Napa Valley, just north of San Fran, is the home to wine making in California. Our first couple of nights were on a site surrounded by some of the best motorhomes in the world called Prevost. Out of a total of appx 30 pitches, 6 were occupied by these monsters which cost $2,000,000+ !
There’s a great Petrified Forest, definitely worth a visit. There’s also, one of 3 geysers in the world called “Old Faithful” . This erupts every 30 to 4o minutes.
Most importantly there’s wine tasting at any of the 450 vineyards. Our favourite was Sterling Wineries, owned by an Englishman and modelled on a typical Greek village. It even has three church bells rescued from a church in London which was destroyed in the Blitz during WW2. They ring out every 15 minutes and are a sight to behold. The winery is very modern and you get to see most of the wine-making process and, of course, get to sample the wine, which I have to say was delicious. Probably the quirkiest thing about the visit was the cable-car ride up to it – certainly something we’ve never experienced to get to a vineyard. A thoroughly enjoyable visit and if you do just one winery in the Napa Valley, Sterling Winery would be a good choice. The Napa Valley is a real ‘foodie heaven’ too. We particularly liked Calistoga, an historical town with the most wonderful buildings.
Incidently the naming of Calistoga is very interesting. When the Romans discovered America, Emperor Cali decided to base himself in the Napa Valley because of the abundance and qualty of the wine. He used to throw many outrageous toga parties and hence the name Calistoga! 🙂
From here we headed off to Lake Tahoe.