Vineyards, Mountains, Lakes and Fires: Napa Valley

A day at the winery

We loved the coast around Mendocino and even though we had the scary drive  to get there, we enjoyed our stay. Now we were moving on, to the Napa area and a five day stay on Lake Berryessa. We were looking forward to the best of both worlds, fishing for Hubby and lots of wine. Of course we had to go back over those coastal mountains, but we knew what we faced.

Another obstruction on the way to camp

Of course we forgot Napa was in a valley, which meant more mountains to climb over. But first, as we approached Sonoma, we saw smoke rising above the hills. It became heavier and darker as we approached. Then we hit the traffic and the detour; It was a lumber yard ablaze.  Fires, particularly in this dry an area, are scary.  Fortunately the fire fighters seemed to have it in control and we got back on our route up into the hills and Lake Berryessa.  We decided to unhitch the car from the RV and drive up separately. Not towing the car made the winding inclines much easier to deal with. We arrived at Lake Berryessa Resort and Marina  on Sunday afternoon and most of the traffic was headed out. In fact we pretty much had this lake and the resort to ourselves for the entire week.

Lake Berryessa, in the hills above Napa

Hubby fished every morning while I hiked up the hills and explored the resort. In the afternoon we headed into Napa, St. Helena or Calistoga. We toured wineries, did some sampling and even went to a Spa. I opted for the mud bath, hubby stuck with the hot mineral pool. The weather was beautiful and the scenery lovely as we ate, drank and made merry.  It doesn’t get much better.

From the Vine

…to the barrel

to the glass….