Napa and Drive to LA
We reluctantly checked out of our hotel - it was such a fun and friendly place, and we went out to pickup our car and it all happenned smoothly. We got a Ford Taurus, which I do NOT like at all. It had a column auto shift and it beeped at us annoyingly for whatever we did not do (like putting on seat belts, having the key in the ignition but motor not running, not eating chocolate for 5 mins - OK I made that last one up). We did get used to it after a while.
Nifty navigator Eva (I call her Genius in Positioning Selves or GPS for short) got us through San Francisco easily and we crossed the Grey Ghost in partial fog again, but we would have another chance on the way back as Napa is North of SF and after Napa we will come back down south and go along the west coast from SF to LA (OK?).
We headed along busy highways for about an hour and found the Napa Visitors Centre OK, and Sylvia there booked us into a nice hotel in the middle of the "Napa strip" of wineries at Rutherford. Some wineries you have to make appointments at, so we limited ourselves to those that you don't need to, and chose a few. We went to the Hess Collection (amazing building and grounds, with art collections, lilly ponds, huge flower gardens in grounds, tasted 5 wines for $20). I didn't realise that wines at wineries ar dearer than the same wines bought elsewhere. Still, these wines were retailing for around $90 per bottle. No, we didn't buy any.
Continuing north through Napa we went to Robert Mondavi wines. The building and grounds were extensive, and I think they hold concerts there too. There were a couple of tasting rooms as well as sales and souveniers. We chose to taste 5 wines for $30, and had a fantastic time chatting with people there. They gave us an extra 2 wines to taste, and I think they enjoyed our company as well. I quite liked most of the wines we tasted, but being in the vineyards and seeing the buildings, meeting people etc, was the best bit.
We went to Rubicon vineyard, which was rejuvenated by Francis Ford Copolla, and it was so so so crap experience. They forced valet parked the car (20 meters away) gave passports, didn't want us to have just a shared tasting etc etc etc. Soooo painful, and I didn't like the wines either (which were exhorbitantly priced).
The last one we went to was Ducjhorn, and the beautiful building and tasting room had all things to do with ducks there from a huge duck infested mural to glass ducks. We got there one minute before closing, but they were very friendly and some wines were quite good.
From there we went to a higher point in Napa to a place called Auberge de Soleil which was an upmarket but nice cafe in the hills overlooking Napa Valley. We sat in the sun eating dips and drinking coffee on a small wooden verandah. It was bliss.
For dinner we went to an amazing Italian Restaurant in nearby St. Helena called Tra Vigne which was in a HUGE room with a floor to high-ceiling full wall bar on one wall, a huge wood fired oven and kitchen on another wall, and a lovely garden outside with lots of greenery and fairy lights. The food was excellent too.
The next day after breakfast we called in to the Dean and Deluca store in St Helena and stocked up on dried fruits and chatted to the manager there for a while about foodstuffs. They had the biggest range of cheeses I have seen anywhere in one place. It was lots of fun there, and the bread we bought was excellent too.
Eva navigated us through back roads that wound through the rolling hills covered in vines and found our was to Muir Woods which is an area just north of San Francisco that has large redwood trees and some walks you can go on. The ever present fog was drifting in and out, so our views were sometimes good and sometimes grey! But, down in the trees it was very nice and cool. The red bark of the trees is amazing, as is their height. We went on a 7km walk there and enjoyed it very much, although our map was not too good, and the signposting was not as clear as I would have liked.
After a rewarding ice-cream we headed over to Stinson Beach, just 'cos we had heard of it. It was a small and somewhat old looking town and (as usual) the beach was OK but not as good as ours in Oz (Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie oi! oi! oi!).
The Grey Ghost was the same as we passed it for the third time, and we decided not to go too much further and ended up in Santa Cruz on the coast south of SF for the night. The coast road was very nice, with us not very far off the water most of the time. At one point we saw about 30 surf riders with kites to zip them through the water (and sometimes the air). It was an awesome sight.
We stayed in a hotel right on the beach on the 9th floor looking out to sea. The air was clear, the sun shining and we had a nice meal in an Italian restaurant on the very long pier, by a window on the water. Very nice. The guitar player/singer was good too. It was a lovely way to finish a long and tiring day!
We woke at 6:30am to a beautiful blue sky and Eva went out for an hour's walk on the boardwalk (that wasn't on boards) while I minded to bed to make sure no-one was going to steal it! By the time Eva came back the fog had come in! We walked out to the pier to Gilda's which is a diner style eatery for breakfast. We then checked out of our hotel and headed further down the highway to Monteray, which used to be the capital of California before they joined the Union. We walked through the old town section, to the nice but touristy Fisherman's wharf area. There we saw lots of birds and also otters at play in the sea near the wharf. We walked further to the shops at Cannery Row, and saw many references to John Steinbeck. There is a museum in Salinas (near Monteray) about Steinbeck, and I only thought Salinas was made famous by Janis Joplin in Bobby McGee! We ate at a place called The Fish Hopper and the food was good, but better still was watching the seals outside our window and the many birds perched on rocks or flying at a zillion miles-per-hour just a few centimeters from the water surface. We stayed there for ages, but eventually caught the free shuttle-bus back to where our car was parked and ventured on a special "17 mile drive" they have organised here. This went past famous Pebble Beach (famous??) and some lovely homes and beaches as well as rugged coastline. It was very nice, but took too long - I liked some ghost trees and lone cypress pine on a rock best. It was foggy for some of it, but I think that made it more eerie and better.
We then started the "cliff drive" (my words) section of 90 miles of the 300 miles between San Francisco and LA, which starts just south of Carmel (which is just south of Monteray). The view really was spectacular, with the deep blue sea contrasting with whitish rocks whose bases were outlined by the foaming sea and giant kelp at their base. We pulled over so many times to get a better view, and the swirling fog sometimes completely cut off the view and at other times made it look magic.
By about 5pm we started looking for accommodation and ended up in Big Sur Lodge which reminded us of BinnaBurra Lodge in Lamington National Park. We were lucky to get the last room. It was 7pm so we set off on a few km hike to a waterfall over dry tracks and accross lovely wooden bridges surrounded by big redwoods. We extended the walk because I found a great uphill bit that led to a view of the valley. We were a little sweaty as we settled down for dinner at 8:40 (restaurant has last orders at 8:45) but we were sitting outside looking at the beautiful trees and listening to the sounds of the forest. Couldn't be a better setting for dinner!
On Friday we woke at 7am, ready to leave early to backtrack a bit in case the fog had lifted. Sleep-in won the day and we left at 9am to backtrack to about an hour and we were greeted by brilliant sunshine, so we saw all the bits that were partially obscured the day before. We were lucky to have seen it both ways. By the time we went a little further south, the fog had come back, so we stopped at a lone cafe, perched high on a hill, right on the coastline, and had breakfast there. We were bathed in sunshine, looking out along tens of miles of coastline that we could see clearly. Eerily, we could see no water, just fog. The cafe was great, the setting, the people we chatted to and the relaxing time we had were all worth it. The added bonus was that by the time we finished the fog was gone!
The rest of the trip down the coast was great, it is hard to capture the feeling of seeing the coast and the blue sea, especially when seeing it for hours, as the road was very windy and slow. There were beautiful flowers of red, yellow and other colours too.
I'm sitting in Qantas club at LA airport as I write this at 10:45pm and our plane is about to be called, so I'll rush through the highlights of the remaining day!
We walked to a waterfall that was a free fall (90 feet? 90m?) from a cave opening into the sea on a pristine beach. There was even a gum tree there. The NZ couple we talked with were really nice too.
We stayed at Santa Barbera on our last night in a huge but tasteful (and a little noisy) hotel on the beach. We both went for a long walk in the morning (wow, that was THIS morning) and also went for a swim in the cold Pacific Ocean. We went on more wine tastings (and bought a bottle) ate at great restaurants along State St in Santa Barbera, drove to LA, visited Rodeo Drive in Bevery Hills, avoided getting booked speeding to the airport, managed to get the hire car back and check in.
Phew! Its been a fantastic holiday, we have been so lucky to have been able to do this, and lucky that we have been 100% well the whole time.
I will try to add some photos when we get back. Not looking forward to the 14 hour flight, but I hope we can sleep. Looking forward to being back home and seeing family and friends.
Thanks to all of you for reading our blog.
Cheers,
Eva and Les
Nifty navigator Eva (I call her Genius in Positioning Selves or GPS for short) got us through San Francisco easily and we crossed the Grey Ghost in partial fog again, but we would have another chance on the way back as Napa is North of SF and after Napa we will come back down south and go along the west coast from SF to LA (OK?).
We headed along busy highways for about an hour and found the Napa Visitors Centre OK, and Sylvia there booked us into a nice hotel in the middle of the "Napa strip" of wineries at Rutherford. Some wineries you have to make appointments at, so we limited ourselves to those that you don't need to, and chose a few. We went to the Hess Collection (amazing building and grounds, with art collections, lilly ponds, huge flower gardens in grounds, tasted 5 wines for $20). I didn't realise that wines at wineries ar dearer than the same wines bought elsewhere. Still, these wines were retailing for around $90 per bottle. No, we didn't buy any.
Continuing north through Napa we went to Robert Mondavi wines. The building and grounds were extensive, and I think they hold concerts there too. There were a couple of tasting rooms as well as sales and souveniers. We chose to taste 5 wines for $30, and had a fantastic time chatting with people there. They gave us an extra 2 wines to taste, and I think they enjoyed our company as well. I quite liked most of the wines we tasted, but being in the vineyards and seeing the buildings, meeting people etc, was the best bit.
We went to Rubicon vineyard, which was rejuvenated by Francis Ford Copolla, and it was so so so crap experience. They forced valet parked the car (20 meters away) gave passports, didn't want us to have just a shared tasting etc etc etc. Soooo painful, and I didn't like the wines either (which were exhorbitantly priced).
The last one we went to was Ducjhorn, and the beautiful building and tasting room had all things to do with ducks there from a huge duck infested mural to glass ducks. We got there one minute before closing, but they were very friendly and some wines were quite good.
From there we went to a higher point in Napa to a place called Auberge de Soleil which was an upmarket but nice cafe in the hills overlooking Napa Valley. We sat in the sun eating dips and drinking coffee on a small wooden verandah. It was bliss.
For dinner we went to an amazing Italian Restaurant in nearby St. Helena called Tra Vigne which was in a HUGE room with a floor to high-ceiling full wall bar on one wall, a huge wood fired oven and kitchen on another wall, and a lovely garden outside with lots of greenery and fairy lights. The food was excellent too.
The next day after breakfast we called in to the Dean and Deluca store in St Helena and stocked up on dried fruits and chatted to the manager there for a while about foodstuffs. They had the biggest range of cheeses I have seen anywhere in one place. It was lots of fun there, and the bread we bought was excellent too.
Eva navigated us through back roads that wound through the rolling hills covered in vines and found our was to Muir Woods which is an area just north of San Francisco that has large redwood trees and some walks you can go on. The ever present fog was drifting in and out, so our views were sometimes good and sometimes grey! But, down in the trees it was very nice and cool. The red bark of the trees is amazing, as is their height. We went on a 7km walk there and enjoyed it very much, although our map was not too good, and the signposting was not as clear as I would have liked.
After a rewarding ice-cream we headed over to Stinson Beach, just 'cos we had heard of it. It was a small and somewhat old looking town and (as usual) the beach was OK but not as good as ours in Oz (Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie oi! oi! oi!).
The Grey Ghost was the same as we passed it for the third time, and we decided not to go too much further and ended up in Santa Cruz on the coast south of SF for the night. The coast road was very nice, with us not very far off the water most of the time. At one point we saw about 30 surf riders with kites to zip them through the water (and sometimes the air). It was an awesome sight.
We stayed in a hotel right on the beach on the 9th floor looking out to sea. The air was clear, the sun shining and we had a nice meal in an Italian restaurant on the very long pier, by a window on the water. Very nice. The guitar player/singer was good too. It was a lovely way to finish a long and tiring day!
We woke at 6:30am to a beautiful blue sky and Eva went out for an hour's walk on the boardwalk (that wasn't on boards) while I minded to bed to make sure no-one was going to steal it! By the time Eva came back the fog had come in! We walked out to the pier to Gilda's which is a diner style eatery for breakfast. We then checked out of our hotel and headed further down the highway to Monteray, which used to be the capital of California before they joined the Union. We walked through the old town section, to the nice but touristy Fisherman's wharf area. There we saw lots of birds and also otters at play in the sea near the wharf. We walked further to the shops at Cannery Row, and saw many references to John Steinbeck. There is a museum in Salinas (near Monteray) about Steinbeck, and I only thought Salinas was made famous by Janis Joplin in Bobby McGee! We ate at a place called The Fish Hopper and the food was good, but better still was watching the seals outside our window and the many birds perched on rocks or flying at a zillion miles-per-hour just a few centimeters from the water surface. We stayed there for ages, but eventually caught the free shuttle-bus back to where our car was parked and ventured on a special "17 mile drive" they have organised here. This went past famous Pebble Beach (famous??) and some lovely homes and beaches as well as rugged coastline. It was very nice, but took too long - I liked some ghost trees and lone cypress pine on a rock best. It was foggy for some of it, but I think that made it more eerie and better.
We then started the "cliff drive" (my words) section of 90 miles of the 300 miles between San Francisco and LA, which starts just south of Carmel (which is just south of Monteray). The view really was spectacular, with the deep blue sea contrasting with whitish rocks whose bases were outlined by the foaming sea and giant kelp at their base. We pulled over so many times to get a better view, and the swirling fog sometimes completely cut off the view and at other times made it look magic.
By about 5pm we started looking for accommodation and ended up in Big Sur Lodge which reminded us of BinnaBurra Lodge in Lamington National Park. We were lucky to get the last room. It was 7pm so we set off on a few km hike to a waterfall over dry tracks and accross lovely wooden bridges surrounded by big redwoods. We extended the walk because I found a great uphill bit that led to a view of the valley. We were a little sweaty as we settled down for dinner at 8:40 (restaurant has last orders at 8:45) but we were sitting outside looking at the beautiful trees and listening to the sounds of the forest. Couldn't be a better setting for dinner!
On Friday we woke at 7am, ready to leave early to backtrack a bit in case the fog had lifted. Sleep-in won the day and we left at 9am to backtrack to about an hour and we were greeted by brilliant sunshine, so we saw all the bits that were partially obscured the day before. We were lucky to have seen it both ways. By the time we went a little further south, the fog had come back, so we stopped at a lone cafe, perched high on a hill, right on the coastline, and had breakfast there. We were bathed in sunshine, looking out along tens of miles of coastline that we could see clearly. Eerily, we could see no water, just fog. The cafe was great, the setting, the people we chatted to and the relaxing time we had were all worth it. The added bonus was that by the time we finished the fog was gone!
The rest of the trip down the coast was great, it is hard to capture the feeling of seeing the coast and the blue sea, especially when seeing it for hours, as the road was very windy and slow. There were beautiful flowers of red, yellow and other colours too.
I'm sitting in Qantas club at LA airport as I write this at 10:45pm and our plane is about to be called, so I'll rush through the highlights of the remaining day!
We walked to a waterfall that was a free fall (90 feet? 90m?) from a cave opening into the sea on a pristine beach. There was even a gum tree there. The NZ couple we talked with were really nice too.
We stayed at Santa Barbera on our last night in a huge but tasteful (and a little noisy) hotel on the beach. We both went for a long walk in the morning (wow, that was THIS morning) and also went for a swim in the cold Pacific Ocean. We went on more wine tastings (and bought a bottle) ate at great restaurants along State St in Santa Barbera, drove to LA, visited Rodeo Drive in Bevery Hills, avoided getting booked speeding to the airport, managed to get the hire car back and check in.
Phew! Its been a fantastic holiday, we have been so lucky to have been able to do this, and lucky that we have been 100% well the whole time.
I will try to add some photos when we get back. Not looking forward to the 14 hour flight, but I hope we can sleep. Looking forward to being back home and seeing family and friends.
Thanks to all of you for reading our blog.
Cheers,
Eva and Les
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