Quick PCH update

Waking up next to a vineyard seems like a good idea to me!

I can hardly believe how fast April is approaching!

Here's what I've been doing for our PCH trip:

Trying Wine.

Red:
Frank Family Vineyards ★★★★
Rodney Strong ★★☆☆
Silverado ★★☆☆
Sterling ★★☆☆
Save Me San Francisco ★★★☆

White:
Noble Vines ★★★★
William Hill ★★☆☆

Sparkling:
Chandon ★★★☆

We just bought a bottle of Gloria Ferrer sparkling rosé, a bottle of Domaine Carneros brut, a bottle of Schramsberg sparkling wine, and a bottle of Federalist red wine. We also found wine from several other wineries on my list, but the $30/bottle cost was a bit prohibitive for buying on this particular trip to the liquor store.

I should mention that we've tried a few other wines, but I haven't liked any of them, so I don't remember their names/vineyards. It's been really hard to find wine from vineyards on my list.

Unfortunately, I don't think we will have time to try all of the wine from the vineyards I'm interested in visiting. In those cases, I will just have to make an educated guess, see if the vineyard looks "pretty" and try my luck with the wine. This is the moment when I really feel like I don't know much about wine or my tastes. If you find yourself in a similar situation, visiting Napa, I recommend reading Robert Holmes' A Traveller's Wine Guide to California and doing like I'm doing … trying wine. How else will you learn?

As for vineyard hopping, I have also heard that it's best to look for coupons, use the app Napa Valley Winery Finder, and sign up to be part of vineyard clubs if you know you like the wine from a particular vineyard to help you save money on tastings. And as for me and my husband, we are looking into having a private driver to help us plan our time in Napa so that we can get the most out of our trip without having to worry.

Exploring YipIt.

I had mentioned scouring Groupon and Living Social for discounts, but did you know that YipIt will check both of those sites and more for discounts? I didn't! So now I'm trying to make sure I search YipIt before completing any payments for activities. It hasn't been incredibly useful so far, but I definitely appreciate having an easier time researching.

Watching Prices and Googling.

All of my refundable hotels are currently pulled up with Tripadvisor and in their own tabs, so that all I have to do every day is press refresh to get an update on the current prices making it easier to confirm and rebook as necessary.

And along with checking YipIt, I've been spending a lot of time googling to discover lower prices for my chosen activities and looking at the Go Card, seeing what does and doesn't work for me given the discounts I'm finding on Google.

All of this planning has me stressed out.

I sincerely hope my time in California is worth the time I've spent planning it.

Can you believe how fast March is going by? Wasn't it just January a few days ago?