My wife and I are just back from yet another delightful trip to the Napa Valley, and I’ll get to the highlights in a minute, but *first* I have to give a huge thanks to the intrepid babysitters, Baba and Bud. We left on Saturday and didn’t return until Tuesday, leaving the grands to manage three kids, five soccer games, three birthday parties, and two school days (with one kid on vacation and one on a field trip).  The logistics would have been tough for us parents to manage, and we know where the water bottles and soccer balls and game uniforms are hidden.  The kids were happy and healthy when we returned, so thank you, thank you, thank you, Baba and Bud.

Our seventh trip to the Wine Country was one of the best ever. Some highlights:

• Good company.  We traveled with the Nice Couple From New York (featured numerous times in our videos), and it was fun to play tour guide on return visits to some of our favorite haunts: Elizabeth Spencer, Franciscan, Cuvaison, ZD.
• El Bonita. This funky motor lodge always lives up to the name. We inevitably meet someone interesting at the hot tub (this time it was a sushi chef from Wyoming and his friend the Family Practitioner), and no other place in the valley can compete on the combo of convenience and price.
• Picnics from V. Sattui. Salted, cured pig parts, cheese and sour dough from the famous deli consumed on winery grounds beat out a fancy dinner at Terra (the lamb tongue tasted me back), the pizza at Tra Vigne, and even edged the great farewell lunch at Celadon. They make wine? Only 45 kinds.
• Quixote. Proof that you can still get off the beaten path, even in Napa, this appointment-only winery was a quixotic revelation.  The architecture was nearly as witty and charming as the staff, and the Petite Syrah was the best I’ve ever had. The experience at Frog’s Leap gets honorable mention because of the seated tasting on the porch (the “dusty” style of wines isn’t for me, however).

One lowlight: mudbath. I still get the shivers. At least I can now scratch “Calistoga Mudbath” off my list for good. That sh*t was nasty.

A special thanks also to the craps tables at the Hooter’s Casino in Las Vegas for making this all financially possible. It was fun having one vice pay for the other.

It was just the thing our marriage was asking for, and by the last day, we were all dying to see the kids again. Waking the them up on Wednesday morning — all goodness, all around.