Napa meets San Fran: The Inn on First

In celebration for our anniversary last week, Nick and I went to Napa. Just like when we went to Deer Hill Inn a few years ago, we decided to go to a hotel that was part of the Select Registry. There's a couple of places in California wine country, but we picked the Inn on First, a completely Green inn, because the food on the website looked amazing and they had a really good price for winter (which is the off season).

From the moment we booked the vacation I was really excited. Granted, celebrating my anniversary in Napa had a little bit to do with it, but the inn keeper had a lot more. Jamie emailed me right away with my reservation email which included tons of extras the inn offered and recommendations about local wineries, restaurants, and things to do. I saved the email and when we got closer to our getaway, I found that list really helpful as I tried to find a places to have dinner or to visit. We followed through on a couple of the things on the list and were really glad we did. Jamie continued to make great recommendations and take the time out to sit down and chat with us at least once every day we were there. It was a really nice touch to be able to have such personalized service.

The inn is made up of two main buildings. The main house, which is an old Victorian. The upstairs has several rooms and then downstairs has a lounge and the dining room. Both of which always have beverages and treats waiting. The other building has more rooms. Our room was in the house and actually a lot bigger than the website made it look. We had an extremely comfortable bed, a fireplace, a jacuzzi tub big enough for two, plus a separate bathroom. We also had a small bottle of champagne and truffles waiting for us. Considering we booked what we thought was one of the "cheap" rooms, there was nothing cheap about it.

Breakfast was included and each morning there was a selection of cold things (granola, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and a different hot main course. Each of the three breakfasts we ate were AMAZING. Homemade flat bread with caramelized onions, rosemary potatoes, and a fried egg; homemade focaccia with assorted veggies; scramble egg omelet corn dog (which was really corn dog breading with eggs, prosciutto, and gruyere cheese). They must have known I was coming. Everything was amazing, and the website has even more amazing looking things. Nick and I kept talking about Deer Hill and how amazing the food was there and comparing the two inns. While the feel is very different (mountain cozy warm comfort inn versus chic California airy inn), we concluded that it was nice to know there was somewhere on the West coast that had amazing food and would be a great place to run away to if we needed to relax.

All in all it was a really great stay and we would definitely (and will probably) stay there again. My family is coming in August to celebrate my brother's 21st birthday and after showing my mom the inn she suggested we go for a night or two. I hope we do, and considering the inn is dog friendly we may even bring Charlie next time!

Ok, now just a few more pictures from the website: