Castello di Amorosa - A New Winery Near Calistoga

Near Calistoga, the man that owns V Santui built this winery using castle architecture. I believe that it took approximately 15 years to build. We decided to bypass the tour as it was somewhat expensive, although the price included a wine tasting.

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I liked this shot of the castle from the inside court yard. It has a pretty symetry.

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A view of the grapes behind the castle - most of the dramatic panoramic shots of the valley view are the opposite direction. This shot was interesting to me however.

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Ever wonder what a complete, practically new wine barrel would cost you? $45.00 at this winery. I think you could make a really cool dog house out of one if the dog could stand the smell of it all.

Golf & Dinner With Pete & Carol

Pete and I went golfing at Kennedy GC in Napa. Master chef, I mean Head Pro Tom from Hiddenbrooke was there running the show and cooking burgers. Pete & I had to stop after 9-holes and buy more balls - that is pretty descriptive of our present day golf skills.

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I took a picture of Pete & I on the top of Pete's shiny titanium driver. He walked away in disgust after I teased him that I have seen outdoor movie theatre screens smaller than his driving head. He started driving pretty well on the 7th or 8th hole and his mood improved from a 3-4 to about a 7-8.

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Pete, cooperating with my attempting to make a unique golf club portrait, prior to my disparaging remarks on how big his driving head was.

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Pete and Carol had us over for dinner. Thanks you two, it was a lovely evening! They have been doing a lot of traveling and it was fun talking to them about some of the places they have been that we have yet to see.

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Fishing & Dinner With Steve & Linda

It has been way too long since getting together with our old Napa friends Steve and Linda - we always have very animated and interesting conversations. I took a picture upon departure, then Steve took a picture - the only difference is that I remembered to suck in my stomach and Steve forgot. (Steve, I edited the worst of the bulge out with the white vignette.)

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Our ladies look marvelous... as usual. Thanks for the very nice fishing and dinner date Steve & Linda. Good luck on your 100 mile bike ride coming up Linda. Have fun in Costa Rica with Heinz Steve, catch a couple of bigguns. Send pictures of some poisonous frogs - better yet, bring a few home in your underwear!

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We spent quite a few hours going over Steve's exhaustive rock collection. As I recall, he has thousands of collectable, little light brown rocks - shown above held down by those big ones that he found laying around in different places he has been. I was not paying that much attention to the rocks as he has a really neat collection of poisonous frogs hopping around in the corner of his back yard. Did you know that some of the frogs he has collected can immobilize a very large dog just by thinking about walking on a leaf which falls into the dog's water bowl. Anyway, pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

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Steve caught a 19-inch striped bass - which was the only keeper out of the 20+ that we caught due to the limit being 18 inches. (We were catch & release so we did not keep it.) Steve showed me many parts of the Napa River and associated wild refuge areas that hardly any people ever get to see. It was a great morning of fishing and touring.

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The magic fly from Martinez - the Fly Tie Capitol of the World - that catches all of Steve's biggest fish. I only lost one of them.

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If you are an avid bird watcher, enlarge this image look at the specks in the air. Those are some kind of really rare birds - we saw as many as 4 of them flying at once. It was pretty cool to see 4 rare birds flying at once, I wish I could remember what they were since they are so rare.

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The Napa River Bayou - we saw some Sea Otters in this area. We also saw some rare white looking birds - for the life of me I cannot remember the name of them.

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We drove by the old Napa Pipe Mill and Steve pointed out an Osprey nest in the wires in the old crane on the dock. He is going to put a live video camera overlooking the nest so that all of the world can enjoy the generations of birds that will no doubt be raised there.

Some Sunday Fun In & Around Petaluma

Drive through Petaluma about 10-miles, turn when you see a sign for a town called Nicasio. Go there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon when the Tommy Castro Band is playing. (Do not eat lunch until you get there: order the pulled pork - eat in the sunshine or the shade - your choice.) Get excited as the Stone River Boys warm you up..

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The Tommy Castro Band

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What a great countryside beautiful venue, what a great weather day.

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Doug & Carol

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Charlotte & John

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End the day by driving backwards into Petaluma. Enjoy the rock-a-billy band Mother Truckers, From Austin, Texas - who happen to be going to Europe to end their "Van Tour". They are playing on September 18th at the "Blues Garage" in Ishernhagen, Germany. Do not miss it if you like loud, hard Rock. (It is a bit of a drive if you happen to live near Kaiserslautern, 486 kilometers. Ishernhagen is near Denmark, in northern Germany, where they happen to be finishing their tour.)

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A Day in the City of San Francisco

A trip to the City of San Francisco via the Ferry from Vallejo. One of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world.

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Carol likes to read the paper, especially the Food & Wine section. I get bored after the Business section is scanned - prefer to people watch. Lots of people using their smart phone to tether to the intranet on their computers. The ferry would be a great way to commute.

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I just cannot get over all of the wonderful architechtural details in the City. I keep taking pictures of features that I want to remember.

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We walked by the Club Fugazi on the way to Pier 39 from Lombard. It is still there and looking like fun. It has been only a couple of years since we last saw it so we are going to "Wicked" instead.

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A view of the City, Coit Tower in the background, from one of the many high spots.

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The famous view from the top of the Crooked Street.

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This is a world record for me... Note that the parking cost is quoted in 20-minute intervals. Is there no end to the gouging of humanity? Oh boy, am I becoming ever intolerant in my old age;)

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A very pretty ceiling in one of the indoor malls that happened to have one of Erica's favorite Spanish shops in it. Cannot remember the name of it though.

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I met a couple of work buddies down at China Town.

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Carol found a restaurant that I wanted to try again for lunch. I think that this is the second time I had their white rice chicken kun pao. The soup was not that great but the kun pao was good.

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We skipped the Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista as we were still full

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We stopped at the Ghiro for their daily, one-time-only please, free sample. Today we had milk chocolate with yummy runny caramel in the center.

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Please please please... someone wake me up when a tourist group of beautiful blonds from Sweden decide to take pictures sitting next to me. I gues he was taking a break from his good book by Mark Mazower.

Spending Some Time in the Napa Bay Area

We are staying with Carol's good friend Charlotte who lives across the street from the Nichols & Nichols Winery mansion. Charlotte remodeled her house first and the Nichols family used many of her ideas in their work. (For instance, they both repainted.) They had their house on the market last year for a mere $1.8 million. We love Charlottes little basement apartment and appreciate her letting us stay.

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We went to the Benicia Peddlers Fair with Charlotte and John. We had a great time, it was a beautiful day as well.

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Almost immediately we ran into old friends Pete and Carol. We met them in our former Hiddenbrooke County Club life. We will see them later this week - perhaps golf too.

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We went to the Main Street Glass Works and watched the blower make a paperweight. He was very generous with his information - John has a gas fired furnace at his shop that he may revamp with enough controllers to allow Charlotte to do Warm Glass work.

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An example of the paperweight work that he demonstrated at his open house. Beautiful stuff.

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John really tries hard to take a serious photo, I noticed his extreme cooperation immediately.

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Carol and Charlotte trying on hats at the Peddlers Fair. They are both soooo darn cute.

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Doug and John getting ready to scooter home to Napa from his shop in the Benicia Industrial Park. John is a talented machinist that has his own successful business. The German book binding machine makers have his name on their (s)hit list.

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Guess who else we saw downtown - the lovely Emily, Erica's friend from high school. She is looking marvelooooooooous. You go girl!!

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On Our Way to Napa/San Francisco

We have a tradition of stopping at the 7-Feathers Casino in southern Oregon on our way to & fro Napa to PDX. We each try to turn $20 into a Jackpot. Usually I win because I bet so slow on the penny machine that Carol loses before I finish. I then cash out whatever I have left and become the winner by virtue of "losing the least."

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This time Carol won the challenge. She took a picture of her winning ticket before she cashed it in. I told her she had alot of faith that her winnings were going to beat mine since I had won $10.05. She gave me a smug look and then clammed up on what she won.

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Finally, while supposedly taking a picture of Mount Shasta, she let what she had won slip. I was in a state of shock. I was so excited that for a brief moment I was wearing rose colored glasses. Life is good when you are married to a lucky, beautiful woman.