My girlfriend Ashley and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary by spending the weekend in Napa

Our favorite “go-to” restaurant in Napa is called “Ad-Hoc,” and is actually in Yountville…it’s owned and operated by Super-Celebrity-Chef Thomas Keller and has a different menu every night. On this evening, we had a monstrous Rib-Eye, complete with bone (hehehehe…bone), so I acted like Fred Flintstone (Google It)

As is our tradition, we got up early Saturday morning, before most people are awake and walked the town. Yountville is filled with street art which gave Ashley a chance to be super-dorky

More dorkiness from Ashley involving street art

For the record, she can put more than that in her mouth

This is as close as I get to joining in on the dorkiness of the street art

Once we showered, it was time for a Saturday of wine tasting and we started at Domaine Chandon, a fantastic sparkling wine producer in Napa with a beautiful setting (we actually started and ended our day there with lunch and a few other wineries sandwiched in between)

Although we have over 800 bottles of wine, we seem to be in a sparkling wine/champagne mood lately so we stocked up on 12 more bottles, which should get us through the month of August.

The point of the weekend visit was to celebrate our three year anniversary, which culminated with dinner at the often named “best restaurant in the world,” The French Laundry, also a Thomas keller joint (they even personalized our menu for us)

The French Laundry also changes their menu daily and features multiple 5 star small dishes served over the course of three hours. Some of the food, like the pasta with truffles, the veal and the quail were simply amazing

Nine courses, all small plates. After we went to Keller’s New York restaurant, Per Se, last Christmas, we had to compare it to his flagship, The French Laundry and, in the end, there is no comparison. The French Laundry is old, tired and uninspired. Per Se is a restaurant you WOW at every dish and walk out having paid at least $1000 for two people feeling like every penny was worth it and start saving up for the next time. The French Laundry you walk out and say “we don’t need to do that again"

Ashley stole the clothespins that came with our napkins…so that’s a $500 clothespin you’re looking at. DOH