Napa Valley

While we're not big wine drinkers, Napa Valley is a cool place to hang out with some great small towns giving small town vibes. We stayed Windsor, just south of Santa Rosa last night so we slept in a bit then drove across to start Napa Valley from the north end. Callistoga was our first stop to get coffee at Callistoga Roastery and a chocolate croissant at Sarmentine Bakery. We strolled the Lincoln Avenue, peeked our heads into a couple stores, then got back in the car and headed down St. Helena Hwy. There was a cool little section of train cars that were set up as tasting rooms.

Tim also saw a chair made of wine barrel staves. I think it would look pretty cool on our porch, so I'm putting it on Tim's to-do list to make one. :)

From there we headed into St. Helena. Tim remembered, from 2007, that we purchased some really nice olive oils from St. Helena Olive Oil Co. We couldn't seem to find a retail outlet and wondered if they had gone out of business. We found, instead, Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. We popped in there to purchase olive oil. Tim did a little research only to find that Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. is commonly known as St. Helena Olive Oil Co. Maybe we found it after all.

While in St. Helena, we walked the main street and actually went into a few stores. I think we may have actually been profiled in an Ace Hardware Store that carried some cute little home decor and kitchen supplies. A little Hispanic woman followed us around the store, dusting things that didn't need to be dusted. :)

Our next stop was a quick one at Oakville Grocery to pick up a couple gifts for folks at home.

From there, we stopped in at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville for a killer Jambon-Beurre, a TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo) and a Better Nutter (his version of a Nutter Butter). All three were delicious. I keep forgetting to take photos of the food before we eat!

We made an early day of it, driving back up Sonoma Valley to Hwy 101 where we drove a bit farther to Ukiah, CA. We did some laundry and relaxed a bit.

Best Coffee Yet

 

I have made a coffee snob out of my country boy husband. We both got 12 oz. iced lattes--mine honey lavender, Tim raspberry mocha. We've both had bad honey lavender and raspberry mochas--too sweet, too milky (not enough espresso) and artificial tasting. These were perfection--housemade syrups and the perfect amount of everything. We savored the smalls we got and wish we had gotten a bigger size.

Today was a little driving and a little backtracking. From Santa Cruz, we went south on the PCH. We couldn't decide how far down we would drive as we would be backtracking the entire distance. We considered driving all the way down to San Simeon but we'd seen it before and visited the Hearst Castle on a previous trip. We were going to go just down to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see the waterfall, but parts of the park were closed due to the Timber wildfires. They are mostly contained (88%) but thre are still some active burning areas. We turned back northward just south of Big Sur State park. The views were beautiful.

Bixby Bridge

From there we headed into San Francisco. We decided on Mission Burritos for dinner. We ate in the Mission District at Taqueria Cancun--forgot to take photos. Sorry!

From there we made our way to Baker Beach to view the Golden Gate Bridge.

We've been to San Francisco a couple of times and done the touristy things, so we skipped Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf--all things San Francisco but drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (see Facebook post) up 101 to Santa Rosa--Windsor, actually. Tomorrow, we'll take a leisurely drive through Napa Valley.

Sequoias

From the Mojave Desert (Valley of Fire) to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, the landscape has changed dramatically.

You have to look closely. I mean really closely. Closer. The tree in the center, in the center of the burned section, there are two people standing. THAT'S how big some of these trees are!

If you haven't watched the video on Facebook of Tim standing at the base of a tree and me walking toward him, you should. It only comes close to showing the size of the Sequoias in Sequoia National Park.

We ended the evening in Santa Cruz and ate dinner at the end of the pier. I got suckered into the destination, but the food was average.

A Lot of Ground

We skipped Yosemite. There. I said it. It's one or the most magnificent places on Earth, but it's covered in smoke. Between breathing and taking photos, we decided to move on. We left St. George and cruised I-15 into Nevada to Valley of Fire State Park, a state park in southern Nevada. It amazes me how different landscapes can look in a matter of a couple of hours--from the canyon valley of Zion to the red and striated rock of Valley of Fire. It was a little out of the way, but so worth it. The climate also changed dramatically. It was comfortably in the 70s in Zion. By the time we got to Valley of Fire, it was approaching the mid-90s. Mind you, it was a dry heat. Yeah, I hate when people say that too, but it really is not as miserable as Missouri in the summer. There was, however, this at the start of the Fire Wave trail.

Get ready for another photo overload.

Sorry those photos were in no particular order. I've been trying to integrate the photos Tim and I take and add in some from a DSLR camera. That part's no fun.

We left on the Valley of Fire Highway headed west back to I-15. From there we tried to move as fast as we could with a quick pitstop in Vegas for our first In-n-Out fix. We continued on I-15 to Barstow, got on CA 58, through the Mohave Desert to Bakersfield then north on CA 99 to CA 65 to Porterville where we'll spend the night before making our way to the Sequoias.