tj here: Wow! My Baylor Buds have really embraced this travel blog! Poor Mare volunteered for the hardest day - our winery tour yesterday. Thank goodness! She's the best note taker and the most detailed of us three.

Well, today is my day - our spa day . We started it off as usual - a cup or two of coffee on our balcony watching the balloons take off and then walking over to the courtyard near the lobby for our omelets and Bloody Marys. We are really getting used to this! We even sit at the same table. We had to get going a little earlier today because our spa appointments started at 9:00am. Deb and Mare signed up for the same treatments, a Wellness Massage and the D-Age Body Treatment. I selected a Deep Tissue Massage followed by a Reconditioning and Firming Facial. Some wires got crossed somewhere and after waiting 10 minutes past my 10:00 appointment time, I was told my facial wasn't until noon. Huh? I had the confirmation that they sent which showed it was scheduled at 10:00 to coincide with Deb & Mare's treatment. There was nothing they could do since they were booked. Oh well, it wasn't the end of the world and the massage was one of the best I've ever had. I headed back to the room. Since my BBs were going to look like Millennials after their D-Age Treatments, I needed some extra time anyway to see if I could work miracles with my makeup so people wouldn't think I was their Mom! 

 Mare here: We originally had dinner reservations at Mustards Grill (north of Yountville) for tonight . But since we would have to arrange for transportation to/from the restaurant and this was our last day of real vacation time, we decided to just take it easy and go out for a late lunch in Yountville, do a little more shopping and then try to catch happy hour at our hotel for a light snacky dinner.

Lunch was at R+D Kitchen, which was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. The nice thing about Yountville is that you can walk to almost everything in less than 15 minutes. Along the walk, we passed The French Laundry restaurant which is supposed to be one of the most expensive and upscale restaurants around. The 9-course prix fixe dinner for two with wine & tip could run in the $1000-$1200 range. Needless to say we did not try this restaurant, but we did take a picture.

R+D turned out to be a great place for lunch. We all three started with a Dos Equis beer (wined out for now). Chips with guacamole and a jalapeño pimiento cheese dip for a starter . Delicious! Then TJ ordered the sandwich special--a ham and fontina sandwich, Deb ordered the Macho Salad with lots of chicken, almonds and dates and I had the Veggie Club that had cucumber, French feta, pickled onion, arugula and avocado with a cilantro dressing. Both sandwiches were on homemade bread that was about one inch thick. Oh, we had French fries too. We all had leftovers and took them home in case we wanted to stay in for dinner later. Service was great as usual for most of the restaurants we've been to here.

After lunch we waddled... I mean wandered back towards the shopping area to the NapaStyle store. Deb completed her shopping with three jars of the delicious Marinated Parmesan Dip we'd had at Bottega the night before.

Back at our hotel we started the process of packing since we have an 8:30am pickup in the morning. Packing was sad, but we got the tunes going and made the best of it. We also exchanged pictures and worked on the blog . We headed down to the hotel lobby about 6:00pm with one of our new 2014 Sauvignon Blanc and seasoned almonds, both of which we picked up at the Rutherford Ranch Winery. Good thing we'd kept our leftovers from R+D because the hotel didn't have their usual happy hour snacks out. It was such a nice evening sitting on the patio at sunset next to a vineyard with a low breeze in the air. We talked about our trip and our lives and relationships and then started planning where we'd like to go next. We will visit each other in Georgia and Texas for a couple of years and then maybe a bigger trip when we all turn the big 60, which will happen very soon! (tj here: In fact, we were enjoying our tranquil "tea time" so much that Mary decided to treat us to another bottle of tea...this one was a 2013 Markham Merlot.)

After our own happy hour, we decided to go back to the room, eat our leftovers and watch a movie. Deb stayed awake through the whole movie, but TJ and I dozed off several times (probably from all the wine).

This trip was wonderful and keeping this blog made it even more fun. What a wonderful keepsake! I am so blessed and thankful to have such faithful and caring friends such as TJ and Deb. Love them both so very much!

tj here: Well Mare was on a roll and volunteered to blog about our lunch today. She just kept on going! In fact, between the two, I can't get a word in edgewise anymore! I'm lovin' this!