Monaloca

Who says wineries aren’t fun for kids?

We’ve visited several, in both Livermore and Napa, in the past few weeks, and Meli and Kai both found plenty to entertain themselves – including a number of things we don’t get to see every day in urban Berkeley.

Mid-month we visited two Livermore wineries with our friends Jenny and Pat and baby Kanoa. Kitt also came along for the ride, and, based on some great Yelp reviews, pointed us in the direction of a more back-country than usual Livermore winery called Boa Ventura. Turns out they’re only open one weekend each month, so we got lucky. The grounds were rural and funky, with a sign to “Watch for dogs: One old, one young, one stupid.”

Meli immediately spotted two of the dogs (turns out the third was hit by a truck earlier in the week), but was then side-tracked by all the chickens running around the yard. She spent a good 20 minutes following them, saying “chee-ten, chee-ten, ‘ere chee-ten.” The proprieter, who had a three-month-old strapped to his chest, even showed us a freshly-laid egg. Melina was fully underwhelmed by what to her looked like something she’d find in our own fridge.

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Napa to pick up some wine from a club we joined last fall. This time we also had Kai in tow. He and Melina both loved the majestic Artesa grounds, especially the cows and sheep on the roadside as we neared the winery and the long series of fountains flowing down the front hill.

The rest of the winery wasn’t quite as toddler-friendly as Boa Ventura (though they did have crayons and a coloring book for Kai), so we soon headed off for lunch at a nearby, uber-yuppy deli and picnic grounds. It was a gray and gloomy day, so we had nearly the whole picnic area to ourselves, including the two bocce ball courts. Kai learned to play a real game, while Meli took over the other court to knock the balls off the ledge then pick and line them up, over and over and over again.

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