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I'm not really in Nappa, I just wanted to have another place in my heading. Having said that, I did go there yesterday and it was really nice. We went out there on our winery tour and got to do a bit of tasting and had a wander around Sonora. The first winery was a ranch that had been turned into a winery (I don't know why Americans don't want to call them vinyards?) We got to taste a few wines, two nice (the white and red) and one that was not so good (desert wine) but in fairness I don't like sweet wines anyway so it was probably nice! I think it was the Kirkland Ranch winery. You won't find any of there wines in shops though we kept getting told. They only sell it at the source or through their wine clubs. It was the same for all of them and they all had a thing for trying to sell you anything and everything, corkscrews, bottle pops, pourers ect. It was the same at every one. The second vinyard was a small family one and it had a really good atmosphere and again the wines were nice except for the desert one. The guide was especially entertaining in this place, I don't think he did anything special, he was just quite excentric. We went to Sonora for lunch and had a picnic in the garden in the middle of the town square. Apparently that is where the HQ was when the Bear Party declared California to be a seperate country (it didn't last long!) They did get their state flag as a result of it though. The final winery was set up by an Italian couple and was very tuscan in style, it was olso on the top of a hill overlooking the Sonora Valley, so the views were amazing.
Last night we made a valiant attempt to get out hostel room for free (honestly that WAS the motive) by playing beer pong in the hostel, they have a weekly tournament and free beer. We both (in seperate teams) went crashing out in the first round however so it was futile and we just had to settle for helping ouselves to the keg.
Today we did all of the touristy things, a boat trip under the Golden Gate Bridge, a trolley tour and we especially enjoyed the rental bikes because we got to ride out over the bridge to a samll town called Sosalito which has amazing views out over the bay area and San Francisco itself. The hills weren't so much fun, but we both managed. What was wierd though was the fact that the weather in San Francisco sucked today but a mile across the bay it was hot and had glorious sunshine. Its to do with where the city is and the fact thet the bay creates a micro weather system it you were interested. Its really strange though and coming back over the bridge you could actually see the line of the clouds where they stopped at the edge of the city limits and turned to blue sky!
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Lionel
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Greetings from Sunny Frodssham
Hi, great to hear about your trip as it happens, been reading both blogs, seems a great adventure with the plus of plenty of free alcohol! my type of holiday! been trying to think of something news wise to tell you but this is Frodsham the biggest event is the traffic lights changing! tell Vicky everyones fine, enjoy the trip, look forward to seeing the photo's.