, which was pretty good.  However, it came with an Asian salad which was drenched in dressing.  Mike ordered a ribeye steak and it was very nice as well.  After such a long day of driving we were even more tired after our meal here, but had to drive another hour and a half to Melbourne.  Our dinner was about $50 which included 2 beers.

Leo's Spaghetti Bar - Quick Egg Breakfasts

We went here for breakfast the morning of our trip to Phillip Island.  It was across the street from our hotel.  They serve fried eggs over bread and it was pretty good.  I had fried eggs and ham on toast and Mike had Leo's breaky.  Yes, in Australia, they refer to breakfast as "breaky".  Mike's breaky came with some strange looking sausage, otherwise it was a good breakfast for about $20.

Continue Reading About Our Trip:

5 Nights in Cape Tribulation

6 Nights in Sydney

Napa Valley - September 2009

We booked a long weekend trip for Napa during Labor Day weekend taking the chance that it wouldn't be too crowded or too hot.  It turned out to be a perfect weekend of exploring and tasting lots of wine.  We flew into Oakland and rented a car to drive to Napa.

On Friday, we visited Napa's downtown tasting rooms.  On Saturday, we visited Artesa, V. Sattui, Del Dotto and Van Der Heyden.  On Sunday, we visited Plumpjack, Mondavi, and Cakebread.

I read the book "A Moveable Thirst" before our trip and it helped me learn a lot about wine and wine making.  It is a great book that is informative and funny at the same time.  This book goes through 2 guys' personal experience at several tasting rooms, but then will break away to educate you about wine.

We chose Napa as our base for our first visit to the Valley.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites (TA Review) and we were able to walk downtown our first day and we had easy access to the highway to explore the rest of the Valley.

It is tough figuring out an itinerary as there are lots of wineries and restaurants and you just can't do it all in one weekend!  We focused on staying in certain areas each day, although Saturday really didn't fit this idea, because our friends really wanted to go to V. Sattui and we really wanted to see the views from Artesa.  I'm really glad we went to Artesa, because they had the best views of all the wineries we visited.

We definitely plan to go back again and stay in Sonoma and Calistoga to explore those areas.

Our itinerary included:

FRIDAY

After arriving and checking into our hotel, we went to find the La Esperanza Taco Truck.  I heard about this taco truck on the Napa forum on TripAdvisor and we set out to find it when we arrived in Napa Friday afternoon. It was right where they said it would be, at Soscol Ave and Napa St. across from the Westin and Wine Train.

You just walk up and order and take it to go or stand around the truck eating. We opted for the latter as it was such a nice day. We ordered tacos: shrimp, fish, pork and carnitas. I'd have to say the carnitas were pretty darn good. They serve seeded jalapenos with them and they are soo good too.

After lunch and a little rest, we visited downtown Napa tasting rooms.  We bought the tasting card online for $20 which allowed us tastings at 14 places in the downtown area. The tasting you would get by showing the card varied at all the places, but it was usually 2 tastes.

It was a nice way to get acquainted with tasting wine and asking questions. It was also nice that we could just walk all over downtown as well. We tasted at (in this order):

Wineries of Napa Valley - 3 tastes. We ended up buying a bottle of 2006 Goosecross Syrah here for dinner that night. The card allows you to have the corkage fee removed, just have the winery put a sticker on the bottle too.

Trahan Winery and Olabisi Winery - 2 tastes. We liked their tasting room, it was all black with some barrels and a big mirror. We bought a bottle of 2005 Olabisi Petite Sirah from JW Warehouse. I may have become a fan of Petite Sirah because of this wine.

X Winery - 5 tastes, they'll let you taste whatever is open basically. Our least favorite wine though. I wanted to drink a lot of water afterwards.

Ceja - 2 tastes. Nice tasting room with bar and menu. We overheard the pourer talking to another couple about some "liquid gold" and we asked nicely for a taste and he gave us a little of the port. Another couple came in to buy some chocolate sauce and we asked about that as well. He let us have a taste as well. We ended up buying a case of that for Christmas presents and they were a big hit!

Napa General Store - 2 tastes. These were quick and small pours. Not really impressed by anything although the pourer was really nice.

Silo's - Either 2 tastes or 1 big pour. This is a cool place that is a night club with a doorman, black decor, and black table clothes. We sat at a table and the server brought us our tastes. There was a guy playing guitar and singing. They have various performers in the evenings as well.

We had dinner at Allegria (Yelp Review)

SATURDAY 

After getting some coffee at a local coffee shop, we headed to the Napa Farmer's Market.  It's located on the north side of the Wine Train. It's 730 - 1200 Tues and Sat from May to Oct.  We wanted to check it out to get snacks and fruit while we were there and to take with us when wine tasting in the valley. There was one stand that had awesome nectarines. One of the guys was yelling he had the best fruit in town and had pieces out for tasting. We ended up buying his fruit and some hummus from a lady. This is a great market with several booths of fruit, veges, eggs, etc.

Artesa - We went there to check out the views and to see if we could see San Francisco from there. We could make out the buildings downtown, but it wasn't completely clear. We didn't taste here, but the grounds are pretty cool and modern.

 V. Sattui - Our friends wanted to take us here.  Wow, this winery gets crowded! They also only sell their wines there. Our friend with us had VIP passes, so we got to go into the tasting room in the basement. They say you get 6 tastes, but you could really have whatever you asked for. It was a little busy in there as well, but I didn't see the tasting room upstairs to compare.  At first, the pourer wasn't interested in explaining the wines to us and would pour us all the same thing when someone wanted something different. We finally got him engaged when we asked about making Maderia and ports. We bought a bottle of the Maderia and 2007 Zinfandel.  They supposedly have great grounds for picnicking. It was so crowded there and in the store to buy sandwiches. We ended up having to rush off to a tasting appointment and eating our Margherita and Mozzeralla Turkey in the car.

Del Dotto Vineyards - We chose this winery for the cave tour.  We had a 3pm Sat reservation ($40 pp). We got to taste several (6 or 7) wines from the barrel. Our tour guide made it a lot of fun, but his ways of trying to sell you the wine at the end were a little humorous, a little pushy. This is a place to go for fun and it gets a little loud. At the end of the cave tour, they give you some cheese, meat and crackers and pour you more wine. The last wine they poured was actually pretty good. It was a 2007 Giovanni's Tuscan Reserve (75% Cab, 25% Sangiovese) $85. We just aren't the type of couple to spend more than $40-$45 on wine.

Van Der Heyden Vineyards - We left Del Dotto with some friends that didn't go on the tour, but waited for us. They wanted to hit another winery. We decided on Van Der Heyden, because it was one of the few wineries close by that were open until 6pm. Most wineries close by 5pm.  When we arrived there were only 2 other groups there, when we left it was packed. The tasting area is outside next to the house under an old car port. We decided to share a tasting at this point ($10). They poured 5 wines outside. Then, we went into a little air conditioned room where the winemaker, Andre, poured us a late harvest Cabernet. It's sweet like a port. You can buy a small bottle of it right there for $55. Online you can only get a whole bottle for $125.

We had dinner at Celadon (Yelp Review)

SUNDAY

PlumpJack - We were driving around on our way to Mondavi and was early, so we stopped to visit this winery.  The grounds here are pretty cool. They have a long driveway leading up to the tasting room that goes through the vineyards. We ended up sharing the tasting here, $10 for 3 tastes. The servers were super nice.

Before our Robert Mondavi tour, we headed to the Oakville Grocery Store for lunch. They have a deli and sandwiches and lots of snacks. I asked the guy behind the counter what he recommended. We ordered the Mediterranean Chicken and Beef and Bleu based on his recommendations. We started out sitting in front of the store, but the traffic from the road was a little loud. We went around back and found a picnic table under a tree...much nicer. The Beef and Bleu was probably the better sandwich.

Robert Mondavi Winery - Robert Mondavi's Cabernet was my first favorite wine and we used to drink a lot of it, so I really wanted to visit the winery.  I called and made a reservation for 12pm a month and a half in advance, but somehow it got messed up or lost or something. We ended up getting a 1230pm Signature Tour ($25 pp). Our tour started in a room telling us about different regions of wine in CA and some history on Mondavi. We went out to the demo vineyard and was told about the vines and harvesting. We went into the cellar and saw wine fermenting in hugh barrels and then went to where the barrels are stored to sit for a couple of years. We ended the tour in a room with a huge dining table for a sit down tasting of 3 wines plus a port.  The tour group was 16 people and went 1.5 hours. I thought it was a little too long. Our group like to ask questions though.

Cakebread - We chose to go here since their wine is usually expensive in the stores.  This was probably our favorite winery on this trip. We had a 2pm reservation. When you turn into the place, you are stopped by a guy that has a list with your name on it.  After checking in, we were given a glass of wine while we waited for everyone to get together. Our tour guide took us in to see their barrels and up to a room overlooking vineyards to have a sit down tasting. We had 5 more wines. For someone that doesn't like Pinot Noir, I have to say their 2006 was pretty good. We really liked their wine. And, we got to keep our glass that has Cakebread etching.  I'd have to say this was probably the best tasting experience on this trip. It's only $10 pp and you get information, a small tour, several pours and you get to keep the glass.

We had dinner at Bottega (Yelp Review)

**Things to remember when wine tasting in Napa Valley:  drink water, eat, and don't visit too many in one day.  We brought a collapsible cooler with us and carried water and food in it.  I thought tasting at 3 wineries a day was plenty!  You can always visit wineries without tasting like we did at Artesa or share tastings, which we did at Van Der Heyden and PlumpJack.