Living Our Dream: Napa, CA Part II: Sightseeing

June 29, 2009

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!