Napa Girls’ Trip Edition

1. Portrait Mode: on our girls’ getaway, one of my friends had a new iPhone with portrait mode. So we played around with taking portraits and man…the photos made me want to upgrade my phone. I have an iPhone 8, which doesn’t have portrait mode. The feature makes photos look professionally shot! Fingers crossed that Apple will add portrait mode to a future OS update for the 8.

2. Osmosis Enlighten Pigment-Fading Serum: when I told the esthetician at the Indian Springs spa that I’d like to fade my dark spots, she recommended this serum from one of the two skin care brands they use. She also recommended the brand’s Rescue Epidermal Repair Serum [paid link] but the spa shop was sold out. The Rescue serum costs $110 for one ounce, so if I do buy that, it’ll have to be a pretty serious splurge. The Enlighten serum cost $65, which is still a lot, but I was treating myself for my 40th, dammit! I’m trying very hard not to crack this bottle open before I empty my Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Night Serum. The skin care struggle is real. 😛

3. Hippie Dust Comet Corn: my friends and I bought this bag of popcorn at the poolside bar and cafe. They had several flavors but I suggested this one because I’ve had some delicious popcorn flavored with nutritional yeast in the past. This stuff made for a great poolside snack.

4. Napa Valley Wine Jelly: I bought this jar of Cabernet Sauvignon jelly at a San Francisco airport market before flying back to DC. Wine that I bought at our tastings is shipping to us from Napa, but the bottles won’t ship for awhile due to the heat. So I wanted to bring something back that the two of us can enjoy sooner. We haven’t opened it just yet, but I’m excited to try jelly made from Cab Sauv grapes!

5. Ruffles Mozzarella ‘n Marinara Chips [paid link]: my love for trying new chip flavors is well documented on this blog. When I spotted this new-to-me flavor at Walgreen’s, I simply had to try it. I brought the chips on my flight to San Francisco and they made for the perfect in-flight second breakfast-slash-snack. I love a mozzarella stick dipped in marinara, and while these chips aren’t quite the same, they do approximate the flavor closely enough.