Trip North and PorchFest

We just got back to the heat of the Central Valley, though it wasn't much different than the heat of Napa Valley. Hot is hot. The blessing there is that they cool off at night.

As always on a trip north the food was excellent and the company divine. Each night the first week Tio Juan would come up the hill and Brad and I would eat with him after finishing our work. Friday night we ate at a Brazilian restaurant. No Zika, and plenty of meat. So good.

Saturday Maureen and Laurel came up and on Sunday we all went to an event that was new to us--PorchFest. This is a free music event that is moving across the country. At different places around town bands or singers set up on people's porches and play. There is a schedule published so the listeners can pick and choose different bands to watch. Most people are walking or riding bikes around town eating and drinking their preferred beverage. One big festival of music on the streets of Napa. This is s clip of our favorite band of the day, the Lowatters. Sorry the clip is small; we couldn't get larger files to load.

On Monday we met the McKeons, Natalie's parents, and did some wine tasting. Tio Juan set us up at Fontanella's Family Vineyards and Jessup. Both nice. The new tasting format of sitting and eating paired cheeses is taking some getting used to. At Fontanella's we got to do some barrel tasting and were told about a program they have where a person gets three versions of cabernet and the client gets to blend them into a cab they prefer. Fontanella's they will bottle a case of wine for you with your blend inside and label outside the bottle. Nice idea, but the wines were good without me trying to muck up what a real winemaker took years learning to do.

We had a good meal in between and a wonderful time with the McKeons. During the Sam and Natalie wedding time in Alaska there were so many things going on there wasn't much time to slow down and talk with John and Margie. The time we spent with them further cemented our thoughts of them being wonderful people and that Sam and Natalie having two sets of good parents. We will look forward to seeing them again.

After the fun of tasting, Maureen and I worked a bit on Tuesday, ate well with each other and left for home on Wednesday. Our parting meal was a great artichoke pizza from Velo Pizza in Napa. It was even good later when we arrived home. Another good time in the northlands.