Napa

We took a meandering drive along back country roads to Napa and settled in at the Elk's Lodge. It was our first hot day but quickly after dinner in the lodge the temperature dropped and the evening was pleasant.


The following morning breakfast outside on the Napa River was pleasant.


We strolled the downtown area and even learned a little cha cha cha. This is a fun downtown area that obviously caters to tourists.




We enjoyed a walk along the river walk.


The nice man in the visitor's center who grew up in Rogers, Arkansas, gave us wonderful advice on how to spend our day and away we went up highway 29 through the Napa Valley for so many aha moments. We passed through several small quaint towns such as Yountville and many wineries scattered among the vineyards.


We stopped at Robert Mondavi for a tour which was quite informative. Here we visited with Arlyss who grew up in Little Rock although she was not our tour guide. All the employees were very friendly.


There's 50,000 gallon barrels ferment a lot of wine.


The barrels are made in France as Mr. Mondavi preferred their oak to American oak.


Our next tour and tasting was at Sterling where you take a tram up to the winery for a self guided tour and five tasting stops. It was the hot day at 92 degrees in the sun.




After driving about 25 miles we crossed over to return down the Silverado Trail which runs along the other side of the valley. We wandered over to Sonoma to check out what is a much smaller town, 10,000 versus 76,000, in the adjacent Sonoma Valley.