Chapter 29: An Anniversary Celebration in Napa, CA [+video]

Last year my husband surprised me with a trip to good ole Napa, CA to go wine tasting in celebration of our 5 year dating anniversary [just 6 days before our wedding]! It was our very 1st time going wine tasting together & our very 1st time celebrating our anniversary together—which made it an even more special day for us. We're not much of drinkers ourselves, but it was still a good experience. Too bad we hated most of what we tasted :P It didn't bother us too much, though. We still enjoyed ourselves! I put together this short [a little over] 1 minute video of footage from the day :)

First we stopped by a cute little restaurant to grab some breakfast on the way to Napa. Afterwards we had to find a Target so I could buy more film for my polaroid camera [yes, I still use a polaroid camera & I'm not ashamed of it! I got my first one when I was 11. I've had 4 polaroid cameras/devices in my lifetime & that's not counting my husband's original polaroid camera too!]. Much to our surprise, we saw someone we knew at the store! Bianca! We went to school with her & I hadn't seen her since my family & I moved away after Middle School. It was nice catching up with her :)

Before we started our wine tasting adventure, we stopped by this really cute but small shopping place. My husband kept looking over at this older man who was playing guitar & singing, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. Then it dawned on him that he was one of his teachers back in High School! We went over to say hello to him & exchanged a few pleasantries. He even wished us a happy anniversary & early congratulations for our wedding :)

Finally, we were on our way to find our first vineyard to stop at for wine tasting! Like I said earlier, we didn't really like many of the wines we tasted & we visited a handful of places. We still purchased 2 wine glasses from one place though. After posting about our anniversary on Facebook, one of my friends suggested that we check out the Castello di Amorosa Castle & Winery in Calistoga, & we took her suggestion! We actually really enjoyed one of the desert wines we tasted! So, of course, we had to buy it! The woman at the register even threw in a free bar of chocolate for us in celebration of our anniversary & wedding. Those Napa folks sure are friendly! It was so beautiful inside. It even had it's own little church where I lit a candle in memory of my grandma who passed away in 2009 ♥

Photo credit: http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/assets/images/slider6.jpg

After our wonderful Napa adventure, we headed to our hometown & had dinner downtown [where we had our first date]. It was the perfect end to a perfect day ♥