Deep in a redwood forest

From the redwood stand our intrepid travelers venture our.

Sterling Winery: A Review

The first winery we visited, right out of the barrel was Sterling.

Sterling is located in Calistoga, near the north end of Napa Valley.

Although I had read mixed reviews about this winery, we still wanted to visit it because it is just plain neat--with the cable car ride up the hillside to the winery.

We upgraded to the reserve tasting, so the admission was $30 per person. That is pretty standard around here for tours and tastings. The basic tour and tasting was $25--so we really only had a minor upgrade.

The gondola ride was beautiful and provided a nice way to see the valley in the morning sunlight. It was a beautiful way.

The tour is self-guided--but the positioning of tasting stations along the tour route was really nice and creative. The winery is beautiful. The tour is great and fun to wander around the various stations. Although the tour is not informative about the history of the winery.

Here is the real thing: the wines are not that good! They are so-so wines. Fun to taste, but even though it was our first winery, we knew that these were not the great wines of Napa County. They are OK--and over priced OK. There are much better wines out there.

But the winery is fun and is a must visit kind of place.

Recommendation: Visit this winery. The gondola ride is fun and the construct of the tour is unique. The winery is beautiful and definitely with the visit. Use the wine tastings as a baseline for other wineries.

How to combine two of my favorite things

I love palm trees. And I love barrels used to age wine.

Who would have thought to combine the two?

Well, the Schramburg Winery, that's who.

What a great idea! And here are two examples. Wow!

Decorating tips! Who woulda thunk?

On the road with Bob and Chris--decorating, winery style!

Geysers, Wine and More Fun

The Napa adventure took on its first full day of excitement yesterday.

We were all up early and decided to do some sight seeing in the Calistoga area. There are two sights worth the effort to see: Old Faithful the Geyser (not "The" Old Faithful, but an Old Faithful) and a Petrified Forest. So it was very applicable that we began the day looking at natural wonders before enjoying the wonders of the grape.

I have always been amazed that there are places in the earth where water boils and shoots out with such force to create geysers. This one varies in frequency and while we were there it was erupting about every four minutes--which is really pretty exciting. Actually--extremely exciting and interesting. It was one of the things I definitely wanted to do while we were in Napa--and I was really happy that it wound up the first thing that we did--even before grapes. Well, it opened at 9AM and the wineries don't open until 10 am or later.



The second sight we visited was the petrified forest to see the huge redwoods which were blown down during a volcanic eruption 3.8 million years ago and subsequently petrified. They are huge! One is so big they actually tunneled into the hillside to demonstrate how big these trees were. It didn't make a very good picture though.

The tree pictured here was laying where it fell and had become rock--due to the rain--the area around the base of the tree had filled with water--but you get the idea of how they were laying.

Both of these sights are in the Calistoga, California area and only five miles from each other. The information at the geyser site indicated that it was the eruption of the volcano which used to be at the geyser site that blew down the redwoods that were subsequently petrified. So, it really isn't such a stretch to see the two attractions together.

And then there were the vineyards--but more on that later.

Quote of the day

O my god you look like a little cow.

And was the four horned sheep insulted? Who knows.

On the Road Again--California or Bust

Well it seems that the more I travel. I never cease to be amazed at how the whole process works and how we have adapted to the ever changing mood swings of the TSA. The mood seems to change from checking everything and everyone to a more rational approach. Today was more rational--not gun residue swipes were noted.

I did find one small placard that was posted along the security screening line to be a bit funny, and true. It went something like: "We come from different places and we bring many different things with us to the different destinations we are going, but we are all here looking for one thing: a Safe Trip."

I have to agree.

Travel though seems to be more of the same--time after time. I feel like so much cattle being sent into the chute to an unknown ending on the other side. Muck like cattle--we are watched and evaluated as we make our way thorough the lines to get to the officials who examine our documentation and then on to the scanners.

I felt great relief--I undressed just enough to get through this time. Watch, belt, glasses, cell, shoes, coat, laptop out of the case and remembering to keep the boarding pass in hand. As I stepped into the x-ray portal and passed through, I received a plesant--"have a good trip." Yay! I hadn't forgotten one of those things that set the alarms off.

Aside from our connecting flight being an hour late--the trip was uneventful, except of course for the people along the way.

I have never been to Napa before--and my first impression is that the area is beautiful. I don't know what I was expecting but the agricultural setting--especially the vineyards, is very peaceful--and o so green. Pictures will be coming, but we were so tired yesterday that we really didn't take any pictures except of the cloud tops. They were especially pretty as we were landing in the Oakland area.

And so the Napa adventure is underway. We have already sampled three Napa/Sonoma red wines and had a fabulous dinner at Zuzu, a tapas restaurant in Napa. I wrote a review on TripAdvisor which I'll link in as soon as it is published.

The day begins soon with wineries, geysers, petrified forests, and wineries. Did I mention wineries?

Monday Musings - April 5, 2010

1. The musings today are bit late because it is a travel day. Spring
break. Yay. A good reason for a trip.

2. Easter was awesome with the entire family together. I can tell the
boys are getting older because they played together.

3. The competative nature of some people is very evident during Easter
egg hunts. Wow. Some people really need to chill.

4. Do you know what the best part of traveling is, aside from actually
getting to the destination? That time after clearing security and
before boarding the plane. Why? Because it is that in between time
when you can still walk around and you no longer wonder whether you
will make it to the gate in time to board.

5. I miss my dog already. Why is that?

6. Reconnecting with family can be a good thing. I'm glad we did some
it this weekend.

7. The weather was so awesome the past couple of days, we turned the
heat off. Take that BGE!

8. And so, my transition to the darkside is complete. Armed with my
new iPhone and the AT&T network I am off to learn the ways of dropped
calls and life without my Blackberry.

9. Ever notice how a six day trip is really only a four day vacation?

10. Funniest thing heard today so far. The Southwest Airline cabin
crew describing how to use the oxygen mask: "and when you stop
screaming, put the mask over your nose and
mouth."

Sent from my iPhone

After church in the parking lot

There we were. Lucas with his shades to protect his eyes from the sun.
And grandma carrying him across the lot.

I couldn't resist.

Happy Easter

The day dawned with sun kissed clouds in the sky and Springtime trees and flowers in full bloom. The birds were chirping loudly and squirrels were performing their acrobatics high in the tops of the tulip poplar trees seemingly oblivious to the precarious nature of their activity.

The dog is whining to go out again to enjoy the beautiful Easter morning.

And I think I will go out in a minute to also enjoy the day, coffee in hand to smell the fragrance of multiple blossoms on the breeze.

And find some Easter eggs?

No, that comes later after church--because the Easter Bunny comes by just before the grandchildren arrive. Really? Yeah. I have some time to myself.

For the moment, it is quiet and I meditate upon the dawning of the day and the shock, disbelief, grief, and joy of about a dozen men and women some 2,000 years ago who woke up on a similar day mired in grief that soon changed into a joy that has continue through the centuries till today when we still remember that history changing event.

And we remember their greeting--

"He is risen"

And the response from the believers:

"He is risen indeed!"

Happy Easter.

Passover--Easter: The Relationship

Chris and I had the opportunity to celebrate Passover with a dear friend and his family earlier in the week. We have been privileged to be part of his family's Passover observance for a couple of years now--and I always look forward to it. I love the history and the retelling of the story to ensure that all generations remember what God did for the Israelites.

Of course--Passover and Easter are somewhat tightly bound together in that the setting for the first Easter was Passover. Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples as the last meal he ate on Earth. And so, usually, the two observances occur close together.

And that is about as much thought as I ever gave to the relationship between the two.

But this year, as I was celebrating Passover it dawned upon me that there is a similarity between Easter and the Passover observance that I had not thought of. And it floored me.

Now I'm sure there is some reference to this in the Bible and that I have read over it all these many years--but still here it goes.

So I was at Passover dinner hearing the story of the Exodus and Moses' interaction with Pharaoh. And I was reminded that the Passover is a celebration of freedom. Freedom from slavery by the Egyptians.

And amazingly--there is the similarity--and it was there looking me in the eyes all of my life. Easter is a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus which freed us from the law of sin and death. Or put another way--we were freed from the slavery of sin which results in death.

Like the Israelites were freed from being slaves of the Egyptians and death, we are freed from being slaves of sin and death.

And so, I am sure it was not a coincidence that Passover was the time God appointed for his Son to make the supreme sacrifice for us--but rather--as Moses led the Children of Israel out of slavery into the desert and ultimately the went into the promised land; Jesus leads believers out of slavery and sin and into the promised land of eternal life.

Happy Easter.