Napping at Napa

#19

Ever seen ‘The Parent Trap’? Uhh, you say YES FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME. Hallie and her Dad live in Napa, California. It took me such a long time to realise why I knew Napa so well, in Southern California, and then I realised – it’s from the film. 
 

It’s great to be back on the West Coast folks. If I had to choose, I’d probably say that ye old East Coast in my favourite, but the West Coast has a completely different vibe to it. Returning in winter isn’t that bad – it’s still warm and only mild at the worst of times. The smell of marijuana was prominent as soon as we set foot in San Fran, but as is the street attitude of youths, the sassiness African American women and the (I call them) ‘Skateboard Krew’ of young boys that whiz around with their snapbacks, performing tricks and trying to impress (and take out) innocent bystanders. It’s a cool city, San Fran. There’s a lot going on. I like it. Not as busy as NYC, different entirely but pretty wicked. 

Yung Ting was a kid we met in Phoenix. He’s from Taiwan, terribly friendly and quite a nice person. We became brief friends with him over the Christmas period in our Phoenix hostel, which ironically had the motto that ‘there are no strangers here, only friends who have not yet met’. We exchanged details and come San Fran he was on our case quite persistently about taking a Sunday to come out (he lives in San Jose) and make a day trip with us. So we jumped at the chance to be shown around The Valley. He brought a couple of his work buddies with him, Seth and Tony. Tony was introduced to us by Yung Ting as Raj from The Big Bang Theory, meaning he couldn’t communicate with women very well. And he demonstrated this over the course of the day.

San Fran baby

Ah ah ah...this is our favourite photo of the day! My hair! Bahaha!

Yung Ting took us to lookout points, and drove us all the way to Napa Valley. It’s a truly scenic drive and tbh it was great to a) get out of the city and see more of the vast state of California and b) use the car. Truth be told all the massages Dice and I had exchanged could not compensate for the pain my legs still felt from the bike ride. So the car, THE CAR, was a major bonus.

Yung Ting is quite the wine taster, so we hoped to a couple of different wineries in Napa – what the area is known for. It was absolutely beautiful. I’m so grateful that he was kind enough to show us around and I’ll never forget his generosity. Without him we would have never seen that area (a couple of hours drive) or spent the day with such lovely company. It’s quite possible I’ll never see them all again, but it’s a true testament of the traveller’s spirit and nature to extend an arm to newcomers who are wandering.

And uhhhh, HELLO, we spent the day sipping wine and eating overpriced food at wineries in California, soaking up the sun on the patios in which we sat and enjoying the spectacular views. What did you do today?! That was another moment where I honestly just had to stop and think about how incredibly lucky I was for a minute. It was a place of pure ecstasy, and I could have thrown my head back and laughed (yet again) at the pure joy of being alive in the world. It was magnificent.

Amongst the Uptopia that is Napa Valley though, I witnessed something that made Dice and I shake our heads and look at the ground. This is a CLASSIC CASE of Americans trying to simplify a system, and, in turn, making it more complicated.

Valet parking.

The car park had maximum 25 car spots. The valet was the most bizarre thing ever. There were about 3 groups of people that left the winery when we did, and we all queued (American favourite pastime) to wait for the valet service. There were 3 guys jogging all over the car park to routinely reverse cars out of spots, have someone else move forward in their car, so the original guy could move past, so that he could drive the whole 5 meters to where we stood, to jump out, cross our names off a list, and then run back to the next car that was a whole 15 feet away. I’m not even kidding. You know how lazy I am. Under normal circumstances I would be quite a fan of valet parking. Especially considering that in Feenix, we managed to lose the Minx Mobile almost every time we parked. That’s the problem with hire cars. Not only do you forget where you park them, but suddenly in times of need your memory seems incapable of remembering any distinguishable features of the automotive; including make, model, number plate and even color. Example. DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG GRAND CANYON IS? Grand Canyon we lost the car for around 30 minutes. Example. Desert Botanical Gardens. Another 20. The MOST frustrating thing. Okay anyway, the point is, valet parking was actually that ridiculous if ‘yall were there you would have literally been standing there with your jaws dropped to the asphalt. THE CAR WAS 10 FEET AWAY AND WE HAD TO WAIT FOR THEM TO KAFUFFLE AROUND FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES AND WATCH IN HORROR AS YUNG TING’S CAR WAS REVERSED, MOVED FORWARD AND THEN FINALLY DRIVEN THE LAST 2 METERS TO OUR FEET. The car park was so small, it made it seem all the more silly.

Medieval vineyard yo

At the second winery Yung Ting, Tony and Seth went to do some wine tasting and Dice and I literally disappeared into the vineyards for a couple of hours. Laying on our jackets in the sun we watched the clouds and fell asleep amongst the lines of grapes. It was sweet. Napping in a vineyard, the birds tweeting (okay, don’t remember if there were birds, probably making it up, but it seems appropriate) and the sun warming our backs. The most peaceful slumber I’ve had in a long time.

Here’s where things get interesting. The long drive from Napa back to San Fran was awesome; we crossed bridges and saw the city lit up in lights. Yung Ting wanted to cook us crabs for dinner. I love seafood, so we obliged. We went to a Chinese supermarket and Dice didn’t handle the conditions of the crabs-in-the-tanks too well. They bought 5 live crabs, native to the beaches of San Fran but I forget what they’re called. They were decently big though, and they were still squirming around in the bags and we carried them to the car. Dice was not impressed at the live export of the crabs (and neither was I tbh) so I promised her we could try make a run for the beach and set them free. Fifty bucks worth of seafood and we were keen to go all Free-Willy on their asses. We didn’t of course, but I managed to convince the guys to let me set them loose in the hostel for a bit. 

Yung Ting

The crabs, to our disappointment, didn’t make a brave escape attempt when I gave them the chance. On the hostel kitchen floor, we set them down and they just sat there. C’mon! So once the water was boiled, the fruitful wine bottles bought at Napa poured and the table set, they went in the pot. The guys showed us how to properly eat them and crack ‘em open – and I love crab and they were tasty. I don’t think I’ve eaten live-cooked-crab-that-wasn’t-a-crabcake for 3 years, and it was, I repeat, TEE-ASTY. The last time we caught and cooked native coconut crabs I was on the small and far-from-the-western-world island of Rah, off the East Coast of Vanuatu, where the locals boiled up these brown coconut crabs. They were good, but the local kids kind of liked to play with them and make them fight and stuff, so I felt kinda bad about eating their pets. Luckily Dice was sorting out our laundry for most of the cooking part, so she didn’t get to form emotional bonds with the crabs we ate. Also, see what I did there? Never fail to throw in a little anecdote about a previous travel trip, just to mix it up.

We had an utterly unexpected, wonderful day.

Look at his little face!

Napping at Napa folks, the best nap I ever did have.