{"id":809,"date":"2013-02-14T21:13:44","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T21:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=809"},"modified":"2014-01-30T16:29:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:29:02","slug":"february-12-and-13-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"February 12 and 13, 2013 – Napa Valley Vineyards, Geyser and Local Sights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wine<\/a>\u00a0\"Napa<\/a>\u00a0\"More<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Our<\/a>\u00a0\"Downtown<\/a><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 California has so many gorgeous area\u2019s that it is hard to pick one over another.\u00a0\u00a0 Calistoga is a tiny community surrounded by hills with vineyards covering every available inch.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"Seismograph\"<\/a>\u00a0\"Geyser<\/a>\u00a0\"John<\/a>\u00a0\"Geyser<\/a><\/p>\n

\"4<\/a>\u00a0\"baby<\/a>\u00a0\"Lots<\/a><\/p>\n

We decided to be typical tourists and began the day with a stop at the geyser.\u00a0 I enjoyed the 4 four horned sheep and the Tennessee Fainting Goats almost as much as the geyser.\u00a0 It was interesting to read about the geyser, the history of the area and what makes it erupt.\u00a0 They believe its actions can predict earthquakes as well.<\/p>\n

\"Searching<\/a>\u00a0\"downtown<\/a><\/p>\n

After giving our navigation system two tries to find the petrified trees we drove back to the LilyPad for lunch, checked out TripAdvisor,\u00a0 read the bad reviews on the petrified trees and decided to skip it and head to the wineries.\u00a0 Quick stop in town to walk around St. Helena before bending the elbows.<\/p>\n

\"Lined<\/a><\/p>\n

One thing I did notice on the drive, hundreds of dying trees along the windy mountainous road.\u00a0 They were overburdened with moss just like the ones in Garner State Park\u2026those are dying too.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Now these beautiful trees are almost dead too.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>\u00a0 \"Bale<\/a><\/p>\n

Drove by Bale Grist Mill and made a U turn to take a look.\u00a0 It was closed on week days but since we weren\u2019t going to be here, what the heck\u2026we walked around the gated entrance and looked around.\u00a0 So quiet, so peaceful, not really worried that we were trespassing!\u00a0 Beautiful creek and building.<\/p>\n

\"Freemark<\/a><\/p>\n

First winery stop was Freemark Abbey, the winery that the movie \u201cBottle Shock\u201c was based on.\u00a0 We tasted four, each over $100.00 a bottle, and they were OK.\u00a0 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\u2026and it wouldn\u2019t be a lie.\u00a0\u00a0 I like Carlo Rossi\u2019s Paisano.\u00a0 Untypically I kept my mouth closed and just smiled.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up was Charles Krug.\u00a0 Their wine was OK but too much tannin (what I call \u201cbite\u201d) for me.<\/p>\n

\"Beringer<\/a>\u00a0\"Beringer<\/a><\/p>\n

Last was Beringer.\u00a0 Oh my what a beautiful winery, grounds and house.\u00a0 And the wine was good enough to buy a bottle for our dinner tonight at the CIA\u2026Culinary Institute of America.<\/p>\n

\"CIA<\/a>\u00a0 \"CIA<\/a>\u00a0\"CIA<\/a>\u00a0\"St.<\/a>\u00a0\"CIA<\/a>\u00a0\"Cooking<\/a>\u00a0\"Our<\/a>\u00a0\"John's<\/a>\u00a0\"My<\/a>\u00a0\"Vegie<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pictures\u2026worth 1,000 words.\u00a0 Wow and Yum is all we can say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 California has so many gorgeous area\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lilypad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}