About Me

My photo
West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

October 26, 2013

Wednesday - mostly travel

but we did taste a little more wine first.  We drove all the way back up to St. Helena and then out a side road to a quite small winery - the one Heather had found on line that had some of the charbono wine.  It was really beautiful out there and even though I was nervous about the trip making us late for the airport, I have to say I enjoyed seeing the winery.  They were the only winery we visited with green leaves still on the vines and they were crushing their final batch of grapes that morning when we arrived so I got to watch (and smell!) a little bit of that.  We were the only visitors there and there was just one young woman who took care of us.  I think at first she thought we were a little weird and, really - who can blame her?  We are!  But she warmed up after a bit and we had several good tastes there too.  Then started the drive back to Napa and the freeway to the airport.  Here are some pics from that winery whose name I of course can't remember unless maybe it was Nicholson - I think we maybe visited a winery named Nicholson (she said feebly...)

The small visitor's building and a pomegranate tree!  Never saw one before...
 The view from their backyard - gorgeous isn't it!  It took me a day or two to decide it was gorgeous but it is - just very different from West Virginia gorgeousness.  That's a bocce ball playing surface - I guess after a hard day of gathering and crushing grapes, it's good to relax with a little bocce.

This winery was the most winery looking one we visited.  It's vineyards were right there - their entry drive went right between 2 fields of them and then you pulled up to the building where grapes into wine happens.

 Which is right here:
 I was quite warm and the man doing all the hard work had a jacket and a hoodie on.
 And here are some of the tubs he's filled with that machine he's operating...they gave off a really pleasant aroma.
 Lots of barrels.  Don't know for a fact, but I would assume they're empties.  I don't think you'd leave barrels filled with wine sitting out in the sun, but maybe so...

Cactus in a vineyard!  Saw this type of cactus in many places in the Napa/Sonoma area.

We stayed on that back road to get back to Napa and oh my, it was lovely.  I would have to relent and say that it would be difficult to decide if Napa or Sonoma were lovelier than each other.  Once you get off that heavily trafficked and touristy main road in Napa, you find some beautiful scenery.

I won't bore you with the rest of Wednesday.  We made our way to the airport with no mishaps (below is my attempt at getting a pic of the Bay Bridge as we were crossing it) and I went through the angst of picking up my rental car which took I think around 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  Made my way out of the airport like I had been doing it regularly and was feeling real smug but unfortunately by now it was around 4:00 p.m. or a little after and I spent I would guess at least two hours inching my way away from San Francisco which made me arrive in Carpinteria much later than I had originally planned. 

But my hostess (whom I had never met but became acquainted with through the wonders of the internet, welcomed me very graciously and tomorrow I will finally start posting about my very pleasant days here in Carpinteria and my pleasure at getting to know Marlene and her husband Bill in person.

Good night to all and if you find getting to sleep difficult, just find a place near the ocean and leave he windows open - the sound of the waves coming in works like a charm (and now you are all hopefully quite envious!)


2 comments:

Chinch said...

Sounds fabulous and I'm so relieved you got yourself out of SF without any difficulties except traffic delays. Nice to see the pomegranate tree -- I planted one in Alabama that disappeared during Hurricane Ivan along with a eucalyptus tree I'd planted. So much for trying to pretend it was California! Hope all goes hunky-dory for your last few days. xoxo

Christopher said...

How neat, a pomegranate tree! There's one growing in the cathedral's Bishop's Garden, and I was told it bore fruit this year!
Happy travels...!

Italian Word Word of the Day

My Trusty Followers

Blog Archive