August 12, 2010

St Helena, Napa Valley, CA - Sun 1/8 to Sun 12/8 (Day 52-63)

Number of days on the road - 59

Number of miles covered - 10,800

Number of states visited - 25

Number of bottles of wine consumed prior to arrival in Napa Valley – 2

Expected number of bottles to be consumed in Napa over August - well, 31 days in August, times 3 bottles per day.... each......

We woke up on Sun August 1st very excited as they day had arrived where we could finally go to the Napa Valley and stay in our gorgeous St Helena pad for a month (our road legs were getting weary). Check-in wasn't until 4pm so we stalled in Modesto, and checked out around 11am, and set the GPS for Locke, CA (our lunch stop in the Sacramento Delta - a Roadfood reco). We arrived to Locke and each enjoyed a steak sandwich (a New York steak on a plate, with a side of toast, and peanut butter and jam are available on the table as spreads.... Along with the standard steak saucy/ketchup/mustard deal). Locke was very old and rundown and gave us our ghost town fix, then we headed off to St Helena!

The house is even more amazing than we'd hoped, and we unpacked our suitcase into the walk-in-robe (squeal!!), and enjoyed a cheese platter and home made dinner.

Activities we have enjoyed since our arrival here include:

- reading, washing, cooking, grocery shopping etc (aaahhh… domestic bliss)

- bought “summer bikes” (read: crappy bikes that’ll last for a month) from Wal-Mart in Napa, and rode them part way home and part way on the bus (buses only have 2 spots for bikes and only come every hour, so we luckily got a bus in Yountville to take us both to St Helena)… PS Tim had to replace his bike the day after purchase due to irreparable tire damage (read: punctures from staples)

- vaccinations for Peru: Typhoid Pills from Napa Travel Centre (plus a free tetanus booster for Stacey because she was nice to the nurse!); Hepatitis A&B from Safeway pharmacy (you can get vaccinations without prescriptions in America, and they’re administered by the Pharmacist!)

- wine tastings at seven wineries (over two days): V. Sattui, Raymond, Whitehall Lane, Flora Springs, Schweiger, Charbay, Keenan… you pay for wine tastings here, which means the glass is a little fuller than a taste, and there’s less guilt-related purchasing at the end

- free music concert (latin jazz by Los Boleros) at Lyman Park (St Helena City Hall), where we took a picnic and wine and enjoyed our time with the locals

- "Cheers! St Helena", where we bought wristbands for $35ea and enjoyed wine tasting in the sponsor stores on Main St (and we bumped into a man we'd "met" at Wal-Mart, when we showed him where to get bikes from. We exchanged numbers and may meet up with him and his girlfriend at some point)… our property manager pronounced “Cheers” like “share” or “Cher” (as in Sonny and), which we found very amusing, and have adopted as part of our lexicon

-drive through Sonoma Valley

- bought some “Two Buck Chuck” (Charles Shaw Shiraz and Chardonnay) from Trader Joe’s, just to try it out (yes, it is only $1.99, hence the nick name). The red was not bad at all… the white was drinkable, but won’t be bought again

- day-trip to San Francisco: Ferry Building, Fisherman’s Wharf (and some good seafood for lunch), cable car rides… scoping it out for when we visit it at the end of August

Next entry or two will just be short and sweet, bullet-point style… Maybe this will be a good break for you and for us too :)