Napa Valley

The Golden Gate bridge sans fog

We were in San Francisco for a week, just at the end of summer.  And I managed to actually get burnt.  Finally some sun in this hemisphere!  One thing I really wanted to do was visit Napa Valley whilst I was there.  I don't know, maybe it was the movie Sideways, talking up Californian wines, but I had always wanted to go if I had the chance.  Luckily we have a friend who is a San Franciscan local and he offered to drive us out there, which was very kind of him, especially given the slightly scary 10 lane super-highways they have in that country.

Looking back across the bay to the city

Life doesn't get much better than this, Champagne without a cloud in the sky!

It was a perfect day, really if you are in San Francisco and you have the chance, don't pass it up.  The wines were really good.  We went a bit crazy at a few of the wineries we visited, this cost us when we tried to check in on the return journey.  A tip I've learned, always fly with a spare, empty bag, just in case.  Apparently the baggage staff don't like lifting 30 odd kilograms in one go.

I didn't appreciate how dry California would be, at some points during the day it felt like I could have been back in country NSW, apart from the fact that Hunter Valley wines are horrible.

The dry, dry Californian country side, the vineyards were so contrasting

The wineries are really well set up there, beautiful locations, and most of them seem to serve food as well.  They are almost wine bars, more than cellar doors, a lot more effort has gone into the appearance than is normally the case say in Australia.  Though a consequence of that is that you have to pay for all the tastings, but then the tastings are actually more like full glasses of wine, rather than the little pipette squeeze you can sometimes get.  Just a suggestion, don't drive there, unless you have a very kind friend who is willing to forgo the pleasures.

The view from one of the cellar doors - could almost be Gundagai

We even got to see a bit of the Indy Car race, one of the wineries had a view overlooking the hill where the race was held.  So you were far enough away not to really hear the car engines, but you could watch them race if you wanted to.  Indy Car seems like a fair idea for a race, they all have to race in exactly the same car, so it must be more down to the driver you would think than say Formula One might be.  In fact it seems so fair, it's a wonder Australia didn't come up with the idea.  I mean just look at AFL right?