A fine wine tour comes to an end

October 22, 2010
Napa, CA

Whew! We had a great - and busy - week with Pat and Al, showing them around Northern California wine country on their first (but hopefully not last) trip out this way. We're pretty sure they had a good time, as well.

Click here for pictures from this past week.

We started out last Saturday night, when we headed over to the San Francisco airport around 9:00 PM to pick them up. We parked in the Cell Phone Lot and waited until they were through baggage claim, then drove the 5 minutes to the terminal to pick them up. After a quick drive through the fog ("Welcome to San Francisco"!), we were home and relaxing. Geri made some nosh and we chatted until late (much later for them).

Sunday, we got an early start and spent the day showing them some of the sights in San Francisco. We checked out some of the hills, drove down Lombard Street ("crookedest street in town"), drove over to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and did a walking tour along the Embarcadero, from the Ferry Building all the way to the Cannery. After an unplanned late lunch at a dive bar, we headed home and capped off the evening with a great selection of cheeses (Cowgirl Creamery) and a salad.

We traveled to Sonoma County on Monday, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and heading up US-101 to Santa Rosa. We parked at the Fairgrounds, a nice, clean and quiet park (albeit with limited 50 amp coverage). Once settled in, we headed out for some tastings, checking out Chateau St. Jean and Sebastiani in the time we had available.

Tuesday was a complete change of pace. Instead of focusing on wineries, we headed south to Marin County, west to the coast, then north along Tomales Bay. We'd planned ahead and had everything we needed for an oyster lunch: beer and wine, plates and cups, multiple condiments, and of course, our oyster knife. We powered through three dozen of the freshest oysters to be found, right at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company where they're grown. We continued north on CA-1 to Jenner before turning east and following the Russian River back to Santa Rosa. We made a quick stop at the Martinelli Winery on the way (can't have a day without wine).

We moved again on Wednesday, this time the short hop over to Napa County, actually to the city of Napa where we were soon set up at the Napa Expo Fairgrounds RV Park. This is a very nice facility that we found during last year's wine country caravan. After getting set up, we headed for our first winery tour (having focused on tasting rooms so far). Since it was Pat and Al's first winery tour in Napa, we took them to the place where Geri and I had our first similar experience, probably in 1979 or 1980: Robert Mondavi Winery. They still put on a very good and informative tour, followed by a tasting. Al dug out his wallet and purchased a set of wines that don't get distributed (winery only sales). After Mondavi, we drove south on Highway 29 (the main drag in Napa Valley) and made quick stops at the Louis M. Martini and Peju Province tasting rooms, followed by dinner at a Mexican place right near the Fairgrounds.

We also had another visit with our friends, Wayne and Eva, and their Yorkie, Abby.  They were staying at the Napa Elks Lodge, and it was nice to  catch up with them and have them meet Pat and Al.  We stopped at "their place" one evening and they came over to the Napa Expo the next night.

Thursday, we headed for the "other side" of Napa Valley, driving north on the Silverado Trail. We made a tasting stop at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, tasting and buying both the Fay and SLV bottlings (Cask 23 being out of our retirees price range), before continuing north to the little town of Calistoga. We had lunch there and made a unsuccessful stop at Chateau Montelena (too busy and too close to closing) before finishing up at Charles Krug Winery. Once on the road home, we stopped at Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods, picking up scallops and salad mix for a light dinner.

Nobody was moving quickly this morning, so we took our time getting started. We had a late lunch/early dinner at Greystone restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) on St. Helena, followed by a little shopping at the CIA store. This is a neat place, housed in the large stone building that was home to the Christian Brothers Winery when monks still ran the place. Greystone always puts on a nice meal, and we all enjoyed different plates (Pat "won" with the Brook Trout entree), followed by dessert and sweet wine tastings.

Since Pat and Al have an early flight tomorrow, we stopped by the coach and picked up their bags and the pups, and drove them down to a San Bruno hotel, right near the airport. They'll be able to get a shuttle at 6:00 AM that'll get them to their flight on time. Although we were sad to drop them off, it was a much better strategy than getting up at 4:00 AM to make the 1.5-2 hour trek from Napa. We got home around 9:30 and are just going to chill for the rest of the evening.

Overall, it was a great week and a fine way to cap off the "year of the family visit" tour that we've been on since April...