September 24, 2012
Elks Lodge, Petaluma, CA
[As always, please click on any picture to enlarge it.]
Yesterday was a travel day. We left Ukiah and retraced our route back south on US-101, stopping at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma, which is south of Santa Rosa and north of Marin County. We took advantage of the Lodge’s lounge for some football and beer, and then basically called it a day.
Today, we were up and moving reasonably well. Pat, Al, and Tanner seemed to be adjusting to the time zone change, and I had a day planned in Napa. OK, “planned” might be a strong term since I didn’t make any advance reservations for anything, but I knew what I wanted to accomplish. And, we did!
We started out driving north on US-101 to Santa Rosa then cutting east on CA-12 toward Sonoma before taking the “back road” to Calistoga. After a winding and scenic ride, we descended into Napa Valley and were soon at our first stop, the winery tour at Castello di Amoroso. The place is actually built like a castle, with some of the materials and even the laborers imported from Europe. The wines are just OK, but the tour is fun.
After our tasting (and purchases, of course), we headed south on Highway 29 to the upscale burg of St. Helena. I aimed for Gott’s Roadside (used to be “Taylor’s Automatic Refresher) for lunch. The burgers were good and the wine was better as we ate “out back” at the picnic tables. The pups enjoyed running around while we ate.
Our next planned stop was at the Hess Collection winery. After a somewhat white-knuckle ride along Mount Veeder Road, we made it to the winery, high above the city of Napa. We were too late for a winery tour, but didn’t need one at that point. We did stroll through the always interesting art collection before tasting. We tasted, bought and rolled down the hill, picking up CA-121 through Carneros, then CA-116 back to Petaluma. After another relaxing evening at “home”, we called it an early night.
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