Sorry to have taken so long with updating, but Blogger has been giving us no end of trouble in trying to upload the photos. Hopefully by the time we reach San Francisco after the cruise we can get completely up to date.
Our last three days before the cruise were spent in the town of Napa, in California wine country of the same name. The drive up from Monterey wasn't quite as hilly or twisty as it was getting there, and even getting through San Francisco wasn't overly difficult with Barb's GPS pointing the way.
Once across the bridge, we still had about an hour's drive
ahead of us, but needed a break stop. Since the first exit from the Pacific
Highway went into Sausalito, we decided that would be as good a place as any.
As we drove past the bay, we also noticed a couple of very large sails out on
the water, and even from that distance could see they were the two America's
Cup rivals for 2013 - USA and New Zealand. We didn't realize that the racing
hadn't ended yet, as the last we'd seen of it was while having lunch in Santa
Barbara. Unfortunately, no photo since we weren't anywhere close enough to get
a half-decently recognizable shot. Also unfortunately, Team USA managed to win
the last race and retain the cup...oh well, the Kiwis may be able to pull it
off next time.
Sausalito seems to be a very nice town, with lots of shops
and restaurants on the waterfront, as well as lots and lots of sail and power boats.
Much of the waterfront looks like one huge marina, or at least a string of one
following the next. We had a nice authentic Mexican taco lunch and then headed
off north-east, away from the coast and around the top of San Francisco Bay.
Our destination, the Meritage Resort and Spa, sits at the
south end of Napa, and is practically surrounded by grape vines. The vines
belong to the resident winery, Trinitas, whose tasting room shares a cave with
the resort's spa. You can see the entrance to the cave in the photo below:
The bottom photo is the view from our room. The cave entrance is under the grapevines, just above the right side canopy.
The first night, we went to a Mediterranean restaurant
called Tarla and had a really nice meal. Our first full day in Napa was already
partly taken up by a lunch trip on the Napa Wine Train - this was our birthday
gift to Norm, and we had hoped that it would turn out to be all that its
advertising and web site said it would. And it did. The train took us from Napa
to the Grgich Hills winery about half way up the Napa Valley. On the way, we
passed a good number of wineries, both well-known and not so famous. At the
same time, we got the appetizer and main course portions of our gourmet lunch. After
a tour of the winery and a tasting, we reboarded the train and had dessert on
the way back to Napa. Here are some photos of the trip:
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| Wine train engine |
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| Monica's pork tenderloin lunch |
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| Winery guests can actually step into this barrel to crush grapes with their feet! A little messy considering we were about to reboard the train |
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| The dessert car |
As if lunch wasn't enough, we had made a reservation for
dinner at Cole's Steak House, reputed to be the best steak house in Napa. So
after a little down time, we grabbed the shuttle into town again and walked the
couple of blocks to the restaurant. Napa is actually quite easy to navigate.
Once you figure out which is the main drag, the American street identifying
system - First St., Second St., Third St., etc. - makes it pretty hard to get
too lost. By the second night we were already pretty comfortable, and by the
end of the third evening, we were old hands at getting around. Cole's turned
out to live up to its billing - excellent food, quite the selection of wine,
and a very friendly and laid-back atmosphere.
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| Norm's rack of lamb. Do you think he was hungry? |
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