Living Our Dream

Napa, CA Part III: More Sightseeing

Napa is the heart of California Wine Country. Almost everywhere you go in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys there are stately wineries like the one in the photo below. We enjoyed seeing rows and rows of grape vines as we drove around the area.

 

But, as we said in our last post, there are also a lot of other things to see and do in the area. Just a few miles north of Sterling Vineyards that we wrote about in our first post about Napa, is California's Old Faithful Geyser. We stopped there on our way to the vineyard. The web site says the geyser erupts faithfully every 30 to 40 minutes and shoots 60 to 100 feet high. The day we were there, it was going off every 10 to 20 minutes, and it was only about 30 to 40 feet high. The eruptions aren't all that impressive, especially after we were in Yellowstone last year, but they are quite frequent so you don't have to wait long. The photo below shows California's Old Faithful Geyser.

 

Old Faithful Geyser is on private property. Records aren't clear, but it's likely the geyser was artificially made. The hydrothermal source is real, but there is evidence the geyser was formed when the drilling of a well back in the early 1800s accidentally tapped into the natural hydrothermal system. At any rate, the geyser was turned into a tourist attraction in 1974 when the property was sold to Howard and Olga Cream.

At the geyser site, they also have llamas, Jacobs four-horned sheep, and Tennessee fainting goats. You may have seen these goats on TV or on YouTube. They stiffen up and fall over when frightened. Actually, they do not faint, but they have a genetic problem with muscle control and their muscles sometimes lock up when the goats are frightened. The breed can be traced back to the 1880s in Tennessee. Of course, everyone tried to scare the goats, but they seemed to be used to the tourists by now and resisted fainting. The photo below shows a Tennessee fainting goat.

Another interesting place we visited was Cornerstone Sonoma in Sonoma, CA. Cornerstone Sonoma is a little hard to describe. It is an eclectic collection of shops, galleries, a cafe, gardens, and wine-tasting rooms. Admission is free. We went there to see the gardens; but when we saw the oversize Adirondack chair right out front, we knew we were in for some surprises.



One surprise was the shop that sold salvaged architectural artifacts and other large-scale decorative items. Shown in the photo below are just a few of the things they had including a fountain that looked like it came from an old town square in a Mexican village, a tangled piece of driftwood, and a pair of huge doors from a Spanish villa.

 

They also had things like bathtubs carved out of one piece of stone, a hippo skull, an elephant skull, millstones, stone statues taken from old buildings, and many unusual items from all over the world. Prices were astronomical, but it was fun to look.

There was also a shop that sold garden accessories such as large crocks and cement, stone, and ceramic fountains.



The shops were fun, but we did go for the gardens. There are about 20 garden vignettes that have been designed by artists, landscape architects, and garden designers. Some were pretty modern and pretty "artsy," but we tended to like the ones that were a little more traditional. Most of the gardens were very striking. The tree in the photo below was one of the more "artsy" (but very interesting) ones. The tree was dead and scheduled for removal, but landscape architect Claude Cormier gave the tree new life by covering it with 25,000 blue Christmas balls. When viewed from the proper angle at the right time of day, it almost seems to disappear against the sky.



Another garden we liked was the Garden of Contrasts. The soft, tan grass swayed in the breeze and contrasted the stiff, spiky agave. The long-stemmed flowers swayed in the breeze with the grass and added a little punch of color.

 

The garden in the next photo was also a little more traditional. It had recently been planted, so there wasn't any information available on it yet. It featured waves of purple candytuft, feathery papyrus, and pink poppies.

 

Paul liked the ceramic bamboo decorating the garden shown in the next photo.



There was also a Mediterranean meadow with different types of grasses.



The next photo is a composite of some of the interesting flowers in the gardens.

After our stay in Napa, we changed our travel itinerary and headed farther inland instead of back toward the coast as we originally planned. We just weren't ready for 50-60 degree temperatures and clouds again. Check out our next post to see our new destination.

Napa, CA Part II: Sightseeing

We came to Napa to see the beauty of California's Wine Country, but it seems the flowers grow there almost as well as the grapes. Almost all the wineries were lavishly landscaped. We also happened upon the nature center in the photo below just driving along the road and we stopped for a photo. The whole hillside was covered with flowers, decorative shrubs, and ornamental grasses.

 

Another thing we stopped to see was the Charles M. Schultz Museum located in nearby Santa Rosa about an hour northwest of Napa. Charles M. Schultz (1922 - 2000) was the cartoonist who drew the Peanuts comic strip. Margery's dad always liked the Peanuts comic strip, and that's probably the reason she is fond of it, too. In the next photo, Margery is scratching Snoopy's nose outside the museum.

Not to be left out, the photo below shows Paul making friends with Charlie Brown.



For years, many Peanuts fans flocked to see traveling exhibits of the original drawings for the cartoon strips. With the 50th anniversary of the Peanuts cartoon strip approaching in the late 1990s, several of Schultz's friends wanted a permanent place for fans to be able to view his original drawings. However, Charles Schultz didn't consider himself to be a "museum piece," so he resisted the idea. A local historian, Schultz's wife, and his attorney continued working on the idea of a museum, and Charles Schultz eventually become more enthusiastic. Unfortunately, he would pass away in 2000 before the museum could be completed. The museum opened in 2002.

The site chosen for the museum was in the area where Schultz lived, worked, and hung out for the last 30 years of his life - near his studio, his home, and next to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which Charles Schultz owned and visited every day.

The Peanuts syndicated cartoon strip first appeared in seven newspapers in 1950. Charles Schultz announced his retirement in 1999 for health reasons and passed away shortly thereafter. Although there are animated specials under development (the story lines are based on themes from the comic strips Schultz has drawn over the years), by Schultz's wishes no new Peanuts cartoon strips will ever be drawn. Cartoons still appear daily, but they are from the 17,897 strips already in existence.

Inside the museum, there are loads of original Peanuts drawings on display. These include not only the formal drawings that Charles Schultz inked for final publication, but also numerous pencil sketches that he drew as he worked out his ideas in preparation for the final drawings. At the end of the day, Schultz used to wad the sketches up and throw them away. His secretary would rescue them from the trash, take them home, and iron them flat again.

Photography isn't permitted in any of the areas were there is original art on display, but we were able to photograph this collage of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.  This was a common story line as Lucy would yank the football away every time at the last second, and poor Charlie Brown would end up flat on his back. 

The collage, which is at least 12 or 15 feet wide, is made up of ceramic tiles that are in the form of actual cartoon strips. The lines on the collage come from dark areas on the cartoon strips. The next photo shows a closeup of some of the tiles.



The museum also has a hands-on drawing area for kids of all ages. You can make an original drawing or color a pre-printed drawing. They post the drawings for a day or two, then take them down and save ALL of them in 3-ring binders. Margery is checking out some of the drawings in the photo below.



She's pointing out one that was particularly cute. In case you can't make it out, Snoopy is colored pink and Charlie Brown is saying, "I told you not to eat so much cotton candy!"



Another fun place we visited in the area was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA, about 20 miles to the west of Napa. The visitor center is shown in the photo below.

 

There are factory tours, but, unfortunately, the factory is shut down the entire month of June for maintenance. It was also a Saturday when we were there, but they had tours anyway - even on the weekends. Since we entered a food preparation area, we had to wear mandatory head coverings, even though they were not in production. The photo below shows Margery making a fashion statement in her Jelly Belly hat.



Photography wasn't permitted in the factory, but there wasn't much to photograph anyway since they were not in operation. However, there were excellent videos documenting the process at various stops along the elevated walkway.

Jelly Belly was started in 1976, and Jelly Belly considers their jelly beans to be gourmet quality. They have 50 flavors, including some unusual ones like buttered popcorn (their number one seller), jalapeno, toasted marshmallow, A & W root beer, dark chocolate (new), and cream soda. Jelly Belly uses all natural flavorings where possible. The centers of Jelly Bellies are also flavored, not just the outer shell like most other jelly beans.

We learned it can take 7 to 21 days to make jelly beans. Jelly beans are made in several stages, and they must rest to "cure" for several days between each stage.

The jelly beans are checked at various stages throughout the production. At the end of production, the Jelly Bellies are inspected again for size. Jelly Bellies that don't measure up are called "belly flops" and are sold at a discount in the store in the visitor center.

There was also a gallery of mosaics in the factory depicting various famous people. These were made from thousands of Jelly Belly candies. We were able to get the photo below of the mosaic of Ronald Reagan because it was in the lobby. Ronald Reagan was a big fan of Jelly Bellies while he was governor of California, and he carried the tradition with him to the White House causing Jelly Belly sales to soar. Blueberry was a new flavor created for Ronald Reagan's inauguration so they would have a flavor that was blue in color. Three tons of red, white, and blue jelly beans were consumed during the inauguration festivities.



Jelly Belly makes several other types of candy beside jelly beans, including Sunkist Fruit Gems, which Paul LOVES! Even though he is on a low carb diet, he HAD to buy a few chocolate-covered, orange-flavored Sunkist Fruit Gems before we left. Yum!

There's still more to see in the Napa area, so check out our next post.

Napa, CA Part I: Wine Country

We left Sacramento and drove a little over an hour to the southwest to Napa, CA. In Napa, we stayed at Napa Valley Expo RV Park, which is another fairground campground. Napa Valley Expo RV Park is a very nice, full hookup campground that has been recently redone. There are 18 sites, most of which are pull-throughs, except the back row where we were, which are back-ins. The sites are decent width and are extra long. The pads are newly paved with grass between. The photo below shows our site at Napa Valley Expo.

 

The campground is fairly quiet, except for a little noise from local traffic on the two-lane road running past the campground into town. It was probably more noticeable since we were in the back row. Fortunately, traffic is almost non-existent at night, and there are no big trucks. You can also hear the Wine Train that runs through town a couple of times a day. The train doesn't run late at night and passes through town at about 5 miles an hour, so there are only a few short toots of the horn.

When we first arrived, we found out the weekly Napa Chef's Market was scheduled to kick off for the season that evening, so we headed downtown after dinner. There are cooking demonstrations every hour or so where chefs from local restaurants prepare dishes with free samples for the crowd. The photo below shows Chef Terry Letson and his assistant. The seats were all taken by the time we got there, so we didn't hang around to try to get a taste of the finished results.

 

In addition to the cooking demonstrations, the Chef's Market had a few crafts, a lot of food and wine booths, and a farmers' market. The photo below shows Margery checking out some of the delicious-looking fruits.

Of course, there was wine available for sampling and for purchase either by the glass or by the bottle. The gentleman in the photo below is explaining the virtues of the red wine sample he is offering.

 

Even though Paul doesn't drink alcohol and Margery only takes a few sips now and then, the reason we came to Napa is to see some of the beautiful wine country that the Napa and Sonoma Valleys are so famous for. The earliest wineries date back to the mid 1800s, and many of the original wineries still exist. The wineries struggled during prohibition and also because of an infestation of aphid-like insects, but they began to thrive again after WWII.

There are over 400 wineries located in Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and in the nearby Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River Valleys. The soil and climate make this area ideal for viticulture. Some of the biggest names in American wine are located here, and there are also many smaller "mom and pop" wineries as well.

You can tour wine country on your own or you can take a minibus or limo tour and let someone else drive - not a bad idea if you're planning to do a lot of tasting. We already mentioned the Wine Train where you can ride restored, vintage railroad cars through beautiful wine country while tasting wine from their onboard selection or while enjoying a gourmet meal in the dining car. They also have numerous theme tours such as a murder mystery, comedy night, and tasting seminars with area winemakers.

Upon the recommendation of a friend, we opted to tour Sterling Vineyards. Sterling offers a unique experience with a ride on an aerial tram to the winery at the top of a hill. At the winery, you get panoramic views of the vineyards and surrounding areas. In addition, there is a self-guided tour of the wine-making facilities with tasting along the way. There is also a tasting room and wine shop at the end of the tour. Since we weren't as interested in tasting as we were in seeing the scenery, we chose to visit Sterling Vineyards because of the tram ride.

Sterling Vineyards is located about 25 miles up the Napa Valley in the town of Calistoga. The vineyard is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.

The photo below shows the lower tram terminal and the attractive landscaping.

Below is a composite of some of the beautiful flowers we found in the gardens at Sterling Vineyards.

There is a charge of $20 for adults to ride the tram and to participate in wine tasting. We found an online coupon for $5 off (We love our satellite internet access!), so that made it a little more reasonable, especially since we weren't going to sample much wine. The next photo shows the tram car ahead of ours departing from the lower terminal.

 

We were next, and it only took a few minutes to get the top. The photo below shows Margery getting ready to enjoy the view as we took off for the top.

 

We went over a pond with a huge colony of water lilies.

 

At the top, Margery liked the sample of a not-too-dry sauvignon blanc they were pouring. The lovely view in the photo greeted us at the start of our tour of the wine-making area.

Fall is harvest time, and there isn't much going on at the wineries at this time of year. In spring, all the action is in the vineyards tending the vines. The vines had recently leafed out and small grapes are just started to form. The grapes in the photo below are less than a quarter inch in diameter.

Although the wine-making area was quiet, we still got to see the facilities from an elevated walkway where they had plaques explaining the process. First, the grapes are crushed. White grapes are then pressed, but red grapes go directly from the crusher to primary fermentation to undergo the first part of fermentation on the skins. Almost all grape juice used for wine is white, but red wine gets its color and bold, complex flavors from the skins.

From the crusher and/or press, the juice goes to the primary fermentation vats. Some wine, especially white wine, is fermented in stainless steel to preserve the light, fruity flavors.

 

Other wines, especially reds, are fermented in large oak vats to add complex flavors and to help soften any harshness.

Secondary fermentation takes place in oak barrels like the ones in the background of the photo above.

After fermentation and initial aging, the wine is bottled and aged for an additional period. Red wines are aged for a longer time than whites. Red wine that is aged properly will often continue to improve for many years after it's bottled.

From the wine-making process, the self-guided tour goes to the south terrace, which is shown in the photo below.

More wine tasting is available on the terrace. Margery sampled a second white wine, and we checked out the views. The next photo shows us on the south terrace.

 

And the next two photos show views of the surrounding vineyards.

 

From the terrace, we walked through the tasting rooms and the wine shop, then caught a tram back down to the parking area. After our visit to Sterling Vineyards, we went off in search of some new sightseeing adventures.

Sacramento, CA Part II: California Railroad Museum

In addition to being near the place where gold was discovered, Sacramento was also the starting point for the western end of the first transcontinental railroad. It is fitting that Sacramento is also the home of the California State Railroad Museum. The State Railroad Museum is a tribute to the "iron horse" and its role in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It was a "must see" recommended by a couple of Sacramento residents we met at the Stockyards in Fort Worth. Like Sutter's Fort that we wrote about in our last post, the railroad museum is run by the California State Park System.

The museum is extremely well done. There are 21 faithfully restored locomotives and rail cars on display. There are also exhibits of photos and artifacts relating to railroad history. Throughout the museum, there are many VERY WELL DONE life-like figures that help bring the stories to life. One example is the scene shown below where railroad workers are shown repairing track.

A major part of the museum is appropriately devoted to the building of the first transcontinental railroad. Theodore Judah was the chief construction engineer for the Sacramento Valley Railroad that ran 22 miles from Sacramento to Folsom. Upon completion of the line in 1855, Judah began making surveys of the mountains looking for a practical route for a railroad to connect California to the east. Having decided on a route through the infamous Donner Pass, Judah was unable to find backing in San Francisco to build the railroad, so he turned to Sacramento.

Judah contacted a group of four investors, who later became known as the Big Four, and they formed the Central Pacific Railroad in 1861. Central Pacific surveyors carefully plotted the path for the railroad. Expensive tunnels, grading, cuts, and fills were required for the route. In the photo below, Chinese laborers are depicted transporting blasting supplies. Many of the laborers for the Central Pacific were Chinese.

The next photo shows the first locomotive of the Central Pacific Railroad. It was built in 1862 in Philadelphia and had to be transported by ship around the tip of South America. The locomotive is a 4-4-0 type, meaning it has four leading wheels, four drive wheels, and no trailing wheels.

With the Civil War going on, many in California were beginning to express sympathies with the South, and there were rumblings of a secession movement. Therefore, there was an urgent need to for Washington, D. C. to establish a link with California. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act to aid in building the transcontinental railroad. The act provided funds to the railroads for each mile of track laid, plus generous grants of public lands. The railroads sold unused land at a handsome profit.

Back in the 1860s, there were several track widths in use in the country. When rail cars came to the end of one rail line, freight had to be transferred to different cars. The Pacific Railroad Act specified a gauge of 56 1/2 inches, effectively establishing a standard track width going forward for the whole country.

While the Central Pacific Railroad was laying track from Sacramento eastward, the Union Pacific Railroad was laying track westward from their starting point in Council Bluffs, IA. Although the Union Pacific started later, they ended up laying more track than the Central Pacific because of the more difficult route the Central Pacific had through the mountains. The two railroads finally met at Promontory, UT. The transcontinental railroad was opened on May 10, 1869 with the driving of the last spike.

In addition to an emphasis on the transcontinental railroad, the museum has many other historic locomotives and rail cars. The photo below shows Margery with a Nevada Central Railway 1880s narrow gauge coach.

And the next photo shows the interior of the car. Again, life-like figures help bring the scene to life.

The monster in the next photo is Locomotive No. 4294 built in 1944 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It is an oil-fired, type 4-8-8-2 (four leading wheels, two sets of eight drive wheels, and 2 following wheels. It weighs over 1 million pounds. One of the unique features about this locomotive is it has a cab-forward design.

One of the newest locomotives on display was this Western Pacific Railroad F-7 diesel. General Motors built about 7,500 of these F-series locomotives between 1939 and 1960. When Paul was into HO-scale model railroading in the early 1960s, the F-7 was a very popular locomotive. 

Speaking of model railroading, the museum also has an excellent collection of Lionel toy trains. A few examples of the many toy trains on display are shown in the photo below.

There was also a model train layout complete with buildings, autos, lights, and even an airplane in the sky (top center just above the mountain in the background).

The California Railroad Museum is located at the eastern end of Old Sacramento, which is a collection of 53 historic buildings covering about 28 acres along the Sacramento River. This area used to be the heart of downtown Sacramento until the business district moved eastward where is is located today. The area of Old Sacramento became a rundown, neglected, high-crime area. In the 1960s, plans were set into place to redevelop the area, and many of the historic buildings were saved and restored.

We took the long way back to the car and walked around the block. The buildings now house lots of shops selling everything from toys to fine jewelry. There are also a few bars and numerous restaurants, like the Mexican restaurant on the second floor of the building in the photo below.

The next two photos show more of the buildings in Old Sacramento.

 

There was also a statue commemorating the Pony Express.

The pony Express was an express mail service that ran from St. Joseph, MO, to Sacramento. By using the Pony Express, the total time for mail to travel from coast to coast could be reduced to 10 days. The service only operated from April, 1860 to October, 1861, but it proved transcontinental travel was possible year-round. Pony Express announced its closure two days after the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed connecting Omaha and Sacramento.

After the museum and our stroll through Old Sacramento, we needed to hit a Walmart. There aren't all that many Walmarts in California, and VERY few of them are Super Walmarts. In other states, it seems like 80 to 90% of all Walmarts are Super Walmarts. In California, it's the other way around. There aren't that many Walmarts to begin with, and only about 10 to 20% are Super Walmarts. Sacramento is one of those rare locations that has a Super Walmart, so we stopped on our way back to the motor home to stock up on supplies.

From Sacramento, we backtracked a little and headed southwest to Napa, CA. We'll have more info about Napa in our next post.

Sacramento, CA Part I: Sutter's Fort

After going into San Francisco on Saturday to tour the city and on Sunday to visit Alcatraz, we drove about a hundred miles north on Monday to Sacramento where we pulled into Cal Expo RV Park. Cal Expo is the California State Fairgrounds.

Cal Expo RV Park is a paved parking lot with full-hookup sites. We had 30 amp electrical service, but 50 amp is available. The park has pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. There are a few trees here and there, especially along the back. The campground was fairly quiet with little traffic noise and only an occasional, very distant train. The photo below shows our site at Cal Expo.

Sacramento is the capital of California, and it is also near the location of the discovery of gold in 1848 that started the California Gold Rush. The discovery was made by workmen during the construction of Sutter's Mill. Sutter's Mill is long gone, but there is a reconstruction of Sutter's Fort, so that's where we went. Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is administered by California State Parks.

John Sutter was born in Germany in 1803, but he was considered a Swiss citizen because his father was Swiss. When Margery learned he was Swiss (her mother was VERY Swiss), she wanted to learn more about John Sutter. He married in 1828; but in 1834 after economic hard times, Sutter left his wife, children, and debts behind in Switzerland and sailed for America.

John Sutter, whose given name was Johan, changed his name when he came to America. He traveled around the country, and even to Hawaii and Alaska, before arriving in California in 1839. California was part of Mexico at the time, and Sutter became a Mexican citizen in order to be eligible for land. He received a grant of almost 50,000 acres from the Mexican Government.

In those days, there were fewer than 1,000 Europeans in California, so Sutter built an adobe fort for protection near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers using Native American labor. Sutter named his settlement New Helvetia (New Switzerland). Sutter's Fort is shown in the photo below.

The fort had walls that were 2 1/2 feet thick and 15 to 18 feet high. The compound was 320 feet long. For protection, there were numerous cannons like the ones in the photo below.

 

Small arms were stored in the guardhouse next to the gate.

Farming and ranching were John Sutter's primary sources of income. He grew wheat, barley, and cotton. He also had a blanket factory, a grist mill, and a bakery, which is shown in the photo below.

 

Bread was baked in a beehive oven like the one in the next photo.

 

Many travelers found temporary refuge in Sutter's Fort. Settlers for New Helvetia were sometimes recruited from the ranks of the travelers passing through. The photo below shows typical guest quarters at the fort.

Although no more than 50 people stayed inside the fort at any given time, there was also housing outside the fort for Sutter's guests and his vaqueros (cowboys). By 1845, Sutter had 1,700 horses and mules, 4,000 cattle, and 3,000 sheep, and the vaqueros helped take care of the animals.

There were several interpreters at the fort depicting life back in the 1840s. One girl was explaining early medical instruments. Medical care back then was very grim to say the least. There were few, if any, pain killers or anesthetics. She had a fairly extensive display of medical "tools," and was knowledgeable about explaining what they were used for.

 

The fellow in the next photo was a trapper. He showed examples of pelts from various animals and explained how different animals were trapped.

 

In 1848, one of the workers who was constructing a sawmill for John Sutter about 50 miles east of the fort was deepening the tailrace of the mill when he discovered gold. Sutter tried to keep the discovery secret, but word leaked out. Soon, thousands arrived in California to seek their fortune.

At first, John Sutter made lots of money selling supplies to the miners. His wife and children were finally able to join him. Eventually, however, miners began to steal from him, and his lack of business sense allowed unscrupulous men to swindle him. Eventually, he lost the fort and his nearby farm. He finally ended up settling in Lititz, PA, where he died in 1880. He wasn't exactly penniless, but he had lost his land and his dream.

 Sutter's Fort fell into disrepair, and by the 1850s, all that was left standing was the central building. The Native Sons of the West purchased the fort in 1880 and donated it to the state. The fort was reconstructed in 1891. The central building is shown in the photo below.

One may think of John Sutter as a failure because he ended up loosing his land and his fortune, but he played an important role in the history of California. His settlement paved the way for the founding of the city of Sacremento, and he helped an untold number of other pioneers, travelers, and settlers fulfill their dreams.

After our visit to Sutter's Fort, we took time for one more photo...

 

...then headed back to the motor home. There's more history in Sacramento, so look for our next post.