outskirts of napa

I talked a little bit about hiking in Napa with Erik in the last post, but never talked about it in details (hey, give me a break, I'm getting the hang of the whole blogging thing). That was back in...oh gosh, mid June, maybe June 14th? A while back.

You'll have to excuse my delay though, I was busy turning the left photo into the right photo:

Yep! Moving. Again and again and again. The perks of a college student that should have already graduated but hasn't yet, in limbo between places, vagabonding for the summer until staying in one place for just a little bit before being completely displaced into the world.

Oh well.

Some of these pictures will be repeats from the last post, sorry about that!

Erik and I had been planning on going hiking for a while. We had one free day in between finals, graduation, and Erik leaving for Bishop for 6 weeks, so we decided to take the day to ourselves. We started the day sort of early, we had gone out the day before with Erik's cousin AJ who would be leaving for Alaska again for the army. We had planned on stopping by my place and picking up some things, then being out the door by 8 AM, but an impromptu nap had us out by 10:30 AM...at least we were well rested!

The traffic to Napa was sort of a bummer. This hiking spot I had found randomly online (you can check it outhere) was on the outskirts of Napa, so we got to drive through Napa and St. Helena, which was very pretty. I would love to go wine tasting there someday, since the last time I went was when I was 10 years old.

Fresh pineapple and some bagels on the road for breakfast

Neither of us had been here before, but it was this cute place that had a day use area complete with a pool and playground, closed when we went because prisoners on probation were serving their community service. They also had tent and RV camping as well.

Awesome barn with old tractors and equipment inside

It was a really pretty and easy hike. It started to get hot by the time we started hiking, but if we had left earlier it would have been perfect. I loved the creek and barn, and there were plenty of trees and shade along the way. I think it would be even more gorgeous in spring, hopefully we can make it out there then!

After the hike, we stopped somewhere that has been a source of mystery and curiousity for a long time, because I like to pretend I'm rich.

Dean & DeLuca!

Erik and I went in and wanted to buy the entire store, but in our frugal college nature we had to opt for iced coffee and a handful of truffles (which were still expensive). We should have gotten their sandwiches, which are actually reasonably priced and sound delicious, but we had made plans to meet a friend in Napa later for food. Next time for sure.

Left column: Habanero and Tequila (Erik's), Right column: Basil and Blood Orange (Mine). Surprisingly, the best one was the tequila flavored. Refreshing and tart, yet still sweet and with the right amount of kick

The ONLY bad thing about this day was after about 3 days, when I noticed two tiny dots on my right thigh, which later spread to a raging poison oak rash. First time I had gotten poison oak, hopefully the last. It was a mighty painful 2 weeks of lots of scratching and Technu.

Have you gone hiking lately? Did you try out a new place or did you visit an old favorite?