I have the intention of keeping up with this better, but we stay so busy! Since Christmas, we’ve all managed to stay healthy! The kids have been able to stay in school and things with Covid have been steadily getting better. The governor took away the mask mandate for King County last weekend, two years after this all started! The kids went to school on Monday and weren’t sure whether to wear their masks or not. Over the past few days they got more comfortable, most of the kids have stopped wearing them. It feels so weird to walk up to the school at drop off and pick up time and see everyone’s faces.
Our neighbors gave us the name of their babysitter for us to use back in January, so Joe and I could go out for his birthday. We went to Ascend in Bellevue, it’s a steakhouse high up in a tower. We had a great time out and the kids loved the new sitter.
My dad came to town in February. He flew in on a Monday and we had a few days while the kids were in school to do touristy things. I took him to Mohai in Seattle, we did the Seattle Underground tour, we went to Pike Place Market, and we did a seaplane tour of Seattle. We learned a lot about Seattle and had fun hanging out. We used our babysitter one night and Joe, dad, and I went to Fogo de Chao for dinner. It was fun to go out like grown ups, we ate so much! On Friday morning, Joe and I flew to the Santa Rosa airport for our 10th anniversary trip to Napa. I was so worried in the two weeks leading up to our vacation, I was afraid we would get Covid or my dad would back in Nashville. When we finally got on the plane, I was so excited that it was actually happening!
We rented a car in Santa Rosa. We found lunch at a great sandwich place in town, and then drove towards our first winery outside of Yountville. We did a wine tasting at Castello Di Amorosa, which was a castle built to resemble a Tuscan estate. It was amazing. The weather was so warm and the entire area around Napa was so beautiful! We liked one of the wines so much, we ordered a few bottles to send home. We drove to Yountville afterwards to check into our hotel. It was right on the main road of Yountville, which was the cutest town! We were welcomed to the hotel with champagne, which was not necessary after all the wine we’d tried, but it was great! Our room was very nice. We dropped off our stuff and drove into Napa to find dinner. We walked into a place on the square and were able to get a table right away. California had just lost their mask mandate that day, it was so weird to be around people without masks on! The food was great, and our server had actually lived in Redmond! We went and saw Uncharted at the theatre in Napa afterwards.
On Saturday we had breakfast at our hotel. We didn’t have high expectations, but it was so dang good! We had mimosas and there was this gluten free toast with homemade jam that I fell in love with. We went near Napa to Artesa for a wine tasting with tapas at noon. The vineyard was built into the side of a big hill, with glass windows all along the side of the building. Joe said it looked like a Bond villain’s lair. We got a tour of the building and where the wine is packaged, and then had tapas paired with our wine tasting. There was one other couple with us, and they were on vacation from New Jersey. The wife had actually gone to college at Towson, right by where we lived in Baltimore. Small world! The wine was great but hit me real fast! We went back to our hotel to hang out until our dinner reservations. We ate at Bottega, an iron chef’s Italian restaurant literally across the parking lot from our hotel. It was very good.
On Sunday we had breakfast and then rode bicycles around Yountville. We walked around all the shops and then had lunch at La Calenda. It was also very good. The hotel had a heated pool, but even heated it was still a little too cold to actually get in. We did get in the hot tub, which was fun. We had dinner at R+H Kitchen, which was also close enough to walk to. The food was okay, not my favorite place of the weekend, but still fun.
After breakfast we drove down to Napa. We found a Target and picked up small toys for the kids to bring home. We went back to downtown Napa and walked around. We went into some cute shops and then found a place to eat lunch. We just picked a place that looked busy and got lucky. It was an old fashioned burger place that was really good. We got a late check out from the hotel so we could hang out there until closer to our flight. We left around 4 to drive to Santa Rosa. The airport was so small, I couldn’t believe it. We dropped off our rental car and went straight through security. The entire airport had four gates. There was no Hudson News or coffee shop. There were literally two vending machines. Luckily we had picked up some snacks already. The flight was barely two hours and we were back home! I really loved Napa, it was such a beautiful place and so fun! We want to go back sometime when it’s harvest time.
Dad said the kids were great for him. They had a nice weekend without any trouble. Dad took them to their swim lesson and to Chuck E. Cheese. Virginia had figured out she could text us from her Ipad so she was texting us some while we were on our trip. It was fun to be able to send pictures back and forth.
Dad flew home Tuesday morning. The kids were on a mid-winter break, so we had the rest of the week to hang out and be lazy. Joe’s latest Destiny release came out that Tuesday so he was deep in Destiny land. The release went really well and everyone was happy with it. During the break the kids and I went and painted pottery, had lunch at one of our pancake places, and I made croissants from scratch. It was time consuming, but they turned out better than I could have hoped for my first try! They had a ton of flaky layers and were so buttery. That Saturday before the kids went back to school they got to go to Luke’s friend Jack’s birthday party at the bowling alley. It was the first time the kids had really bowled, they had fun! I’d forgotten how loud bowling alleys are, and the very distinct smell.
I’ve been volunteering in Virginia’s classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and in the library on Tuesdays. I love being in the library! I love knowing the teachers and staff and getting to know the kids. Joe and I try and go out for lunch on Fridays, it’s so fun to have time to do things on our own! We had the babysitter come last weekend so that we could go out to dinner. Things are finally feeling like they will go back to what it was like before Covid. On one hand, I’m so glad that the kids were young when this all happened. We have been so lucky that Joe’s job wasn’t affected by this, that we stayed healthy, our families stayed healthy, and that we all got through this largely unscathed. It is crazy that two years have passed and so many things were put on hold, or cancelled, people’s lives were completely upended by this. I just hope with vaccinations, from here on out it won’t ever get that bad again.
Rachel's Red Kitchen 