NAPA Wine and Bike Tour

Saturday, Oct 1 and Sunday, October 02, 2011

A Day Biking In Wine Country

Filipino Salt Vendor

We got into Calistoga about 10am to grab a quick coffee and croissant at the bakery and naturally a visit to their Farmer's Market, then headed off to meet Brad at the bike shop.  Actually one stop before was to Dick Vermeil's winery tasting store.  He was the coach of our 1980 Eagles NFC championship team and the St. Louis Ram Super Bowl team 1999. The gal who ran the tasting was a "trip" and knew Dick and family as he grew up in Calistoga and stll has deep "roots" there especially now with a vineyard.  Ha-ha...........

He’s really grown the business, a lot of it through rentals and wine tours.  He has arrangements with five wineries for wine tastings of which we only made it to 2 of them which will be explained later.  Brad gave us a map and thorough directions.  The whole tour would have been about 10-12 miles of level roads through gorgeous vineyards.  Up the main street was a great market where we bought 4 chunks of cheese, a stick of hard salami and of course a baguette for our picnic lunch.

Our first stop was at the Summer Winery which is renown because it is one of a handful of wineries that produce the Charbona Reds which we never heard but loved!  Of course we bought one to be picked up later by the bike store.

It was 2pm and way past our planned picnic time so we headed for Chateau Montelena which was the vineyard that put California on the map on 1973.  In a blind taste contest between 3 French whites and 3 California whites, the Montelena Chardonay took first place and the rest is history.  One of our favorite movies “Bottle Shock” chronicles the story.  Our picnic by the pond was right up with our Picnics in France and Janice’s cheese choices were perfect.

Chateau Montalena

Thinking of your Fiona!!

On to Twoomey Vineyards which is a Silver Oak  (our very favorite Cab) vineyard and it was on the other side of town.  We heard the roar of the moto-cross races  at the Calistoga fairgrounds as we passed by on the way to the next vineyard.  Made it over to the Twoomey tasting just before closing and struck up a conversation with the man next to us.  Joel, retired from 27 years in the air force, worked at the Mt. Helena hospital as a anesthesia nurse.  He was really into wines and in a number of preferred member winery clubs.  He asked us to join him at the Sterling Vineyard just up the road.  Wow was that neat….you took a gondola up to the tasting rooms and winery.  He got us in for free (would have cost $20 each) and got an upgraded tasting with all of Sterling’s reserve collection.  Sterling was the highlight of our day and as you’ll see the vistas were stellar.

Jeff & Joel overlooking retire oak barrels

Didn’t get back to the bike shop till after 6 o’clock closing but Brad and his crew were still finishing up a busy day.  Sharon and her 2 beautiful girls met up with us and we had a nice but short reunion.  Several “God Winks” about Sharon that we had forgotten.  She attended  the same church as us in PA. as well as the Vineyard and attended Delaware County Christian School with Kelly Winter, daughter of Jeff Winter our pastor at Faith Community Church!! Do you believe how beautiful their girls are?

The Suhr's

We ended up the day with a light dinner at the Calistoga Inn.  The next day heading down to San Francisco we stopped at the Beringer Winery which was probably one of the most picturesque.

Now The Fun Begins.........Sand Dunes, Redwoods, Napa and Sonoma!

All’s Well That Ends Well

Friday September 29 & 30, 2011

Oregon is an outrageous state.  So diverse,  desert, mountains, coastline, lakes, timberland, great towns and more.  Can’t believe how many dunes are on the  coastline. We went on a dune buggy tour of the sand  dunes in Florence.  Great fun and awesome sites. 

Route 101 is everything everyone has told us.  Along a wild, spectacular coastline and then inland into forests, then out to the coastline again and beautiful vistas.  Pictures don’t  do it justice.  At least mine don’t.

That's Jeff, a little spec, standing at the base of the BIG rock.

We stopped over in Trinadad, but after leaving in the morning realized we should have gone just a little bit further to Brookings.  Much more of a town, right on the water. Oh well, we had a goods night sleep.

 

Next stop along Route 101 was The Redwoods south of Crescent City, Cal..  Wow-one cannot even begin to describe or take pictures to do justice to the awesomeness of those gigantic trees and their beauty. 

Is that a bear in the woods?

Muscle Man!!

That's one big beautiful root.

The hikes through these woods are just overwhelming.  We stayed over in a campsite right in the Redwoods.  Slept in late only because the sun was so far high up above the trees, who would know it was morning.  Did a little laundry, filled our propane and off we went to Sonoma. 

The trees and hills and valleys were just stunning but even more so when we arrived in the vineyards.  So many vineyards to see.  One after another and then we passed our favorite, Silver Oaks.  Unfortunately they didn’t have tastings there as it was not their main vineyard.  It was 5 PM by now and most of the vineyards close about 4:30.  Darn….Just have to wait until tomorrow. 

So we pulled into Calistoga, Ca. where friends, Brad and Sharon Suhr, now live who used to live on The Vineyard. Brad ran the Edgartown Bike Shop and got the opportunity about 4 years ago to buy Calistoga Bikes. We’ll be visiting them tomorrow for a bike tour of the vineyards.  Can’t wait!  We actually had a hard time finding a place to stay as there were festivals and a national moto-cross bike race in town, but we ended up in the Bothe-Napa State Park (scheduled to be closed along with many other due to California’s terrible finanaces) that was quiet and lovely so all’s well that ends well. 

Hold on to your hats, boys

Sept. 26, 2011

Our angel, Clay knocked on our door again this morning and said he wanted to show us the other side of town. So off we went with our tour guide to see Nye Beach and the lighthouse. He knew all the special places and even pointed out California Grey Whales to us when we were up by the lighthouse. It was fantastic and because the winds were gale force, but warm, it made it even more fun. You could stand at a 45degree angle without holding on. Hold on to your hats! Just so happened I just bought a windbreaker in town yesterday. Perfect timing.

Jeff and Clay fighting the gale winds

several grey whales out there

Clay told us at one o’clock it was time to feed Ursula and a must to see. Check out the video. Wow was he right. The Oregon State University has an aquarium just next door so we explored the fascinating aquarium. Very educational and hands on. Never realized how beautiful an octopus is and that they change colors when they eat.

Our gal Ursula waiting for lunch

Cool! After a fun, windy, educational morning we all had lunch at the Rouge Brewery on the waterfront and sampled some of their 50 brews and ate halibut fish and chips, chowder and beer bread. After the visit with Ursula, I just couldn’t order calamari this time. But everything else was great.

Infamous Rogue Brewery

We said our good-byes to Clay and with some good advise and recommendations headed down Route 101. It is a beautiful coastal hwy with spectacular views of the rocky shoreline along the Pacific. Our destination was Florence, Oregon. Oregon is really a beautiful, diverse, wonderful state. I could see living here sometime. Our kids should check it out. (Then we could come visit!)

We rolled in around 4:30 PM and I cooked a roast beef dinner right here in the RV and then we took a nice walk in town. It was late in the season so much was closed but the morning brought sunshine after a night of rain so we wondered in town for breakfast and checked out the shops. It was a lazy day by the water where we watched a sea lion pop in and out of the water and pose for us while the retirees went out in their boats to fish.

Later in the afternoon I had to go back in town to really shop (without Jeffrey). Bought a beautiful sweater and feather earrings! The shop keepers are so friendly and fun to talk to. Must always keep that in mind when working at Past & Presents!

While in town as I had to check out the menu for a restaurant right on the Siuslaw River by another McCoullough Bridge (one of many beautifully designed bridges connecting the Oregon Coastline). The name of the restaurant is The Waterfront Depot, an old train station, just like our house. This had to be one of our top 5 restaurants in our entire world travels. Baked crab encrusted halibut!! French Fried Onion Battered Green Beans!! Hanger Steak and BBQ Shrimp!! A great bottle of Chateau Chevalier Cab!! Need I say more. Besides the great food and wonderful atmosphere, is that it was incredibly inexpensive.