Quick finish to the Napa stay:
Monday night we took the Napa wine train. It is a beautifully restored vintage train, with, as the description says, "two engines, three kitchens on board, and a collection of early 20th century rail cars that are pure Americana."
The trip was about 3 hours, and the food was delectable. Beau had lamb, I had filet. The entire trip was so relaxing.
 |
| This is the life! |
 | |
| It was cool to watch the conductor disconnect the engine at the halfway point and move it to the other end of the train for the trip back. Beau and I rode outside on the end car for quite a while after dinner. |
 |
| Dessert served in the lounge car. |
 |
| One of our onboard chefs working in the train kitchen. |
 |
| Our official wine train portrait. |
 |
| The little white dot is the moon... |
Coppola, Part Two
Our last day in the Napa area we traveled up to Geyserville to see Coppola's other winery. What a difference from Rubicon. He labels it a "destination winery," and for a mere $75 -- for a poolside cabana -- you can spend the day swimming, playing bocci ball, and drinking (that's extra). Sort of like a Disney vineyard? Not our thing, but there were lots of people around the pool. We had a $50 lunch, and it took forever to get served.
Take me back to Rubicon!
 |
| The gate to the Coppola winery. |
 |
| Another beautiful Tucker! |
 |
| The winery pool. |
 |
| Waiting for lunch in Rustic, Coppola's winery restaurant. |
We went back to Napa and checked out two other wineries I had been interested in seeing. The first was Domaine Carneros, inspired by the Louis XV style Chateau de la Marquetterie in Champagne, France.
We didn't care about the wines, really. I just wanted to see the place. Same thing for Ledson Castle, below.
 |
| A beautiful view of a vineyard. |
Enough on the wineries!
The Inevitable Oddities
So, if you have followed this blog, you know I like documenting the weird things we find during our travels. The first is this metal truck sculpture in Calistoga, promoting bottled water.
 |
| The sculpture is about twice the size of a normal truck. |
The second is Old Faithful, which is in Calistoga (you would think it would be in Geyserville!). It is advertised as one of three "Old Faithful" geysers in the world. We had to wait 20 minutes for the old guy to put on a show (the geyser geezer had to build up pressure), but the eventual spouting was mildly impressive.
The park also houses llamas and "fainting goats" -- they supposedly faint when frightened -- and Jacob, the four-horned goat. Big whoop.
 |
| Old Faithful in action. And Old Beau blocking the view.... |
Well, I said this would be a quick blog, but of course it wasn't. I just cannot get up to date.
We are leaving Fort Bragg, CA, tomorrow. We've been here for two nights, which really means we spent one full day in the area.
We spent the day traveling the gorgeous shoreline along CA Route 1 up to Mendocino (where we got to hear an opera rehearsal) and Point Arena, Elk, etc. Will document that next time!
Tanks, Panky
No comments:
Post a Comment