Author's Note: This is the first blog I've ever really written post-adventure. That wasn't my plan but, I had a suspicion it might come to that because of how long our days were most likely going to be during the trip. Fortunately, I had also planned to maintain a daily journal - at a fairly high level - of our experiences. With the help of Conor and Rosie's collective memories, I made time when I could to jot down notes during the day, with the bulk of my/our recollections entered in my journal during the evenings just before turning in. In retrospect, not optimal since many of the detail nuances of what I was seeing, thinking and experiencing may be lost to time. So, any content detail forgotten and not captured in this blog was more than made up for by my being more in the moment during our adventure with Conor. :-)
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Still working on acclimating to the West coast time change and still have my work too much on my mind. :-( Up early on this Saturday morning. We all decided to fore go breakfast in the hotel in order to get an early start to the day. We'd look for a breakfast opportunity on our way to wine country. Our primary goal for this day: Chateau Montelena (CM) in Calistoga north of Napa but, in the 'valley'. Rosie and I are looking forward to the wine tasting event she scheduled for us at CM. Before leaving New Jersey months back, she'd reserved a private wine tasting for the 3 of us in CM's library scheduled for 1130 in the morning.
Side Note: Back in 1976 Chateau Montelena along with Stag's Leap, both of Napa Valley, put Napa and US wine making on the world map by taking on the best French wines and French palates and winning a blind taste testing held in France. That seminal event is entertainingly documented in the movie, Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman and Chris Pine. CM won with their '73 Chardonnay and Stag's won for their '73 Cabernet Savignon. This movie was the inspiration behind our decision to go to CM for a wine tasting.
Before leaving the room, called down to guest services to let them know we wouldn't be needing maid service... mostly, so we didn't have to pick up where we'd left all of our stuff around the room. We gathered up our day packs, including all of our camera gear, and took the elevator down to the parking garage level to pick up our SUV. We were all quite impressed with how skilled the valet parking attendants were in maneuvering very large vehicles within inches of each other without hitting anything!
Drove out of the garage under the hotel at 0745. My Garmin GPS, 'Annie', told us the trip distance was approximately 75miles. San Francisco at this time in the morning on this particular day was shrouded in a thick mist alternating with thick fog. We made our way over the Golden Gate bridge without ever having a good look at it or the surrounding bay - no toll going north by the way. The fog lifted as we approached the Sausalito area on the 101 north. Annie had us going much further north on the 101 before cutting over towards Calistoga but, I took the first exit I saw towards Napa in order to enjoy the drive along back roads.
Beautiful landscapes and scenery along the way mostly of cattle farms and wineries all over sloping hills. We were all getting a bit peckish and before long Rosie spotted a diner sign up ahead... we pulled over and discovered the Fremont Diner in Fremont, CA. The diner seemed a bit out of place in what felt like the middle of nowhere en route to Napa and the ambiance and decor of the place hearkened to days of yesteryear... it was GREAT! We all enjoyed delicious breakfasts with our hot beverages served up in heavy mugs and our cold drinks served up in mason jelly jars. I particularly enjoyed their biscuits and gravy. After breakfast and before getting back on the road, we made time just to stroll around and take photos of the property and adjacent vineyards.
Back on the road and we eventually made it to Napa and decided to drive downtown for a quick visit. We still had plenty of time before our scheduled appointment up at CM so we parked and got out for a little walk. There wasn't much to see since everything was still closed. Conor was looking for a nice button down shirt to buy for our wine tasting - no luck in Napa early on this Saturday.
Jumped back in the car and continued north on state Rt. 29. Route 29, aka St. Helena Highway, is basically the main feeder between Napa and Calistoga and runs the length of the Valley. Vineyards of all shapes/sizes and notoriety line the route... there's even a train that runs up and down the valley that will take you to many vineyards for sightseeing and tasting and back again to wherever you may be staying or parking. As we drove through the small towns along the way, kept an eye open for any place we might find suitable clothing for purchase. Our patience finally paid off in the town of St. Helena.
We found easy parking along main street and jumped out to do a bit of shopping. Was still early in the morning, ~1015, as we strolled along downtown St. Helena. Conor and I found a good place to shop and eventually both of us bought new button down shirts to wear for our wine tasting. Rosie also had good success in buying gifts for friends. Decided we liked St. Helena alot and wished we had a bit more time to spend there. But, we didn't want to be late for our wine tasting event.
On we went. Only 7-8 miles to go and we arrived at Chateau Montelena at 1105 with plenty of time to spare and wander around. The vineyards address is off of Tubbs Lane. One never knows exactly what to expect from someplace you've never been and CM was no different. It just felt really cool to be actually be standing on the property located at the base of foothills covered with grape vines. Once you find the parking area, one of the first things you notice after the grape vines is a man-made lake that reminds you of the Orient with a bridge that connects to a small island in the middle of it with a pagoda on it with table and chairs! Strange but interesting.
The vineyard was already working on setting up for the days events, mostly wine tasting, and we asked some of the workers where we needed to go for our sessions. They directed us up some stairs that took us up to the now iconic building facade that adorns all of CM's wine bottles and is prominently featured in the movie. We were quite excited to be standing in front of CM's most prominent architectural feature reminiscent of a castle all carved into the hillside! Took a lot of photos - I know, no surprise here.
To the left of the 'castle' was another set of steps up to the wine tasting area. Made our way up and checked in with the hostess, Susan??, who led us back to the main private taste testing area. Since we were early we were treated to a very nice Chardonnay, perhaps the best I can recall ever tasting, and just wandered around the long tasting area taking in the hanging art and posters of all the previous and current owners of Chateau Montelena. We discovered that the lake and pagoda feature were the brain child of the Chinese owners of CM before the Barrett's took over. Just before 1130 the 3 of us were escorted into the library for a more intimate wine tasting hosted by Christina, who had worked with CM for over 20 years, and 1 other very nice couple.
What a great, relaxing time in a very intimate setting where we could taste, chat and ask whatever questions were on our mind about the subject at hand. Our hostess was great and very knowledgeable. We started off with a nice Riesling, just for compare/contrast, before going on to the 4 Montelena Estate Cab Savs in front of us: the 03/04/05/06. CM specializes in Cabernet Savignon's but, also makes great white wines from grapes purchased from other Napa Valley wineries. When the Barrett's purchased CM, they were experimenting with a variety of grape types, including whites, and one of those initial grape types included a Chardonnay that eventually won at the Paris wine tasting back in 1976.
The 1 hour event flew by. Whether due to the wine or our enthusiastic enjoyment of being there on holiday, I signed up for one of CM's CellarMaster Wine Clubs: Futures. For that, me and mine receive special on site privileges including parking and, 6 to 12 bottles of their wine each year. I'm excited to be a part of their Wine Club! We departed CM with a few souvenirs in hand including the 4 corks from the bottles of wine we enjoyed and a 1/2 bottle of the 2005 Cab Sav. We were quite peckish and decided to go have lunch somewhere in downtown Calistoga.
Departed CM at 1300 for lunch. Downtown Calistoga's only 2 miles from CM so, a very short trip to get there. As we were parking on main street, had a small emergency when Rosie couldn't find her iPhone! Wasn't sure what had happened to it so, we called CM. They had it and would hold on to it until we picked it up later... much relief in our party. :-)
Calistoga has the look and feel of a small western town, albeit a more modern one. We did a little shopping. Rosie found some perfume she'd been searching for and Conor and I made some purchases in the 'Man Shop': me a US made Bertucci watch and Conor, a new camera backpack. Asked around some for a good place to have lunch and got pointed to the Hydro Bar & Grill. Had a very nice lunch and drove back to CM to retrieve Rosie's iPhone. Parked in the CellarMaster parking area. :-)
Left CM at ~1430 en route to a place on the coast Rosie wanted to go visit: Point Reyes National Seashore and the lighthouse there. We had no idea the journey we were in for just to get there! The trip appeared to be a reasonable 70 miles or so to get to the lighthouse. As we were leaving the Valley over the western mountains, we discovered the National Petrified Forest park and had to stop in - just to say we were there. Spent about 15mins in the gift shop only to decide we didn't have enough time to do the forest and make Pt. Reyes so, we left for Pt. Reyes at ~1500.
The first 35miles of the trip go very fast. Once we exited Hwy 101 for Petaluma, everything slowed down. Petaluma to Inverness, just outside of the National Seashore, was about 25 miles on a two lane road and that went OK too. The weather was gorgeous all the way until we started approaching the town of Inverness to head on towards the Lighthouse. The last stretch of the trip out to the very Point of Reyes from Inverness, ~15miles, took forever on a narrow, extremely windy, 2 lane road with the weather closing down on us in a very cool, misty fog. The only things to really see along the way in bad weather are the 5-6 very old cattle stations - still in operation - lining the way out to the remote lighthouse. Took us 2 1/2 hrs to finally get to Point Reyes arriving at 1730 in very poor weather, visibility less than 1/2 a mile. As we approached the parking area, we discovered that the lighthouse closed down at 1630 so, we missed any chance of visiting it! That may not have been a bad thing. In order to get to the lighthouse, you have to walk down steps the equivalent of a 30 story building... about 300 steps and then back again. We parked anyway and then had a 1/4mile hike up hill just to get to the viewing area. Figured it was the least we could do since we made the effort to get to this landmark. Although the end result was disappointing, the adventure was still great fun with Conor and Rosie just to get there. Saw what we could, took some photos and headed back to the SUV. Amazingly, as we were walking back down, there were still quite a few folks walking up to see what they could too.
Departed Point Reyes at ~1815 with Conor at the helm. We had to back track 25miles of slow, 2 lane roads. Just before arriving back in Infernos, we went right instead of left to intercept and drive the PCH north of San Francisco south back to the city. The first half of the ride on PCH wasn't bad. With the weather the way it was, there's a ~10mile stretch of PCH that's extremely windy, full of switch backs and in many places feels like you're on a precipice that leads to death! Was very 'white' knuckled, curled toes, tingly feet riding for Rosie and I. Conor did a great job... still, we were very happy when we got back on the 101 in pretty heavy traffic to go back over the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco for the 5-6miles to get back to the Fairmont. Unfortunately, the weather had moved back in (of course, we really didn't know if it had ever moved off during the day) and we couldn't enjoy the view going back over the bridge. Attempted to pull up to the front of the hotel to drop off the SUV for the valet to take for us but, the street fronting the Fairmont, Mason St, was blocked off. Turns out the hotel was hosting the 'Fog Rally' consisting of many Ferrarri's parked out on Mason St. So, we went around the block, pulled into the parking garage, gave the keys to valet and, walked into the hotel and took the elevator up to the 6th floor. Time: 2015. Took us 2hrs to go approximately 55miles!
As late as it was, we only went up to the room to drop off our trappings of the day and to freshen up a bit. At 2030 we decided to walk to dinner someplace and used Yelp on Conor's iPhone to find a couple of Italian restaurants nearby. Sadly, both of them were quite busy and had 45min waits. We recalled a Thai food restaurant on Powell St we saw on the way back up to the hotel and headed that way. We eventually found 'Navin' and sat down for some excellent Thai food! Finally got back to our room at 2130 and decided to chill for the rest of the evening after a very, long, day... but, what a day!
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