Friday thru Sunday - June 22nd thru 24th, 2012
Our trip has begun. We left home for Calistoga, CA around 9:00 A.M. Cheryl and Alexa had come for a longer than usual visit just before this trip, which was wonderful but I’m wondering how many things I’ve forgotten to pack. They left Sparks for Shasta Thursday afternoon and we are leaving Sparks for Calistoga Friday morning. The last 10 days were so enjoyable. We loved having them with us as did Robbie.
We arrived at our destination (Fairgrounds RV park) late in the afternoon and awaited the arrival of Jim, Colleen and the children. They arrived around 6:00 P.M. We had dinner and then planned our next day’s activities. We will only be with them this one day so we packed as much as we could into our itinerary.
We’re in the Napa Valley wine country. Our first stop was at the Culinary Institute of America. This is one of the top culinary institutes in the world. It was so interesting to be able to tour the inside and, because it was a weekend and there were no students preparing food, we were taken into the kitchens. Each separate cooking area accommodated eight students. Cate was enthralled at the sights as she is a quite a cook already. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she returns here some day for lessons.
Bill and I stopped at Gott’s for lunch on Sunday after the children had left for their next destination. There have been lines of people outside this fast food restaurant each time we passed by which indicated that it must a great place to eat. It was. We had fish tacos and French fried sweet potatoes.
Jim and Colleen have been here before so they took us to a winery they knew about for lunch (V Sattui). It was great. We had barbecue outside, shared a bottle of wine and marveled at all the people doing the same thing we were. It was a beautiful day and this will be a lovely memory.
Balegrist Mill was on our way back to our campsite so Bill and I stopped to see what it was. It’s a mill that’s been there since the 1800’s and they still mill grains and corn for some of the top restaurants. It’s amazing that this is still in operation.
Calistoga Speedway is right next to our campsite so we took the dogs and the children over there after we returned from sightseeing. They had so much fun. The sprinklers were on and all of them got wet and road their bikes around the entire speedway. Sometimes the simplest things are the most fun.
Grandpa took Colleen and the girls to the park right before they left Sunday morning. The park had some great equipment for children. The girls didn’t have much time to spend there but it was a nice last thing to do before taking off. We were only able to spend this one day with them this summer. Their time was limited for several reasons and we were going in opposite directions. We are heading North and they’re heading South.
Castello di Amorosa is amazing to see. It is a beautiful 13th century, 107 room, Tuscan style castle and winery with wine caves, old ventage rooms, armory, torture chamber and a grand barrel room where you can taste wine right from the barrel. Oddly enough, we have not done any wine tasting during these winery visits with the exception of sharing the bottle of wine that Jim and Colleen bought for our lunch.
Monday – June 25th, 2012
Before we left Calistoge this morning, we visited the Sterling Winery. They have the only aerial tram in Napa Valley, which offers a stunning view as you ride up to the winery. We were greeted with a glass of wine to enjoy while we strolled through art galleries and elevated walkways that allowed us to follow the winemaking process from grape to glass.
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