Today was a lovely cool day.  I took a nice long walk this morning and then went for another walk with David.  They were removing the blackberry bushes along the walkway, and not sure why, but I am sure there is a good reason, so we had to take a different route.  Then exercised and went for coffee.  We both took naps in the afternoon, and I made a reservation for Mustards Grill here in Yountville.  The food was just too heavy, and I can still feel it hours later.  Then it was off to Castello di Amorosa for the opening night concert for the Festival del

Sole.  Everyone who was anyone in the Napa Valley was there, or at least they all thought they were someone.  The concert was in the courtyard of the Castello, and there couldn’t have been more than 700 seats.  I am still surprised that we got tickets, and when we got to our seats, I couldn’t believe we had these seats!  We were in the second row on the center aisle!

So, we are sitting waiting for the concert to begin, and amazed at how great our seats are, and I begin looking around.  You may notice how bad the picture to the right is of David, but it really isn’t of David.  If you look just past his left ear, you can see a gentleman looking down reading the festival guide, and it took a moment for me to confirm it, but it was Robert Redford!  See the close up below.

The concert was absolutely delightful.  Audra’s voice was amazing, and her selection of songs was perfect – funny, moving, inspirational – and she sang a lot, and didn’t talk too much.  I said to David when we were on our way home

what I take away is, she just seems like the kind of person you would love to have as a friend.  It was one of those magical evenings, and it all happened in a castello!  Who could ask for anything more?

So, I missed a couple of days writing, and I neglected to tell you about our visit to the Culinary Institute of America in St Helena.  Joy and I went to go to the store, and picked up a few things, and the building was so great that we decided to come back the next day with David to take the tour, and we did.  We took the tour an it really is an amazing building, with lots of history.  After the tour, we had a chocolate tasting experience (well, that was what they called it).  It was an interesting, interactive chocolate tasting, from bean to product.  Lots of fun.  We did this in the morning before the French Laundry.