A couple of months ago our friend Carol approached us about the possibility of staying for a few days in a condo in Napa that belongs to her son’s boss. Well, that sounded good. So Rita, Carol, Emma Jane, and I built an 8-day trip around it. We had all been to San Francisco before, but we planned it so that we all would be seeing some new things.
We had been having an extended heat wave in South Carolina, so we thought it would be nice to have some cooler weather. And we did. San Francisco was, in the evening anyway, what you could describe as chilly. But Yosemite and Napa were just glorious.
We left from Greenville midday on Tuesday, Aug 23. Actually my day had started off in Columbia where I had gone the day before to check out some wedding venues for Glenna’s upcoming wedding. Yay! We flew to Atlanta and then to San Francisco. I couldn’t find a movie I wanted to watch so I read and did puzzles—the usual. We easily got a shuttle to our hotel in the Fisherman’s Wharf area and soon set out to explore. We ate at Pier 39—good fish, bread and wine, we all agreed.
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| Dinner at Fog Harbor Restaurant |
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a few touristy stores. I mean, you have to do that. We were in bed with the lights out at a ridiculously early hour, but it had been a long day.
Wednesday was devoted to San Francisco. After a decent breakfast near our hotel, we walked over to the beginning of the Powell-Hyde cable car line. We bought the $20 day pass which was a bargain. While waiting for the car, we fell into conversation with a couple in line behind us. As you often do when you have just met someone, you ask where they’re from. They were from Cleveland as is Carol. So they started talking about Cleveland connections. My son lives here, oh my aunt lives there. We used to live here, oh my mother grew up there. And on and on. After awhile I told Carol I thought she was making the whole thing up!
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| Emma Jane, Rita and Carol in the cable car |
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| The four of us with the conductor |
Finally we got on and rode up and down incredibly steep hills (where you really have to hold on to one of the many poles) to Union Square. I just knew I could never live there with all those hills.
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| Looking down the hill to the Bay |
I was fascinated with some ficus trees along the route and finally got pictures of them in late afternoon. My camera is pretty good at stopping action—because the cable car certainly didn’t slow down. From the cable car, you can see just the many white branches of the trees and not the leaves above—interesting site.
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| Ficus trees all along the route |
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| My view from inside the cable car |
I needed cash, so when we got out I asked a man on the street where I could find a Bank of America. He looked incredulous—because I was standing right in front of one. We visited several stores in this shopping area—including Anthropologie, a store I have liked since Glenna and I visited our first one—this very shop in July 2003 just before she started college. I saw a very intriguing 8-foot decorative tree made mostly with paper and immediately saw possibilities. Can you tell I’m in wedding mode?
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| Some of the paper flowers on the tree |
Down the street a bit we hopped on a bus and rode through the financial district over to the bay, getting off at the old ferry terminal which has been converted into the most interesting upscale mostly food shops. We all enjoyed poking around.
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| Hall of the Ferry Terminal building |
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| One of the shops in the hall |
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| Aren't these pretty? |
Out back we saw the ferry that makes regular trips around the bay. A few days later we saw it over in Sausalito.
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| One of the ferries that goes to Sausalito |
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| Front of the Ferry Terminal building |
Next we took a trolley around the shoreline through the Embarcadero district and back to the Wharf area.
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| View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the trolley |
After a brief stop at the hotel we took the cable car again, this time getting off near Chinatown. We walked down the very steep hill and picked a restaurant more or less at random. It was full of Chinese having lunch, so we figure we must have picked well.
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| View down a Chinatown street |
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Love these vegetable stands with their
interesting vegetables |
After lunch we walked around a bit more and came across a teenager with whom Emma Jane struck up a conversation. I didn’t want to go back up that hill, so she took us to where we could get a bus back to the Wharf.
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We spotted this SF landmark--
now owned by Francis Ford Coppola |
We waited a bit, but the bus indeed went back to Pier 39. Here we explored all the backstreets of the pier which I had forgotten were there—or maybe they weren’t when I was last here. We stopped for awhile to watch a pretty good magician; I’ve always been fascinated by them.
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| Some of the Pier 39 shops |
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| Boats in the harbor in Fisherman's Wharf |
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| Sea lions sunning on the dock |
By this time we were pretty much wiped out. It sounds as if all we did was ride around, but we really did walk 5.79 miles that day, 12,808 steps. (Emma Jane’s phone consistently said she went farther than mine said I did; we thought maybe it was because her legs are shorter and she takes more steps.)
Several times that day we got glimpses of the famous part of Lombard St, but we didn’t actually walk up or down it. If our adventures in San Francisco seem a bit limited, it’s because we have all been there before. But we enjoyed our day there. We had a light supper at the hotel and went to bed early again because the next day was Yosemite!
So Thursday we were up very early to get to a nearby hotel by 6AM for our bus trip to Yosemite. How very appropriate that we were going there on the very day that 100 years before the National Park Service was born. The bus was full of 43 eager tourists but wasn’t particularly comfortable—no place to put your water bottle, for example. But the driver/guide Anthony made up for any lack on that score. He kept us in stitches all day. We found out a lot about him—a Londoner who married an American and moved to the States eleven years ago. He had the English sense of humor that I so appreciate. And, to boot, we learned so much about all the places we saw—both from his live comments and from taped comments (when he had to pay attention to the curves around the mountain) and from fascinating videos. I think he is more Californian than the natives; he obviously takes pride in his adopted home. Everything was we.
After picking up lots more people we crossed the Bay Bridge and headed east. Crossing the bridge, Anthony pointed out derricks that were used to build the new span of the bridge as objects that inspired George Lucas’ design for the Sand Walkers. I read that Lucas calls that a myth, but honestly I could see the resemblance. I actually thought that before he said it.
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| So what do you think? |
We went through an area where there were lots of windmills. We learned that they actually now turn them off 3 or 4 months of the year because the vibration caused by the movement of the blades attracts rats and other rodents which in turn attracts birds of prey who get caught in the blades and die. Before this stoppage they lost 8000 per year; now they are down to 2000. How California can you get?
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| Central Valley in green |
Next we went through the Central Valley which extends through the middle of the state for 450 miles and which is 40-60 miles wide. This is the fertile area of the state, and we learned why also. From 500 to 250 million years ago, the area was an inland sea. When the tectonic plates collided and pushed up the Sierra Nevada range, the sea receded but left fertile land 100 feet deep from all the sea creatures who died and decayed. Now the snow falls on the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter, melts in the spring, runs down (250 billion gallons per day, if you can fathom that) and is captured in huge reservoirs which are used to irrigate the valley. All along the road were irrigation ditches. We saw mostly nut trees, but in other areas there are lots of fruit and vegetable areas. If California were a country it would be the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of India. And that is almost all due to agriculture. Seventy-five to 80 percent of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the US are from this valley—more oranges than Florida, more cotton than Texas, and more milk than Wisconsin. Take that, you other states.
We also learned some about San Francisco. It was a small town until the 1849 Gold Rush. The first nugget was found in January 1848, but it took a year to gear up and for the rush to begin. Twenty percent of Californians are ethnic Chinese who started coming to the US at that time when San Francisco boomed. When the earthquake struck in 1906, businesses left in droves, fearing another quake, no doubt. And that’s what built up Los Angeles. Most of the destruction was not from the quake but rather from the fires that ensued because they lacked water to put them out.
Another thing we learned from Anthony is that Americans overuse the word awesome. He said his wife says a pair of sandals are awesome, and he says, no they are shoes. There were a few more like that too. Personally I would say that the British overuse the word brilliant, but I like it.
After awhile we stopped in a small town at a grocery store called Raley’s. Before we got there Anthony told us that the cafeteria food at the lodge in Yosemite where we were stopping for lunch was not good and was expensive and we should probably pick up food at Raley’s and have a picnic. We did. At lunch time Rita went in to get something to drink and came back saying that the food looked great. We stopped at Raley’s on the way back too where we were advised that we could get food and picnic in the bus for dinner. Do you suppose he or the company are paid by Raley’s to stop there?
After that stop, the scenery started getting prettier—foothills and then mountains.
We passed a large reservoir that supplies the fields as well as the cities. We drove past what were normally waterfalls. As I mentioned, the water gushes down in the spring as the snow melts, but by August they have typically dried up. We saw only a tiny trickle one place.
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| Welcome to Yosemite! |
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| Reservoir containing runoff from the mountains |
Soon after entering Yosemite National Park we started to see trees totally devoid of leaves. We had seen that in Yellowstone several years before also. We had learned at that time and our guide told us this time also that the park service has discovered that some wildfires are a good thing. They even start them sometimes. A good one is one with low fires which burn out the underbrush but, at least in the sequoia case, is low enough that the high leaves don’t get touched. They do get warm enough that the cones containing the seeds expand and break open, dropping the seeds to the ground. Since the brush is gone the seeds don’t have much competition for nutrients and can sprout. Isn’t nature wonderful?
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| Some of the burned trees we saw along the way |
We soon came to Tuolumne Grove where the giant sequoias are. On this trip I really wanted to see the sequoias and the redwoods. I didn’t know until our guide told us that they are in the same family. Giant sequoias grow along the western side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and redwoods grow along the coast. Sequoias are bigger around (as much as 44 feet in diameter with bark up to 31 inches thick) and redwoods are taller (as much as 379 feet). They both live an incredibly long time—redwoods up to 2000 years and sequoias up to 3200 years. Isn’t that amazing? Strangely, the sequoia bark is redder than the redwood bark.
Before we got there, we got a long diatribe about how the mile long walk down to see the sequoias and then the walk back up was really taxing, that we would be at 6000 feet where some people might have some breathing issues, that people have died trying it, that if we didn’t make it in time we would be left behind and would have to be picked up later and miss the rest of the day’s sights, that the sequoias were not the focus of our visit today. I listened to it all, but I wanted to go. We were instructed that we had an hour. If we hadn’t seen a sequoia after 20 minutes we needed to turn back because it would take twice as long to come back up as to go down.
So Rita, Carol and I headed down while Emma Jane, the sensible one, sat on a bench. Carol decided after awhile that she could sense what he said about the effects of the altitude and she turned back. Another sensible one. The other two less sensible ones kept going. We hadn’t even brought water. Actually I felt nothing as we went down except the constant need to put on the brakes because it was so steep. On cue, after 20 minutes we saw our first sequoia. It was huge and red.
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| The one giant sequoia we saw |
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| The sequoia surrounded by lesser trees |
I took a few pictures, and Rita said, ok, let’s go back up. There was a loop we could have walked that no doubt had a bunch more trees, but we had seen what we came to see. So up we went. I don’t think I had gone 30 feet when I could feel the effects. I have a hard time with climbs anywhere because I have a slight case of asthma. But this was terrible. I said to Rita, I can’t get enough air. I panted with every breath to get the carbon dioxide out so that the oxygen could get in. I had visions of not making it, of missing the bus, of hoping two young men would stop and carry me up. Well, that wasn’t happening, so I had to keep going. Rita said almost nothing to me as we climbed. She just kept climbing, so I had to keep following. Once she said, when we get up to that turn, we’ll stop for a bit. We hadn’t looked at landmarks on the way down, so we had no sense of how far we had come. We knew our time was quickly evaporating, so she just kept going. We saw something that we thought we had seen maybe half way down, and Rita said, oh, we’ve got quite a long way to go still. Thank goodness that turned out to be wrong. At last I said, I see the bathroom building up ahead. And there were Carol and Emma Jane to greet us. We had made it up in 35 minutes. I recovered very quickly, as soon as up turned to level, but that was one of the hardest things I have ever done. And Rita felt nothing. I was so grateful to her for her patience but also for not indulging me. I’ll bet she was an awesome mom—oops, there’s that word. I was still glad I did it—both to see the giant sequoia (which wasn’t really worth it in the grand scheme of things) but also because Glenna and I are going to Peru in November which is 14,000+ feet. I needed to see how I would do. Right now, I’m saying that I will need oxygen which I’ve read they sell at the airport.
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| Glad to get back on the bus! |
Back on the bus, we drove on along a route that gave us a spectacular view of the valley far below. We were also in a valley, but this one was waaay down.
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| The valley far below |
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| Another of our views from the bus |
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| Merced River (I think) |
And then we got our first glimpse of El Capitan, one of the most famous sites in Yosemite. It is a 3000 foot granite cliff that really goes straight up. It looks white against the green around it. Just spectacular. Of course, we got the obligatory picture of us with El Cap in the background. We also got a look at Half Dome, another famous climb.
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| Our first view of El Capitan |
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| The four of us with our guide Anthony |
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| Half Dome--can you see the reason for the name? |
Then it was lunch time. We stopped at Yosemite Lodge and had our picnic outside in a peaceful setting. We watched a squirrel begging for food until the Ranger sitting near stopped it. They don’t want any of the animals fed, probably because they could lose their ability to find food on their own.
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| Squirrel chomping on some of our food |
After lunch Carol and I walked down to a nearby river and watched a little girl in her floatie playing in the water.
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| Peaceful river scene near Yosemite Lodge |
Back on the bus we headed around to the other side of El Capitan. Along the way Anthony told us about free climbing which means climbing a mountain with no ropes or other aids. Climbers just find crevices or niches in the wall to put their two feet and hands into and hoist themselves up, bit by bit. El Capitan attracts many crazy (my editorial comment) people who try this. We learned that the first couple to scale El Cap this way took 43 days. They have to carry food, tent and all supplies. The average is 5-6 days now. We saw a documentary video which featured a young woman who scaled it for the first time with her boyfriend. She narrated it, and we could see and hear all her down moments when she thought she wouldn’t make it. Pure terror for me even to watch. The fastest person, Alex Honnold, a 26-year old climber who lives in a van so that he can go from one climb to another, scaled El Cap in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 46 seconds. We saw a 60 Minutes interview of him from 2011. I can’t even conceive of doing it with ropes, etc.; this way is just pure nuttiness. Anthony said that the day before no climbers were allowed to go up because of conditions, so he wasn’t sure if they were climbing that day or not. When we got around to the back, we spotted three climbers. My camera zooms enough that I could see them clearly. That was quite a thrill.
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| So you can see how vertical this thing is |
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| The climbers on a small ledge almost half way up |
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| Close-up of the crevices and niches they need to find |
On the way out we saw more beautiful views. And we passed the sign which commemorates the spot where John Muir (more on him later) and President Roosevelt met and Muir persuaded the president to preserve America’s wildernesses.
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| View our guide thought was the best one in Yosemite |
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| Spot where Roosevelt and Muir met |
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| Ski slope in Sierra Nevadas |
The ride back seemed very long. We had our picnic on the bus and had a bit more in the room when we got back. We did get a decent view of Alcatraz Island from the bus. It was early to bed again. It had been a beautiful day, warm and clear with awesome (sorry, Anthony) sites.
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| Alcatraz in the Bay as night falls |
Friday we picked up our rental car and headed to Napa. We used Google Maps on the iPhone to guide us; that went really well—as Glenna has been trying to convince me for some time. I predict doom for Garmin and TomTom. We left San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. Rita was driving; she said, if only Dan could see me now. So we took a picture to send to Dan in heaven.
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| Driving across the big red bridge |
It didn’t take long to get to Napa Valley.
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| I actually forgot to photograph the sign, so I found this one. |
What I was most intrigued by initially was the various stages of the vines. Some were babies in their white grow tubes. Others were out of that stage but still young. And the rest were full grown vines falling all over or topped.
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| Baby vines in their grow tubes |
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| Mature vines with the grapes in nets |
We arrived at the house where we were staying in St Helena. It was on a quite modest street right off the main drag. It was obvious at first glance that this house was not modest—that it had been altered and added to.
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| The front of our home for three days |
We walked through the whole place just to see what was there. There were the usual rooms that a four-bedroom house would have, but in addition there was a game room upstairs, an exercise room with sauna downstairs, and behind a massive wooden sliding door a wine room with equipment and barrels, racks of wine and wine in boxes. The decorating scheme of the house was rustic chic.
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| The rustic dining room of our house |
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| Hall bathroom with WC and old-fashioned tub |
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| The wine room |
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| Isn't this a cool clock? |
Out front there was a putting green with a fountain in the middle.
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| Front yard with putting green and fountain |
In back there were extensive porches and decks and sitting areas as well as a swimming pool with a hot tub inside it and a cover which closed with a switch, and a bocce ball pit.
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| Looking out from the back door |
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| Back of the house |
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| Another sitting area in the back |
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| Rita and Carol conversing near the pool |
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| Emma Jane relaxing at the pool |
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| Pool cover on the move |
The vegetation was outstanding—lots of trees including redwoods, loads of bushes and potted plants. We were all intrigued by the fact that in each pot there was a flowering plant but also some kind of vegetable or fruit—peppers, cherry tomatoes, and the sweetest strawberries ever. We grilled some peppers one night.
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| Strawberries in a pot with another plant |
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| Beautiful hydrangea near the house |
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| The roses formed a hedge in front of the pool |
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| And who knows what this odd fruit or vegetable is? |
Everything was just so healthy looking. This impression was amplified in our travels through Napa. Obviously this is the right climate for growing things. It made our South Carolina vegetation look positively wilty. Right next door (we don’t know if these were part of the house or not) was a field of grapes. The grapes were still on the vines and were sooo sweet.
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| Luscious grapes right next door |
We made a trip to the grocery store for food, and actually we ate most of our meals there during our stay. We got a glimpse of the town with its cute shops which Rita and Emma Jane got to explore later when Carol and I were at a winery. We fixed lunch and ate outside—just too nice to stay inside. I realized looking at the pool that I had forgotten my bathing suit! The others couldn’t believe it.
Carol, through her two sons, had arranged for three top-drawer winery visits. The first one was that afternoon—Nickel and Nickel. N&N is a single vineyard wine place which means that the wine they produce comes only from their vines. We were ushered into the parlor of the 19th-century home on the estate and given a glass of chardonnay while we waited. Then we walked through the beautiful grounds to the wine operations area—first an old 17th century barn which was taken apart and brought here from New England.
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| Carol said, hey, look up! |
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| New England 17th century barn |
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| Inside the barn |
Next were the machines which crush the grapes and remove the skins. And then was the building where the wine first sloshes around in large metal tanks until it is ready for the barrels in the floor below.
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| The tank room... |
There it stays for 9 months for white and 18 months for red after which it is bottled.
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| ...and the barrel room |
Our guide was pretty full of himself, but we did learn a lot about wine making from him. For example, the soil is the biggest single determiner of what the wine will taste like. They use French oak barrels which add a subtle spicy taste to the wine instead of American oak which gives a stronger taste. They use their barrels only twice and then sell them to other wineries who use them much longer. They snip off the tops of the vines to let the grapes do the last bit of ripening and to keep off the rattlesnakes who like to keep warm in the mass of vines and leaves at the top. The grapes are picked at night by a light on the tractor. In the vineyard just across the road from them, the grapes come in later simply because the mountains obscure the sun a little longer each day. This particular winery does everything by hand—planting, watering, picking, and sorting to get out the spider webs, wings and other debris. Other wineries are fully automated. We began to see why there is such a difference in the price from one kind to another.
After we had walked through and learned all this, we went into the elegant dining room of the house where we sat at the long table (there were four others also) and were treated to five of their cabernet sauvignons as well as really tasty cheeses and breadsticks. It really was a fun experience. But we didn’t buy any wine. Whites, merlot and syrah went for $55-$65 per bottle and cabs for $110-$160.
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| The elegant tasting room |
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| They really personalize the experience |
Back at the house we fixed and ate dinner and played Canasta. Carol and I lost. It was another early night because we had another early morning—for our balloon ride! Saturday we were up at 5:00 to get to Domaine Chandon winery from which our balloon was departing. The company we used was Balloons Over Napa which we were very impressed with by the end of the trip. We got juice, hot chocolate and pastries in the dining room and then were off in a van to Yolo County. (We learned that in social media YOLO means You Only Live Once. How appropriate.) They normally go up in Napa County, but this day there was too much cloud cover and mist. Yolo is an agricultural county, so I figured that would be pretty too and even more varied than vineyards.
On the way we saw the most amazing sky. We watched the sun rise, a huge red ball with duller red around it. Our driver said it appeared red mostly because of the fires burning in that direction. My camera saw it differently though; the sun was yellow but the sky around it was red. I guess from that distance the naked eye just saw red.
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| The sun just above the horizon |
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| The sun in a red sky |
When we arrived at the field we saw 8 balloons.
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| Our balloon being inflated |
It was hard getting in and out of the basket. There are five compartments, one for the pilot and four for the passengers, so there are no doors. We had to climb over the top using open slots for footholds (not exactly like the free climbers but hard enough for me though not for jackrabbits Rita and Carol).
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| Our very crowded balloon |
We were the second balloon up, so we got to see the first one above us and the rest on the ground. It took awhile for some of them to get up; it depends on the wind near the ground.
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| Our shadow on the ground as we ascend |
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| The other balloons still on the ground |
Our pilot, Ken Custis, was outstanding. He had been a helicopter pilot in the Army and had flown more than 5000 balloons in 30 years. It was obvious that he loved doing it—as opposed to some office job, as he said.
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| Our great pilot, Ken Custis |
He told us about balloon operation as we floated. He had an iPad with all sorts of information on it which helped in knowing where he could go—up and down and sideways. To move horizontally, he had to move up or down to take advantage of the various wind currents at the different levels. The fire that allows the balloon to rise is pretty scary to me, but he said that if the lower part of the balloon caught fire, the fabric would just melt rather than burn up. The pilot was constantly firing the burner, that is opening the propane valve to feed more to the burner, to keep us stable.
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| Ken firing the burner |
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| The burner and the flame |
There were flaps in one spot high up on the balloon which were used to turn us around so that everyone could have a 360 perspective. At the very top of the balloon is a flap of fabric connected to a cord which ends in the basket. When the pilot pulls the cord, the flap opens, some hot air escapes, and the ascent is slowed.
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| Flaps to turn us around |
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| Large upper flap opens to allow us to descend |
There was a camera out on one of the wires of the balloon which allowed him to get great pictures of us.
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| Can you find us? |
We floated over all kinds of terrain—some devoid of vegetation looking like dried mud patches with rivulets running through them where water would have flowed had there been any and others lush with vegetation of all kinds.
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| Nice circles--how do they get them so perfect? |
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| Dry river--I love the patterns they make |
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| This looked like lots of shallow reservoirs |
I was fascinated by the absolutely straight rows of trees or plants; it just looks so orderly and neat.
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| Lots of parallel rows |
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| And then more |
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| And these with some color |
We also floated over housing developments.
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| One of the housing developments we saw |
Ken sent us some statistics afterward; our max speed was 14.7 mph, our max altitude was 2355 feet, and we flew 12.4 miles in 58 minutes. As we were descending we saw all the spotters coming in their cars. They have to get permission each time from the landowner.
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| Our spotters waiting for us to come down |
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| Another of our shadows--this time as we descended |
We were down first, probably because Ken is the most experienced pilot. Expert that he is, we floated down to a perfect, gentle landing. The field we landed in had been cultivated so it was quite bumpy. He didn’t want us to have to walk across it, so he rose a foot or so and the spotters held the balloon down and pulled us onto the roadside—with very great effort. We were obviously very heavy.
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| Our spotters struggling to get us over to the road |
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| Our balloon collapsing |
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| Almost down |
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Carol getting out of the basket--thank goodness this
isn't a picture of me! |
Then it was back to the winery for a really delicious champagne breakfast--mimosas, bacon, sausage, roasted potatoes, frittata, and English muffins. This was Emma Jane’s first balloon ride, and she was thrilled.
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| Champagne breakfast--very welcome |
After that exciting morning, we headed back to our neighborhood, driving around a little to see what else was nearby and then back to our amazing place. We relaxed the rest of the day. I put my feet in the hot tub while the others swam. It was in the low eighties which felt great; it was so nice to be able to walk on the concrete barefoot. We fixed another good meal on the grill and played 3-13 before and after dinner, one of the games Carol introduced us to. It was another fairly early night; this trip was really crazy for sleep patterns.
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| Carol and Rita grilling and EJ setting the table |
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| Carol, RIta and EJ relaxing and imbibing |
Sunday morning, after sunning on the patio for awhile, we headed down the road to Cakebread Cellars, our second winery. Carol’s son is a wine club member there, so we got the VIP treatment—ushered to a special patio for our tasting. We were served three of their whites and three of their reds. Rita actually liked the first white (she isn’t a big fan of wine) as did Carol (who usually prefers reds).
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| Our menu at Cakebread Cellars |
The wife of the owner is a chef and so has extensive gardens which we wandered through, again marveling at how everything looks so healthy. Everything we ate just tasted incredibly fresh also. Obviously it helps not to have to ship the produce across the country. I think I could get used to that.
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| Field of dahlias |
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| Beautiful iris |
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| The flower of the artichoke--isn't that gorgeous? |
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| Yellow and red peppers |
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| Yellow squash |
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| Mature artichokes |
It was another beautiful day too. We had no crackers and cheese this time, so I was feeling the effects of the wine by the time we left. There was no tour, so we left and got some food. This time we ate out—at a really good Italian restaurant called Tra Vigne where our guide from the first winery had worked for many years. I had pepperoni and fresh tomato pizza—yum.
Back at the house we relaxed again but also got our stuff packed up because we had to leave that night. Rita and I played a game of bocce ball with our made up rules which may or may not have been the right ones. Then Rita and Emma Jane dropped Carol and me off at Kitchak Cellars and they went shopping.
This was another exclusive winery in a rather out of the way place. The owners are Easterners who came west for retirement and decided to buy a winery because they needed something to do. They bought the acreage and built all the buildings, including the gorgeous southern France-style home.
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| Front of French-style house |
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| Back of the house |
We sat in the courtyard for a bit enjoying a cab that was actually pink. Our guide, the hospitality director, then took us around the property. Earlier in his life (but not much—he is now 75), the owner had raced cars, winning more than 100 races. His cars are now in a special building to the side of the house. What beauties!
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| The racing cars |
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| Close-up of the red one |
We walked along one of the vineyards, admiring the vines loaded with gorgeous fruit almost ready to be picked. These were cab grapes and we got to taste. So sweet!
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| Ripe cab grapes |
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| Betty and Carol with the vines and pond beyond |
We got to go into the owner’s personal wine cellar; he has been a collector for many years and has some incredibly old, expensive, and special ones.
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| The owner's personal wine cellar |
Then we saw how the grapes are processed. They also pick and sort by hand. We saw the clean and gleaming tank room and the barrel room. We even got to taste a merlot, one from 2015 and then another from 2014 from the same field. The 2015 had a smell and taste of the oak barrel; the older one had largely lost this feature. Then we went into the bar for our tastings—five more wines. Carol and I had a lot of wine that day. We were with another couple who were celebrating their anniversary. In both cases where we were with others, one of the group was a bit of a wine snob though that didn’t dull our pleasure. As at the other two places, we didn’t buy any wine. So we were really moochers.
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| Kitchak menu |
Then it was back to the house to pack up and leave. Before heading up the road to our hotel for the night in Calistoga, we ate at the Farmstead in St Helena. My trout, potatoes, and vegetables were really good. In addition to having a lot of wine that day, we also had a lot of food—two big meals. Emma Jane and I actually watched some TV in our room—PBS specials on Downton Abbey and Poldark.
Monday was our last full day. We set out for Muir Woods using a route that took us through some pretty territory. To get to Muir Woods, you have to go up a pretty steep hill (that people live on—just like San Francisco—ugh) and then down some. This park is a national park, so we all got in free with my Senior Pass. The park is named after John Muir who was a Scottish-American naturalist and conservationist and one of the earliest advocates of preserving America’s wildernesses. He was a big focus of Ken Burns’ recent PBS documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. If you didn’t see it, you really should; it was terrific.
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| Carol, Rita and EJ at entrance to Muir Woods NP |
We walked a couple of miles through the woods, admiring the gigantic redwoods all around us. They were magnificent. In keeping with the National Park Service’s philosophy of leaving nature alone, there was one place where a redwood had fallen across the path; they just cut out the part that was on the path and left the rest of the tree on either side.
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| Stand of redwoods |
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| The history of a tree born in 909 AD in rings |
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| Doesn't this stump look like a pig? |
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| A tangle of roots |
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| Here you can see the red |
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| Redwood burl--isn't that pretty? |
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| Pretty plant called redwood sorrel |
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Panoramic view of the redwoods--
only way to capture their height |
We had a lot of fun taking vertical panoramic photos with our iPhones, something that another visitor showed us.
The next stop was Sausalito which Emma Jane had described as a cute town along the bay. It was indeed. We did some window shopping and a little actual shopping and also ate lunch at a place right on the water. The views were of the bay, the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges, and San Francisco.
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| Houses on the hills of Sausalito |
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| One of the interesting plants we saw |
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| The ferry from San Francisco |
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| The Bay Bridge and San Francisco in the distance |
Then it was back across the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco.
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| Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge again |
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| This time Carol was driving |
Our last stop was the Japanese Tea Garden which is part of Golden Gate Park. I had remembered really liking it years before. It seemed smaller than I remembered, but it’s a bucolic place within the hustle and bustle of the city.
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| Colorful fish in pond |
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| Temple in the gardens |
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| Just an interesting tree |
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| Peaceful pond |
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| Close-up of lily pads in pond |
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| Wooden bridge over a stream |
Then it was on to our airport hotel after which Rita and Carol returned our rental car. Thanks so much to them for doing all the driving; I had the easy part—navigating in the front seat. We ate that evening in the hotel restaurant which was surprisingly good.
Tuesday was the always boring day of getting back home. Nothing remarkable about it. We had to hustle to make our connection in Atlanta, and Rick met us at GSP. There was one downside to the day—which extended for 10 days. Somewhere on our trip—and it had to be where all of us used our credit cards—our cards were hacked and we all got bogus charges. I was first, then Emma Jane, then Rita and then Carol. Our charges were all in different cities—Houston, Cicero IL, New York and Florida. I guess they got as much as they could on each card before it was cancelled and then went on to the next one. There is obviously some network there; either they sold the numbers or the person just gave it to friends. I wish there was a way of figuring out where that occurred, but I don’t suppose we will.
The ending couldn’t dull our enthusiasm for the trip, however. We all had done parts of it before, but we also all got to do new and fun things. What could be better? I am so happy to have good friends with whom I can travel. Thumbs up!
