After a lovely night out in Sonoma, Rosie and The Operator took an early morning amble in the fresh cool morning air and did a self guided walking tour of the town and its historical buildings and sights. This truely is a picturesque town, you could spend a few days there eating and drinking alone. Rosie checks her emails in the morning and has a filtered coffee for $2.50, it is the never ending bottomless cup…I would like to see how far this good will goes, but I really cant get past 3 cups. Caffeined up, newsed up and routed up for the day we are set to hit the road normally by 8.00am, today we lingered longer and started out for Napa about 9.00.
We are in wine country, the difference between Napa and Sonoma is night and day, country mouse vs city mouse…..yet only a ridge separates the valleys. Napa has the perfect light and the perfect climate, it is developed and slick, it is a competition of who has the biggest and produces the most. We cruised the Napa and it was like the Vegas of the wine country, themed vineyards pulling you in with their attractions and their monuments to ego….
This is Castello di Amorosa, for over the top grandeur this place wins hands down, it took over 14 years to source local stone and build this perfectly replicated 12th century castle…with its own moat and drawbridge…apparently it even has its own catacombs and torture chamber…didn’t do the tour, just had a nosey and left. Was jaw droppingly beautiful though. Next on the winery list was Sterling Vineyard, dig this,
Sterling had its own gondola….you paid $25 per person for a 5min gondola ride up the hillside looking out over the Napa Valley, you got a free engraved wine glass and a wine ‘flight’ which is Napanese for a 6 wine tasting, you then followed the ultra professional self guided arrows that showed the wine making process. It was slick, you had wine stations where you sampled the wine….by the time you had wandered to the next station your glass was ready to be refilled. This is the view from the beautiful rooftop terrace, or, wine station number 5. Rosie had dumped a few red samples in the pot plants by that time but the Operator was chugging (literally) along nicely. The heat and the wine was getting to Rosie, 80F in the shade and not a single breath of wind…nothing was moving! The terrace at Sterling had cool water misters that they have going over summer…apparently it wasn’t hot enough today…..
We drove out of Napa and back over into Sonoma, the poor cousin is refreshingly uncomplicated, the edges of the roads are weedy and unkempt, there are no Mexicans manicuring them here! The barns are tumble down, the tractors a little more rusty and the vineyards themselves have tastings rooms in their production sheds, hardly anything is purpose built, it is practical and functional…this reflects in the price of a bottle of wine $15 – $40 a bottle…Napa $25 – $75 for non reserve.
Heading out of Sonoma and stepping back in time is the beautiful village of Glen Ellen, white picket fences, tiny cottages and ramshackle 19th century brick buildings beside a willow lined creek.
We then drove out to Calistoga, hot spring capitol, minus the bubbling mud pools, to capture the kitsch roadside wonders of the ‘Old Faithful Geyser’ California’s take on Yellowstone’s real thing. The signage on the roadside harked back to the 50s as did the information centre….you tried to peek through the window to see what you would be getting for your 10 bucks but the ‘hole’ was carefully camouflaged by a stand of bamboo. Once relieved of you coin and standing in the baking sun looking at a rock pool with a hole in the middle, you waited and waited and on the minute, that’s every 40 mins, like a horny teenager…thair she blows….hhmmm, was that it? Was cool in its corniness, anyway has to be done, we are on holiday!
We then proceeded 15 mins up the road to The Petrified Forest, 3 million years ago Mt St Helena erupted and in its blast knocked over a stand of 2000 year old redwoods, they were buried in volcanic mud and became petrified, they have since become excavated and this was an interesting 20 min walk….my photo ops were disappointing as I was expecting to see a whole forest (come on, everything is big in America) of uncovered giant trees all fallen the same way…..there were only 3 at varying points around the track…they are mightily big though. The most exciting part other than being told to keep to the track or you will get Poison Oaked (Rosie was abit worried about this until the Operator said you only have to worry about it if you crap in the woods…) was this sign. Believe me, the Operator was in his element with a stick poking around in the rocks!
Off we drove to Occidental, we were planning on staying the night here but when we arrived the town had shut up and moved, there was nothing there…..
…so, as it was still early we drove on for another hour to the coast and got a room for the night at the Bodega Bay Inn www.bodegabayinn.com/rooms.html We stayed in the Creek Room, had our own wee deck at the bottom left of the pic…was budget, very clean and we had the quietest nights sleep since leaving San Francisco!
It worked out nicely as this is the beginning of the stretch of road we were looking to drive tomorrow. Bodega Bay is small, it has a harbour where they were gearing up for the crab season which starts at the beginning of November. A small cluster of houses border the main road and a few shops and restaurants are built on piers overlooking the bay. The sun was harsh and on the downhill slide but the bay was calm with not a ripple on the water, we saw a flock of pelicans dipping for fish, a couple of seals bobbing in the harbour and a couple of penguins close to shore…..The Operator also swears he saw a skunk lurking in the bushes at dusk near our porch…..hhhmmmm, Rosie cannot confirm or deny.
Move over Lonely Planet Rosie has hit the USA