A Walk Among the Giants

We had the opportunity to walk among giants as part of our vacation to the Napa/Sonoma area of California. We went for an early morning walk (after over an hour drive) in a redwood grove at the Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve.

It was awe inspiring and I sent a couple updates on the jaunt--but it really is something beyond words.

The trees, and I confess, this was the first time I had been in a no kidding full grown redwood forest, are so big they cannot even be comprehended when you are looking at them.

I enjoyed the smells of the forest in the morning and it was cold--only in the low 40's as we arrived--but the walk was so worth the time to get in touch with these old and magnificent trees.
They are that big.

And did I say, old. 1400 years some of these giants have been growing. There was one exhibit which really put the timeline in perspective. It was a cut piece of trunk exposing the growth rings. And most of the things we consider as history--were in the very outer rings. I was awed to think that that tree was alive and pretty tall in 1066 AD--dating from the Norman invasion of Britain. The tree was already almost 400 years old when that occurred.

All in all--we really couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Tasting at Gundlach Bundschu

Cave tasting and a great tour. The wines are just average though. But
for the educational perspective this is a great winery to visit.

The winery is located in Somoma, CA. The tour guide was great.

Recommendation: visit and enjoy the tour and the views and the close
up view of the vineyards.

A football field in the air

Really. 300 plus feet tall. Big around too. And dark on the ground.
Redwood trees are awesome.

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