San Francisco & Napa Retreat | Travel Photography

The first weekend of June, many of our friends from all over the country (New York, Chicago, LA) traveled to Northern California for a San Francisco & Napa retreat. The cornerstones were Alex and Jessica’s surprise proposal on Friday and dinner at The French Laundry on Sunday. We filled the weekend with food, wine tasting, and great company all along.

We kick off this post with the group dinner at Pera in San Francisco. Congrats to the newly-engaged couple!

Jacoby stole the show.

Jesse managed to acquire a bunch of cronuts from New York (it’s a croissant-donut, the latest food craze and impossible to get) and fly them to San Francisco. No one was more excited than Vince, who had tried but failed to get them the week before.

Post-dinner drinks at Local Edition in San Francisco:

On Saturday morning, we woke up and drove to Napa. After checking in to our hotels, the first stop was to eat BBQ and fried chicken, Thomas Keller style. Chef Keller owns three restaurants on the same street in Yountville– The French Laundry, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc. In the back of Ad Hoc, there’s a cute garden area and a shack called Addendum where they sell these delicious picnic provisions.

Next, we took a lovely wine tour around Sonoma County. We visited Kunde Family Estates, Chateau St. Jean, Saint Francis, and Landmark Winery.

Dinner was in downtown Napa at Azzurro Pizzeria.

Just to add to the Thomas Keller collection, we also visited Bouchon Bakery for some delicious goodies.

And on Saturday afternoon, we headed to Oxbow Market in Napa for some lunch before our big French Laundry dinner. It was quite the gourmet picnic.

Of course, the biggest part of this post is yet to come… French Laundry, up next!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco but often jetsetting around the world. Follow her on facebook for more photography and travel adventures.