We arrived in Napa Valley at the Calistoga Fairgrounds and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, walking around all 6 blocks of the town area with the dogs before going to bed.  California has so many gorgeous area’s that it is hard to pick one over another.   Calistoga is a tiny community surrounded by hills with vineyards covering every available inch.  Lines of my favorite tree, the eucalyptus, border many of the two lane highways and the cool mountain air mixed with the trees scent is a wondrous fragrance.

We decided to be typical tourists and began the day with a stop at the geyser.  I enjoyed the 4 four horned sheep and the Tennessee Fainting Goats almost as much as the geyser.  It was interesting to read about the geyser, the history of the area and what makes it erupt.  They believe its actions can predict earthquakes as well.

After giving our navigation system two tries to find the petrified trees we drove back to the LilyPad for lunch, checked out TripAdvisor,  read the bad reviews on the petrified trees and decided to skip it and head to the wineries.  Quick stop in town to walk around St. Helena before bending the elbows.

One thing I did notice on the drive, hundreds of dying trees along the windy mountainous road.  They were overburdened with moss just like the ones in Garner State Park…those are dying too.  So the gratis experiment that was done years ago by a prominent college proving that a spray of water and baking soda killed the moss and saved the trees was ignored.  Now these beautiful trees are almost dead too.

Drove by Bale Grist Mill and made a U turn to take a look.  It was closed on week days but since we weren’t going to be here, what the heck…we walked around the gated entrance and looked around.  So quiet, so peaceful, not really worried that we were trespassing!  Beautiful creek and building.

First winery stop was Freemark Abbey, the winery that the movie “Bottle Shock“ was based on.  We tasted four, each over $100.00 a bottle, and they were OK.  The wine snob to our left remarked that she only drank wine from France and I so wanted to say in my best Texas accent that I only drank wine from gallon jugs cause we like everything big in Texas…and it wouldn’t be a lie.   I like Carlo Rossi’s Paisano.  Untypically I kept my mouth closed and just smiled.

Next up was Charles Krug.  Their wine was OK but too much tannin (what I call “bite”) for me.

Last was Beringer.  Oh my what a beautiful winery, grounds and house.  And the wine was good enough to buy a bottle for our dinner tonight at the CIA…Culinary Institute of America.

Pictures…worth 1,000 words.  Wow and Yum is all we can say.