Getting ready to leave

We leave Wednesday for Austria and Italy, and while I'm incredibly excited, we're less prepared than usual. I'm spending the weekend printing out all of our trip information, trying to sort out train schedules and such, and starting to pack. I feel a shopping trip coming on, too. Given the heat in Atlanta, I haven't even started thinking about fall clothing, but it will be considerably cooler where we're going, so that sounds like a good excuse for a little early fall shopping.

Scott has been working a lot of overtime lately, and he's working today, so I'm trying to get a few things started for us while he tries to wrap up a major project before we go.

We weren't as diligent as we'd hoped in learning a little German before we go, so that may be how we spend our time in flight.

Look for more updates as we begin our latest journey!

Setting Our Itinerary

We're getting closer to locking in our trip to Austria in September. We've decided on traveling the first half of the month - approximately 10 days sometime between 9/1 and 9/15. While there, we'll visit Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria as well as Bolzano, Italy (see photo above) with most of our time in the Vienna and either Innsbruck or Bolzano.

Because Austria is so close to so many other European countries, we'll likely do a bit of country-hopping while we're there. Possibilities include Slovakia, Hungary and Germany. Each are within an hour and a half of the Austrian cities we'll visit. But, we'll play that by ear as our schedules and energy levels permit.

I guess we better start learning some German.

Austria this summer?

It's been more than 3 months since our list trip (our honeymoon), so it's well past time to begin thinking about and planning for our next excursion. High on our priority list at the moment: Austria in late summer.

I'm particularly inspired by this super cute homestay in Weyer. I doubt we'll actually make it there, but this photo is one of the things that sparked my recent interest in visiting Austria.

I imagine we'll visit Vienna and Austria's wine region. But there's so much we want to see. My in-laws bought me a guidebook for Austria for Christmas, so I've been pouring through it in my limited free time since, and the challenge will undoubtedly be one I face often - narrowing the list of places we want to visit down to a select few to keep us from traveling to a new place every day and wearing ourselves out.

Perhaps this rainy Atlanta weekend will provide the ideal opportunity to think further about our potential plans.
-Dana

Well Rested

This has been one of the most relaxing vacations that we've ever taken. We typically try to pack too much in, but after lots of wedding planning and a hectic pace at work, this is just what the doctor ordered.

We had a great time in Napa Valley exploring the smaller towns--Calistoga, St. Helena and Rutherford--while driving throughout the region to hit Sonoma and Santa Rosa, too. We're coming home with a bottle of Cremant Demi-Sec from Schramsberg (what a wonderful tour!) and a bottle of sparkling wine vinegar from St. Helena olive oil company. Our suitcase wouldn't hold much more than that...although I suppose we could have bought another suitcase and paid the check baggage fee, but what better excuse to just drink it while we were here.

It was a peaceful time in Lake Tahoe as well. The fall leaves were gorgeous--brilliant yellow aspen groves amidst the evergreens, and all was rather quiet as it's the off season between summer (lake activities) and winter (snow activities). We stayed at the Sunnyside Lodge, which was indeed very lodge-y, but was spacious, comfortable and right on the lake. Our small balcony was a perfect place for watching the sunrise, particularly since we never fully got off Eastern time. (See sunset photo to the right, added 10/27.)

We did a small bit of hiking at Fallen Leaf Lake, drove completely around the lake (to say we did), and spent 10 minutes gambling on the Nevada side in South Lake Tahoe (where we made $50 and resisted the urge to lose it just as quickly). (See fall foliage photo from Fallen Leaf Lake to the left, added 10/27.)

All in all, a great trip. Now, we're headed to the airport for a day of traveling before spending the next few days trying to get our house back in order after being quite disheveled during wedding mode.

Headed to Tahoe

We had an incredibly relaxing time in Napa Valley. Our cottage in Calistoga - (Cottage Grove Inn http://www.cottagegroveinn.com/) was very quaint and cozy. It was the perfect home base for exploring the wine country and just vegging...and the quiche at breakfast and afternoon wine and cheese were scrumptuous, too. (Updated 10/27 with photo of our cottage, right.)

Before heading to Tahoe, we went to St. Helena and strolled through the town along Main Street all the way to Beringer Brothers. We didn't take a tour or partake in a tasting, but opted to just check out the property, read a bit about its history and take some photos. (See photo on the let added 10/27.)

On the way back through town, we bought an incredible bottle of sparkling wine vinegar before heading to lunch at Pizzeria Tra Vigne where we had an amazing Vespa pizza, which consists of smoked mozzarella, chicken sausage, caramelized onions and spinach on a fluffy wood-fired crust. Pair that with a glass of Frog's Leap Savignon Blanc, and I was a happy girl!

Now, we're off to Lake Tahoe for the second half of our honeymoon.

Napa Valley

We are enjoying the second official day of our honeymoon and took the opportunity to visit Schramsberg (http://www.schramsberg.com/) in Calistoga this afternoon. Schramsberg primarily produces sparkling wine, and we learned a lot about the production process during the cave tour. The sparkling wines are stored in hand-dug caves and are hand riddled (the turning process to get the yeast setiment into the cap so it can be removed before final corking)--talk about a labor-intensive job!
We tasted 6 wines and ended up buying a dessert wine: a Cremant Demi-Sec. Very yummy!

I think I captured some cool pictures of the racks of bottles in the cave as well as the frog pond on the property, which I'll post next week.

Our cottage in Calistoga is very cute. More about that tomorrow.

(Updated 10/27/09 to include photos from Schramsberg.)

Honeymooning in Napa & Lake Tahoe

With our wedding less than 3 months away (how did that happen?), we've locked in our honeymoon plans - the California wine country and Lake Tahoe. We'll split our time equally between the two, and while we're staying in Napa, we'll surely visit Sonoma as well.

Our earlier plans were to visit Napa/Sonoma and then explore more of the western coast--hitting the Redwood National Park, Portland and Seattle, but after much contemplation, I finally convinced myself that it was simply too much traveling for what is supposed to be a very relaxing vacation. That's a hallmark of my vacation planning style--trying to do to much and going through several rounds of paring back. Even then, it's too much sometimes.

This go around our three primary itinerary items are drinking great wine, eating delicious food and getting plenty of sleep. The rest of our time we'll take day by day although I am already looking at kayaking options in both places. Come on; you didn't really think the planner in me would completely let go, did you?