Visiting the Napa Valley...

Our final adventure with Jo and John before they left to return to New Zealand was a trip to the Napa Valley.  We stayed in Calistoga at our favorite little cottages at Washington Street Lodging.  The weather was perfect for us and we spent time visiting wineries, enjoying some of Calistoga's great restaurants, lunch on the Wine Train and lots of relaxing time on the deck.  It was a perfect three days!

Cabins 1 and 2 at Washington Street Lodging, complete with deck

Jo and John outside their cabin

John and I on the deck

Jo relaxing in the hammock, under the shade of a giant oak tree.  She enjoyed seeing all of the squirrels running around in the tree and on the roofs of the cabins.

Whooo hoooo!  Lunch on the Wine Train!  One of our favorite things to do in the Napa valley

When boarding the train we walked past all of these "love locks" - locks attached to the fence with names and dates of couples visiting from all over the world.

Our official Wine Train photograph

The bar car.  We had our first two courses in this car before we moved to the dining car for our main meal and dessert

Going out to the observation platform to enjoy the scenery

Enjoying a glass of wine 

A great shot of the vineyards as we meandered along

John on the observation deck

And Jo, during our stop at Grgich Winery.

The next day we visited a couple of wineries - here is Chateau Montelena.  Since the crush was well under way there was lots of activity as huge crates of grapes were unloaded into the hopper to sort out stems and leaves

Jo and John at Chateau Montelena.  If you have seen the movie "Bottle Shock:, this was the winery that took the gold medal in the blind taste test in Paris in the '70's and put the Napa Valley firmly on the wine map!

Even if you are not a wine drinker, most of the wineries have beautiful grounds.  This is the lake and one of the picnic areas at Chateau Montelena

The walkway leading to the picnic area

Pat, Jo and John on the bridge

Jo, John and Lee in front of the fountain there

Next we visited Rubicon - the old Inglenook Winery now owned by Francis Ford Coppola

The grand staircase leading up to exhibits on the second floor

There are many wine caves built into the side of the hill.  This one held wines from the Niebaum collection.  Mr. Niebaum was the original owner of Inglenook Winery.  We asked if they ever opened any of these old wines and were told that they had opened a few - all of them bad!

John and Jo with the Tucker!  One of the few remaining in the world.

And then it was time to head home.  We had a lovely drive back to San Francisco and stopped to take photos of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin side.  It was a busy day because we also had a play that evening - we saw the Carole King musical "Beautiful" in San Francisco.  It was fabulous!!

Then it was time for Jo and John to begin the arduous task of repacking and getting ready to go home.  We hated to see them go, but we had such a great time with them while they were here.  We hope that they will return again soon.  In the meantime, we are looking forward to seeing them in February 2014!