Wine Country

Being in the Bay area of California, it is a requirement that one goes to see the wine country north of the Bay. It's not far at all - just about 50 miles from San Francisco to Napa. I just got back, having spent the weekend there with my mother and her husband.

Believe it or not, wine country doesn't just have fantastic wineries! We also got to see one of only three "old faithful" geysers in the world. That was cool - I'd never seen an honest to goodness not-on-tv geyser before. There's also a petrified forest up there, a really old cemetery, and other historic things. But then, of course, there are the wineries. We're talking everything from warehouse to castle to chateau.

I think in terms of pure ambiance, the Castillo di Amaroso was my favorite. It's been under construction for 14 years, and has just opened 2 months ago. The wine there was some of the best we tasted, but you can't buy it in stores. Just onsite or on the Internet. There was actually a fair amount of wine in the area like that - definitely made it worth it to go explore. The Rubicon, Francis Ford Coppola's winery, was also on the "A" list. I most definitely need to increase my circle of local friends to help me drink the wine I brought back!

I did perhaps have a bit _too_ much wine on Sunday, but I maintain I would have been fine if we hadn't then on Monday decided to follow the GPS route to some of the other wineries, this time in Sonoma. That route took us through twisty windy mountain roads, with poor me in the back seat. I mean, I get a bit carsick under normal circumstances, so that was just a recipe for great discomfort. Michael, mother's husband, said I was green. I said I was fashionably pale, but they didn't go for it. Mother, as she realized how peaked I was feeling, developed a new fondness for the word "puke" and had to use it repeatedly. Witch. I told her I never liked her anyway.

I do hope to get back there again soon. We didn't actually get to tour the castle, and there's a lot more to the Rubicon that I want to see. I will, however, wait for the, um, car sickness to wear off. Couldn't be a hangover, really.