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I love wine.

While all versions of alcohol have their allure, wine has long been my favorite. Anyone that has done much research on wine knows that the area surrounding Napa Valley, California, is one of the best places in the country to try every version you’ve heard of, and many you haven’t.

I’ve been to Napa Valley several times over the last 10 years, and this last time was, far and away, my favorite.

Getting There

I happen to travel to California for work from time to time, and sometimes I add on a couple of days for some wine tasting when I’m in anywhere near the Napa area. My wife and I had been talking about going for about a year. I finally had a trip on the horizon that would give us the perfect chance to get there. I was giving a speech in Los Angeles at a conference that ended on a Thursday. She met me there that morning, and we drove up the scenic coast. The normal drive is around six hours. We are definitely not normal. It took us the entire day to get to our hotel.

The views along the coast were fantastic! I could post pictures for days, but if you want to really see what it is like, you should take the time to drive it. The best portion is along National Geographic has a great write-up of what all you will see along the historic California Route 1:  http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/california-pacific-coast-road-trip/.

Where to stay

The perfect place to stay will be heavily dependent upon your personality and your means. Personally, I like to stay at the Silverado Resort and Spa, just outside the Town of Napa. It has a lot of great amenities, and the views here are, again, fantastic.

Not only is this a huge resort with a ton of rooms, but it is in the middle of a golf course. The sea of green surrounding this gem is almost overwhelming. Along with golf, they have tennis, swimming, and so much more. I would not recommend staying here unless you plan on visiting wineries in and around Napa Valley. It quite far from the Sonoma-area wineries. It would still be fine if you don’t mind losing an hour or two of time at the beginning and/or end of your tours though.

My wife and I were actually planning on renting a house for this trip, but when we did our search on VRBO.com, we found that there were condos at the Silverado that were much less than the houses in the area and in-line with the costs of even the average hotels in the area. For us, it was a no-brainer.

Transportation for Tours

As I mentioned earlier, I have been to Napa several times in the past. When going on tours, I’ve used my own rental car to drive from tour to tour; I’ve gone on a bus tour; I’ve shared a limousine with others; and I’ve had a private “experience” provided for me.

When using your rental car, be very careful. Unless you plan on using the spittoon at the wineries instead of swallowing the wine, or you plan to have a designated driver, using your rental car is likely not a good option for you. The costs of a DUI are going to be in the thousands, and the risks associated with drunk driving are just plain not good. If you do plan on having someone sober drive, though, it is a cost-effective way to tour a lot of wineries. On our first day, I stayed sober and drove so that my wife could enjoy her first day of her first trip to Napa!

The bus tours are great, and they are very inexpensive. However, you are at the mercy of the company with regards to which wineries you will be attending. Keep in mind that you will be riding with many people with many levels of income. The bus company has to consider that as well, and you may end up at a lot of the less expensive wineries. There are many of those that are good too, though!

If you can share a limo with a few other couples, you will have a good time, and it will not be too hard on your wallet. If you are getting one by yourself, you will be spending $500 – $1,000 for the day. They typically have good suggestions for wineries, and they will take very good care of you to ensure you are comfortable and happy. Prior to this trip, limos were my favorite way to do the tours.

Finally, my favorite. As a surprise to my wife, and the way I am commanded to now set up all future Napa trips, I contacted Napa Private Tours: https://napaprivatetours.com/. This company stood out from any others I researched online. Five minutes after filling out their “Contact Us” form, I found out why.

Ms. Cynthia Vega sent me an email with a great description of the company, the rates and many other things. While it was a somewhat, auto-generated email, it opened the door for further discussion in a great way. After going back and forth via email with Ms. Vega, I was then called by Javier Calderon. I believe he was the owner of the company. He asked me several questions about my preferences and then proceeded to describe how he would set up the perfect day for us, and that is exactly what he did. I will get into that in the next section.

Now, The Wineries

On the first full day of our trip, we only visited a couple of wineries. That could be because of the volume of wine and Champagne my wife tried at Domaine (as shown in the featured image of this article). I have been to Domaine several times. It seems that everyone wants to see the castle!

We decided to go to one more before lunch, and we hadn’t planned anything in advance. I went on Yelp to see what was close, and I was completely overwhelmed. There are hundreds. I searched a few sites to see which had the best back story, and I ended up finding the Hendry Winery. I mainly went here because one of the owners is a former particle physicist (think Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, but personable). I assumed the wine must be good if someone that smart was behind it, and Yelp agreed.

When we got there, we were not really sure it was even a winery. From the small road leading up to to the tasting room, it just appears to be a house out front:

We first drove to the back to make sure it was really a winery. Upon seeing all of the equipment, we knew it must be! We walked up to the front door and saw that we needed an appointment. The tasting room was booked, but one of the owners was free. She took us into what she called “The Lab” to give us a private tasting. I had never heard wine described the way she described them prior to this tasting. It opened my mind in an awesome way. I understood why I liked certain wines and why I disliked others. It is definitely worth your time to check it out. If you are wanting to see the famous wineries, this may not make it onto your list.

After that, we had lunch and laid low until later in the day. We didn’t visit any more wineries that day, but we had a great glass during happy hour at the Silverado. We sat on the patio where there is a nice view overlooking the golf course. As it got a bit colder, we moved inside and sat in very large, inviting chairs by the fireplace. We went to bed early in order to save our energy for the following day.

Around 10 AM, Luke Speer, from Napa Private Tours, showed up to begin our tour in a white Mercerdes. I could tell right away that he was going to be loads of fun! When we got into the car, he already had some rose Champagne on ice along with some very tasty almonds and other small snacks for us to enjoy between winery tours.

On the way to the first tour, we asked question after question. Luke was very knowledgeable about every topic we threw at him. Much like our experience at Hendry, I was blown away by his descriptions. We decided to not only have him drive us from place to place but also to sit with us and assist the tour guides/owners with explaining the wines. Clearly, he waited until they were finished and were leaving us to enjoy our glass before he gave us the layman’s version of what we had just heard.

We started the day at Failla Wines: http://www.faillawines.com/#about. This is a very small winery that used to be a hunting lodge. It has an extremely warm feel when you enter, and the tasting is done on a large, leather sofa. Between the owner and the sofa is a coffee table where the wine and all of the information sit. It was a perfect start to the day for us. It may not be for you if you are adverse to hunting trophies. There were several in the entry way and tasting room.

We loved the wine at Failla and joined the wine club at the end of the tasting. We get their wine quarterly and look forward to the shipments when we get our email that it’s on its way!

The next winery we visited was awesome! There were several things that made it that way. First of all, Ehlers Estate is a great winery, in and of itself: http://www.ehlersestate.com/. The building and grounds are beautiful from the outside. When you enter, it is a huge room with art everywhere. Our tour guide explained all about the art, which was an added bonus.

I had already planned a surprise for lunch here. While we were doing our tasting, Luke was outside setting up our picnic lunch. Javier’s sister owns a small shop that puts together basket lunches for his tour company’s trips if you order them in advance. Our picnic table was set up with white linen, plates, flatware, and glasses. It was set up like a dinner table, but it was on a picnic table outside. Needless to say, Heather was ecstatic. We enjoyed our lunch, and then headed to our next winery.

The next one we visited was Mumm. This is another one with sparkling wine. I will not go into too much detail since it was not one of the ones I really liked. Mumm is highly commercialized, but you will get some really tasty sparkling wine!

On the way to Mumm, we saw the famous wine train rolling by us. Luke, however, told us all about how it was not a very good way to have a good experience in Napa Valley. He had been right up to this point, so there was no reason to doubt him.

The last winery had another surprise waiting. Javier had set up a tasting along with a tour and food pairings. We arrived at B Cellars (http://www.bcellars.com/) around 3:30 PM. We sat for a short time outside while waiting for them to prepare our tour. We walked all around the main building, where they showed us all of their gardens and the live chickens running around! Apparently, they grow most, if not all, of the herbs and vegetables they use for the food pairings. I know they have some food brought in since I didn’t see any cows 🙂

During the tour, they described the owners, and we even got to meet one. At the smaller wineries, we met with the owners and some even did our tastings. At the larger wineries, we had not met an owner up to this point. This was one great tour. We even got to see the wine cave and take a tasting right out of the barrel:

After our tour, we had a four course tasting with small meals, which were called “pairings.” The pairings looked like food we would have gotten from The French Laundry. Everything was delicious and well-prepared. This is a MUST SEE winery if you want great pairings.

Following the final tasting, we headed back to the Silverado, had one more drink on the deck and then took a stroll through the grounds for some random pictures of us.

Again, the private tour company made this trip exceptional for us. I would always recommend going to Napa, but I would highly recommend using a service like we did if you have the means. It’s an experience we’ll never forget!

I’m a husband and father (and many other things). Like many, I got wrapped up in work and my own, little world, and I let myself go. When I got married, I was in excellent shape. I ran five miles every single day and lifted weights a few times a week. Over time, I stopped running and gave up the weights altogether.

As everyone knows, if you are taking in more calories than you are burning, the fat will come. And come, it did. Up until a few months ago, I was carrying around an extra 50 pounds that were not there when my wife and I started dating.

Here I was when we got married:

And, here I was a few months ago:

Time and again, my wife and I had conversations about exercise and weight loss. It became a much bigger issue in April of 2014, when she lost her father to a heart attack. It was then that I started trying. Honestly, I tried for a few months and then gave up again, like I had in 2013…and 2012.

I would lose weight and gain it again. I tried everything from limiting my caloric intake to three “juices” a day consisting of about 50 calories each to Atkins, Southbeach and anything else I could find. Clearly, none of those are long-term solutions, but it sure did feel good to lose 20 pounds in a few weeks! Too bad I gained 25 back every time.

I joined a gym and did cardio, lifted weights and even tried Crossfit. When none of those worked, I went back to my old tried-and-true basement gym. I ran, walked and lifted weights as much as I could…which was every day at first and then dwindled to almost never.

Two months ago, we had a long, intense discussion about how she wanted me to be around for our kids to grow up and how much more fun I was back then. It’s not that I wasn’t fun any more at all, it’s just that I was always tired, and I was only active for a couple of hours a day. I mainly used my energy for work.

She didn’t just direct the conversation at me. She included herself. I would argue, to this day, that she is absolutely perfect, but to show me how serious she was, she pointed out her own flaws and agreed to do everything I did for the two months while I began my transformation back to my ideal weight. I’m not going to go into the details of my diet plan. Everyone needs to find something that works for them. I will say this, it was hard.

To stay firm, I weighed myself every day, and measured myself many times. I also watched videos of me playing with my kids ever morning and every time I wanted to break my diet.

I lost a total of 40 pounds and still have a bit to go. I’ve tapered off the intense part of the diet and have altered it to work better with my day-to-day schedule. While I am happy that my appearance has changed for the better and my clothes fit better every day, that’s not what is important to me.

Here I was this past weekend:

I realize that I’ve only lost the weight and kept it off for a couple of weeks now, but this is the first time I have ever looked at food differently. I never, ever counted calories before. It seems like a lot of work, but after a couple of months of it, I can pretty much tell how many calories (within a hundred, or so) I am eating by just looking. That is, when we are eating at home.

Every day now (when I’m not traveling), I take my kids to the golf course behind my house to run and play. We run up and down the steep hills over and over and then play their version of soccer and football. That usually entails them throwing or kicking one of their many Disney or Avenger balls and me chasing it so they can try to beat me to the ball or tackle me when I get there first. When my wife joins us, it really gets crazy! We’ll all have those memories forever.

That’s the way I now get my exercise. I not only love burning the calories, I love the time I am spending with my family. After about 60-90 minutes of sprinting and laughing, we are all beat red and covered in sweat…and happy. You can keep your gyms, your treadmills, your weights and your Crossfit. I’ll take chasing my little energy-filled children and my beautiful, athletic wife around the golf course any day of the week!