Napa Valley, wine country ...

Despite it being in the middle day between my two exams this week, upon the invitation of my sponsors, Macquarie Bank (thank you Mac!!!), I joined the Macquarie US Real Estate team for their retreat (well, one afternoon and night of it, anyway) in the beautiful Napa Valley - about 1 hour from San Francisco - their equivalent of the Hunter Valley.

Napa is full of beautiful wineries and buildings, and we got to see some great ones. Here's the one we ended up at last ...



After an afternoon of wine tasting, it was time for a cooking lesson (random I know, but hey). First we learned how to make Pesto ...



And then pasta (Well, kind of. He showed us and we listened ...! This guy was a demonstration chef from the Culinary Institute of America - that's right, the CIA?!!)



... Followed by a fabulous dinner and conversation about, well, lots of real estate, admittedly (Though I like real estate!). We then retired to some beautiful chateaus in the valley ...



... before I had to head back early the next morning to study! Argh!

Thank you Macquarie - it was a great afternoon and a good study break! =) And definitely worth a trip next time if you are out here - as an added bonus, the Jelly Belly factory is here too ...!