Wednesday, April 3rd
2013
Leave about 8.20.
Drive to Vallejo, about 1.5 hours,
nothing special, cloudy, same pretty landscape.
Drive via Vallejo, strange town, no
stop, something between Detroit, old spanish style town and modern-isch California.
Drive to Napa, to start kind of
industrial, ugly and boring. Oxbow market (fancy, strange and small).
Downtown Napa, parking, walk, visitor's
center (not helpful), walked through it, shops, riverfront, too
comercial, nice but not special.
Drive along the wine road – Silverado
trail, really nice, got sunnier, stop one – Signorello vineyard,
infinity pool, empty, continue, river preserve – small walk, got
really warm, and back to 29 road.
Yountville, V market – old industrial
building made into market with bunch of fancy stores, quick town,
drive by French Laundry, back to the main road. Nice place, a bit
strange.
Beringer winery. Like small castle
house. Great park around. Park, sandwiches for lunch. Walk into the
house – tasting room. Impressive place, walk around the park and
leave. Down the road Culinary institute (much bigger building looking
like a castle).
Really nice dive, great places along
the road, drive to Sterling winery, park, 40 dollars, aerial tram
uphill, five wines for J (drunk mine too). Really nice view, self
guided tour, very nice, tasting room and sixth wine, good, tram down.
Enjoyable.
Drive to Grist mill (closed), drive by
Castello winery (actually built like old italian castle), crazy
people, animals, town of Calistoga. Drive by, stop at Gyeser (closed,
saw some water). Petrified forest, too late, closed, road to Santa
Rosa, up and down, twisty, nice, town, lights, J. tired, motel and
store, end of the day.
Thursday, April 4th 2013
Leave about 8.20 again, raining, Santa
Rosa, Luther Gardens and drive through the town, nice but nothing
special, raining, driving south.
Road 12 towards Sonoma. Nice country,
vineyards, houses, still raining. Skip botanical garden and Jack
London Park (too much rain).
Sonoma. Boring, weird drive in, main
square and somewhere visitor info. Still rain. Get out, spanish style
square, nice. Talk and some places to stop. Walk along the square and
mission. Rain, really nice and peaceful.
Leave, drive along 12 and then 121
south. Still the same nice country, a bit less rain. Sonoma
cornerstone gardens, information center, art shops and designer
gardens. We stopped, went into the garden art store (wind noise
making things), gold fish in the tank. J. asked and we talked to the
older guy for an half hour (interesting) about gold fish. Walk out,
about 15 gardens (smaller plots), it was awesome, some were more
traditional, some very special (desert waves with fake trees and few
cactus’s). Incredible. Couple more stores / galleries –
interesting.
Cline wineries. In Sonoma told about
those two places for free tasting (not usual). Stopped. Really warm
and semi sunny. Small and really pretty place. Small tasting room.
People left. Another couple. J. tasting and talking to old guy. He
visited Czechoslovakia (Europe) before Berlin Wall fall. Really
interesting talk. Much longer than expected. J. was hoping to buy
some wine. She had probably six to eight samples (and the guy was
pouring and pouting more). Tipsy. Really pleasant. And nice weather.
About an hour of drive to Muir Woods
National Monument. The weather got goofy. Cloudy. Some rain. We left
wine country. Bay. Highway 101. Traffic. Very twisty road to the
woods. Pretty. Got completely cloudy and foggy. Two parking lots for
the monument – packed. Work day, rainy day – really? Drive
further down the road and park along the road. Walk. Too many people.
Big part of the main path either boardwalk or paved. Too many people.
It was pretty, but we have seen it few times before. About two miles
loop, nice walk, misty and light rain. Less people in the back (the
longest of the main loops). Creek in the middle. There on one side,
back on the other one of the creek. And up. Nicer. Visitors center, a
postcard. Asked and told that this is not super busy. Good for us
(just kidding). It was nice, but … there was too many buts.
Same weather. We left. Back on road 1.
Twisty, cloudy and foggy. Road 101. Traffic. Really strange weather,
clouds, fog and small pieces of blue sky. Golden Gate Bridge. J.
received an email that Alaska does not have any job openings – our
dream falling apart. Too bad. Crossing the bridge – no more live
attendants, electronic toll (how does it work?). Slower drive through
the city, I guess it could be worse. Interesting view of the city
from above the bridge – almost black sky and the city showing in
the light. Weird. Finally on 280, normal and nice drive – still the
same strange and pretty pictures of the sky. Home. Unpack. Went out
for thai dinner. Pretty good. Nice trip.
