At last! California wine country!

Friday - Garberville to Calistoga CA

Hello!

Well, let’s only hope that tonight’s posting goes better than last night’s…I got really frustrated because things weren’t seeming to post, and I kept getting an error message…I tried several times, so there is no telling what you may have received by way of notification … if you received anything at all!  The WiFi signal at our hotel in Garberville was strong but the internet service to the Garberville area is so poor (at least, that is out theory) that we were timing out of applications; hopefully, with a strong Calistoga signal, all will be well – or at least better!

Up this morning around 6 a.m.  R had leftover pizza for breakfast, but I opted for the hotel breakfast.  We have been fairly lucky with hotel breakfasts to date, but this morning’s was not at all good.  I wasn’t in the mood for a waffle, and that left basically different shapes of basic white bread…no thanks!  So, I settled for a small bowl of Raisin Bran, and moved on from there.

It took us a while to repack the car – it’s beginning to look like we’ve been traveling for a year, as there is so much miscellaneous “stuff” packed in – and it seems like each day brings us yet another small handled paper bag or two…just hoping, as we are in the downhill phase of the trip, that we remember to collect all the multitudinous bags and packages and not leave anything behind!

On the road about 8, and as we definitely had some time, R suggested that we detour from the 101 and head toward the coast … you know, “just to see.”  Well…we got off the highway at Liggett, and headed west.  Once again, we wound through grove after grove of redwoods, and in and out of the fog.  It was truly beautiful!  I had no idea there were that many redwoods left in the entire world!  They were wonderful!  We hit the coast at Westport (appropriately named!) and headed south at that point.

The driving was really lovely, and surprisingly, not much in the way of difficult traffic, although there was the occasional semi-carrying-logs wanting to dash by, which was fine with us.  

We stopped at a Safeway in Fort Bragg to load up on water and fruit – and YIPEE! We’re back to our convenient small bottles of Arrowhead sparkling lemon water!  Just a few miles south of Fort Bragg, we started inland again, wanting to come out somewhere around the Russian River valley and the wineries there.  Our destination was Dry Creek, one of our long-time favorite wineries.  Again, just lovely driving.  And boy, it was really surprising!  Before we knew it, we were in the middle of vineyards!  We haven’t been up this way in a good many years, and we can definitely tell that much of the area has been cleared and replanted with vineyards – they were everywhere!  But then, Robert will tell you:  You can never have enough grapes!

Reached Dry Creek Winery around 1 p.m. and went in to see about picking up (rather than their shipping) our latest wine club selections.  Of course the wine club person was at lunch, but we were helped by a lovely gal who, while she was checking on things, poured us some tastings “just to try.”  Well…as neither of us have any sales resistance at all, we ended up walking out of the winery with 14 bottles … not including our two in the wine club shipment…so, we are obviously stocking up!!  (But with a 25% discount…)

From Dry Creek, we went to the local grocery store, just on the corner – which had quite a crowd of people already enjoying their sandwiches and other goodies.  Parked and went in and ordered sandwiches.  My sandwich was turkey and arugula with garlic aioli on toasted ciabatta bread.  R had ham and cheese on sourdough; both excellent!  All washed down with bottles of iced tea for Robert, and lemonade for me.  Definitely good to get some food into the stomach!

From there, we decided to head to our place in Calistoga.  Emmy (GPS) took us along the Calistoga River road, which was a stunning route – up hills and down into valleys, all following the river.  Very picturesque!  Got to Calistoga about 2:30 and to our place – Washington Street Lodging – a few minutes later.

Our “lodging” is really cute, and we’ve stayed here before, probably on our last trip through the area.  There are five small cottages along a dry riverbed.  Ours, number 4, has a small kitchen, nice sized bedroom, and small bath.  It also has a nice patio overlooking the streambed.  And, even more importantly, everything we had in the car actually FIT into the room!!  Will wonders never cease!  As it is now a very warm afternoon – somewhere in the mid-80’s, we decided to put on the air conditioning, and … take a nap!!  As Robert pointed out, we’ve been going for over 3 weeks now, without much of a break…so…we’re taking one now.  R napping, and I’m trying to figure out which wineries we need to visit tomorrow!

You know, the first time I came to Napa Valley, probably somewhere about 40 years ago now…all the wine tastings were actually FREE, and many of the wineries also provided bread or crackers to go with the wine!  Well!  It certainly has changed, that’s for sure!  The charges now seem to vary from $10 to $100 PER PERSON, depending on what you want to taste!  Sheesh!!  In the olden days, (ah, yes, to be younger…NOT!) a person could go literally from winery to winery and cover 15 – 20 in a single DAY!

Now, to do things appropriately, we’re figuring one or two in the morning, and possibly one or two more in the afternoon, after a substantial lunch.  I’ve picked out Chateau Montelena as one that I want to try – it’s the wine that the movie “Bottle Shock” was based on; one of the first wines to ever beat French wines in a blind tasting!  At any rate, we’ve enjoyed the movie; now let’s try the wines!  Not sure where else we’ll go, but I’m sure we’ll have a good time!

Also not sure what we’re doing for dinner tonight; so…will finish this post then!

Much love,

m

xxx