Wine, wine, and more wine!

Day 6 ~ Fortuna – St. Helena, CA

We broke camp early on day six of our travels and continued south on Hwy 101, driving along the Redwood forests.  This route parallels the Avenue of the Giants so our minds knew the wonder “just over the ridge.”  It had been such a powerful experience to visit the Redwood State and National Parks; one we won’t forget.  We didn’t have a clear itinerary for the day (one of the benefits of retirement traveling), only to reach Napa by late afternoon.  While researching this trip we’d seen there were several resorts on Clearlake and decided we’d like to see the area for possible future travel.  Turning off 101 at Ukiah, we entered a beautiful valley of farms and ranches.  It was an enjoyable drive over to Upper Lake, where we promptly became confused about where we wanted to go.  We headed south on CA-20 toward Lakeport and found a wonderful visitor center overlooking the lake.  Lakeport is a charming community on the west side of Clearlake, the perfect spot for a picnic lunch and a walk around the marina and small downtown area.  As it turns out, Lakeport is not where the resorts are; they are on the east side of the lake but we saw enough to agree Clearlake is a very pretty area of California and worthy of consideration on another trip.

Clearlake

 

Clearlake

 

Leaving Lakeport we went southeast toward Kelseyville and turned onto CA-29 for what became a long, twisty road down through the hills toward Napa Valley.  We commented that the locals didn’t seem at all phased by the road as we noticed several cars driving way too fast up the hill; we were relieved to reach the valley floor!  Our family has been to Napa Valley but this was our first visit and we were immediately taken by it.  Despite California’s severe drought (we saw evidence of it everywhere), the Valley was lush with green vineyards rolling on the hillsides and the wine estates were beautiful.  We drove into Calistoga and were immediately charmed by the town, choosing to walk around town and enjoy drinks and appetizers at the historic Calistoga Inn.  www.calistogainn.com   Beautiful and relaxing!

Historic Calistoga Inn

Patio at Calistoga Inn

A few miles down the road was the town of St. Helena, and our destination for a couple nights, the El Bonita motel.  The motel was a pleasant change from camping, and delightful in all the other aspects also.  It was reasonably priced given the relatively high prices of Napa Valley.  While walking around town we spotted a street sign; it sort of says it all!  The El Bonita has kind of a retro feel to it, and is much bigger than it appears.  We had reserved a poolside double room but next time (hopefully) we might prefer a garden room just to be away from the street.

Expensive St. Helena!

El Bonita gardens

  Our son has visited Napa several times and recommended St. Helena to us.  We were grateful as the town is central to many wineries, restaurants, and is very charming.  The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is located on the main street, and the kitchens are behind glass walls so it was interesting to observe the students at work. Greystone is a solid stone building, formerly the winery Greystone Cellars.  It’s quite impressive, and worth a visit. www.ciachef.edu/california/

Culinary Institute of America @ Greystone

Students at work

 

It had been a long day of driving so for dinner we chose a casual patio setting at the Pizzeria Tra Vigne, with a nice variety of authentic pizza and pasta dishes.  Tra Vigne also offers a more formal restaurant with a menu of traditional Italian cuisine.  Our waiter at the pizzeria made the evening with his winning personality and attentive service. travignerestaurant.com/

Day 7 – St. Helena and surrounding Napa Valley

Our day started with a visit to one of St. Helena’s best-known (over 90 years) establishments, the Model Bakery.  www.themodelbakery.com  The coffee and artisan breads and pastries were the perfect way to jump-start our day of Napa Valley wine tasting.  We also needed to do some laundry and found a coin-operated laundry, which turned out to be a delightful experience.  A lady from Fiji started a conversation with us and the time at the laundry flew by.  One of the things we have learned through our years of living internationally and traveling is that while you are out “seeing new places” it is most fun to be “meeting new people.”

Our area of WA State is also a viticultural area so we were curious to see how Napa Valley wineries compare with those near our home in the Yakima and Columbia River basins, Walla Walla valley, and Red Mountain vineyard districts.  www.washingtonwine.org/explore  The first stop was V. Sattui, a California winery with a three hundred year history of winemaking.  www.vsattui.com/  One of the slogans for V. Sattui is “come for the wine and stay for the food’ because in addition to having a big variety of wines available for tasting, V. Sattui has an impressive marketplace, deli and picnic grounds.  We enjoyed a couple hours visiting the winery and having lunch on the grounds and people watching.  It was interesting to watch the bottling process at V. Sattui.  This winery only sells their wines direct to customers through their wine club, online sales, or at the winery shop.

Beautiful V Sattui

V Sattui Tower

V Sattui barrels

V Sattui bottling line

After lunch we headed to Beringer and took a tour that included visiting their caves. www.beringer.com/  Beringer is known as the longest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley (since 1856); it was also the first winery to offer public tours after the repeal of prohibition which brought an increase in tourism to Napa Valley.  The winery was actually allowed to operate throughout prohibition under a special license allowing it to produce wine for sacramental purposes.  In all likelihood that may have been “loosely interpreted.”  The grounds were lovely and we also enjoyed a walk-thru of the historic Rhine House, a lovely Victorian with impressive stained glass windows.

Beringer

 

Old wine; dusty!

Beringer Caves

Beringer Caves

Rhine House

Rhine House

 We knew we were pressed for time as most of the wine tasting rooms close by late afternoon but we were able to make a short stop at Rutherford Hill and also a brief drive on the grounds of Duckhorn.  Rutherford Hill is best known for their Merlot, with the geography of their vineyards closely matching the merlot-growing region of Bordeaux, France.  Hopefully we will visit Napa again and would probably return to Rutherford Hill to have more time to enjoy their impressive tasting room and nearly mile-long caves and oak grove. www.rutherfordhill.com/ Duckhorn is known for its varietals, and the winery has some beautiful gardens.  www.duckhorn.com/  The drive to both Rutherford Hill and Duckhorn was very pretty and we enjoyed being out in the rolling hills of Napa.

Rutherford Hill Winery

 

Duckhorn Vineyards

While in Napa we also visited Dean & Deluca, the gourmet culinary shopping experience, well respected for carrying only CA wines, local produce and many cheeses from local artisans.  www.deandeluca.com/  We bought a few fun things and wrapped up our evening with a deli-style dinner at our El Bonita motel room.

We have been traveling a week now, four nights camping and three motel nights.  The weather has been beautiful, the scenery amazing, the time together precious (but not without its moments!), and our insight into retirement is that everyday life still goes on while traveling.  I found myself concerned about things at home like mounting mail, paying bills, and some “what if’s?”  Bob rarely worries about the administrative details of life but he was concerned with the garden and our koi pond, and yes, he’s still wrestling the rooftop carrier!  We have another two weeks to go!

Next stop, the greater San Francisco Bay area . . . thanks for traveling along with us!