Yes Sur! Wine Country Again!

After Sequoia, we had an entire day to waste. We were planning on meeting up with my buddy Steve in Sacramento on Sunday but since it was only Saturday and we were currently stationed about 2 hours from Sacramento, we didn't know what to do. We thought briefly of Napa Valley again or even heading back to San Francisco to stay another night at the Horton Hippie Hotel, but in the end we decided we should do something new with our time. During our first trip to Monterey, we didn't get a chance to drive along the 70 mile stretch of Highway 1 known as Big Sur. It was too late in the day for us to start down the road and we were headed toward Salt Lake City, which is in the complete opposite direction. Now, having a day to spare, we decided to make the drive. We figured that we would end up close enough to San Francisco that the HHH would have to make room for us, even if it was on late notice, and we would get to experience another section of California that we would have otherwise missed. As we headed for the coast we passed though a valley which was lined with wineries and vividly reminded us of Napa. I tried to convince Katie to stop at one of them and do some tastings but at first she thought I was joking and by the time she realized I was serious we had already passed most of the wineries. This brought Napa Valley into our minds again remembering how much fun we had there and also how much we left unexplored. Soon we began to plot a half day trip the following day to Napa. Steve was intending to climb Mt. Shasta for the weekend and wasn't planning on being back in

Sacramento before Sunday at all. This would give us a whole morning to spend in Napa before Steve was even off the mountain. Our extra day of ambiguity was slowly shaping up to be packed full of fun. We reached the coast and as we drove north we passed by the Hearst Castle and stopped at a couple beaches, one of which was populated by a large herd of Elephant Seals. As we were standing on the beach watching the seals fight one another

or cover themselves in sand, both Steve and Angella ominously decided to call as if they both knew that our future plans hinged on them both. Angella was just giving us a shout to see how our travels were going and currently had no idea that we were even in the area let alone thinking about crashing at her

place tonight, but Steve was calling for a different reason. He had came off the mountain a day early because of the severe winds and snow they were facing during the climb. Therefore, he would be in Sacramento a day early and also had a free day, Sunday, to spend with us. After hearing this news we decided that we would bypass San Francisco for once and head up to Sacramento instead to hang out with Steve. Though we finally had a plan for our day, we didn't alter our Big Sur experience one bit. We drove slowly up the coast soaking in the beautiful scenery and stopping occasionally to

get out and snap some photos. At one lookout we stopped for about 30 minutes, eating our lunch of Wheat Thins and trail mix while enjoying a beer and sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. Our next stop was at Julia Pffeiffer Burns State Park where we skirted the entrance

fee by parking on the road then hiked to the coast where there was a gorgeous view of a waterfall that fell into the ocean near the edge of a cove. This was the only small hike that we actually did the entire day. We had others planned but all the maps that we had of the area were not very detailed and we ended up missing most of the stops, not truly knowing where they were. However, we did find one other thing that we were looking for, a restaurant called Nepenthe. Katie's pop culture book had told us about this place. It raved that Nepenthe had

one of the best views of the Big Sur coastline and that it was often frequented by celebrities. Though we saw no one famous and opted to pass on the over 1 hour wait to get a table, we were still able to order some drinks and appetizers then sit on the patio outside enjoying the atmosphere and food. After our elite dining experience, we hopped back in CJ and prepared for the long drive to Sacramento. Our timing was again perfect and just as we past through Monterey and Salinas once more, the sun began to set and we had nothing to concentrate on but the open road. After a series of U-turns and backtracking we finally made it to Steve's hotel where he had been anxiously awaiting our arrival for about 15 minutes after we told him we were just at the exit. We sat around for a bit, catching up with each other about work and travels, then decided this would be better discussed over a beer. We headed to Hoppy Brewing Company where we had a late dinner while making plans for the next day. Katie and I had already secretly planned on convincing Steve to visit Napa Valley with us. After our brush with wineries from this morning the idea had really taken hold again in our minds to revisit Napa but we weren't sure if Steve would be up for it. We introduced the idea to Steve and he was immediately on board. It was decided, we were going back to Wine Country!!!

The next day we woke up, ate a quick free breakfast at the hotel, then headed toward Napa Valley. We had no plan for the day whatsoever. Katie and I being novices at the very best and Steve never having been there before made it hard for us to make a schedule to follow. Our loose plan was to visit the 2 wineries in Napa that Angella had taken us to and then branch out making stops at places that we thought looked fun. The weather today was completely different then on our first trip. When we visited Napa with Angella the rain never stopped all day and we were cold and wet during our tastings. This also meant that the place was much less populated

than on a normal day because no one wanted to endure the rain. Today was a beautifully bright day, with scattered clouds and mild temperatures. We noticed immediately that more people were visiting today because of the slow moving traffic we had to endure to even get near the valley. On the way there Katie had expressed an interest to stop at a cheap winery, one that we would find at 7-11 or Wallgreens, just to see what their presentations were like compared to these elite Napa wineries that only sell bottles at the winery itself. We had planned again to start our Napa trip at the Rubicon Estate but after a while we realized that we had passed it up. In what ended up to be a fateful decision, I turned the car around at the Sutter Home Winery simply because the parking lot was the first one big enough to turn around in. The lot was also completely empty, but once Katie realized what winery it was, she wanted to go in to satisfy her desire to see how the cheap wine is made. Steve and I debated it for a minute but after seeing a sign that said "complimentary tastings" we decided that we had to give it a shot. We entered the winery and we were greeted with an ominous silence. With no one around and no music playing, we thought for a moment that they were closed or we had wondered somewhere we weren't

supposed to be. Out of no where a young guy about our age popped up and asked us if we wanted the free tasting. We said yes and were treated to an unusually intimate experience in which we got to talk and joke with our server Miguel, getting to know him pretty well by the end of the tasting. He even pulled out a few bottles for us to taste that weren't on the tasting list and treated us to a whole separate tasting that was usually reserved for tours, all free mind you. At our tastings at other wineries we had usually sampled wines ranging from $20 to $60 but here the range reflected the mass production of the place and ranged from $5 to $15 per bottle. During our talk with Miguel, it came up that we were new to wine country and had no idea where we were going for the rest of the day. He took it upon himself to show us, what was in his mind, the best and brightest that Napa had to offer. He took out a map and highlighted all his favorites basically mapping out the rest of the day for us. He even gave us a card for a free tasting at the Silverado Brewing Company which is where he recommended we have dinner at. Before we took up Miguel's suggestions, we wanted to make sure that we covered our bases, visiting the wineries that we already knew were awesome, specifically Rubicon and V Sattui. V Sattui actually came recommended by Miguel too, so we planned to make it our mid day stop for cheese and bread. We went to Rubicon but didn't do a tasting this time, and just walked the grounds and inside the mansion this time enjoying the beautiful estate complimented by the nice weather. Our next stop was Peju where we had another great intimate tasting which is apparently what they are known for around Napa. There was 6 of us to a server who explained the wines and what we were to look for in them at each time we took a sip. We had a lot of fun here since we are all amateurs at wine tasting pretending like we knew what was going on inside our taste buds. By now we were hungry so we went back to V Sattui for some food after another round of tastings. Because of the nice weather, this place was incredibly different than when we first visited. The cellar which we ate in before was now closed and there were people scattered everywhere around the lawn picnicing. Inside we were shoulder to shoulder moving through people like penned animals. Steve, Katie, and I each picked up a small cube of cheese,

and some crackers then were lucky enough to snag a table outside to eat on. After finishing lunch we made a quick stop at Heitz Cellar Winery where Miguel told us that we could get another

free tasting, then headed up the road to Castillo de Amorosa. This place was simply stunning. Another of Miguels recommendations, Castillo de Amorosa is literally a castle on a hill. It is huge and imposing, decked out in Medieval furnishings, and comes equipped with a draw bridge, great hall, torch lit halls, and most importantly, a cellar. They also had a sort of petting zoo outside

which had sheep, chickens, lambs, and three huge peacocks that were all roaming the fields and vineyards near the castle. We walked and played around the castle for a little while before making our way into the cellar to do our actual tasting. After visiting the castle, we weren't sure that any other setting would quite compare to the one we just left. We decided to

abandon wineries for the moment and made our way to the nearby Old Faithful Geyser, well at least California's version. This place was quite small and set up so that you can eat a picnic while watching the geyser go off every few minutes. When we got there the cashier told us that it was going off every 15 minutes but in reality it went off about every 5. We watched it go off twice then headed over to the petting zoo. Like any good tourist trap, this place had multiple things to

entertain its guests while the main attraction was taking its breaks. Katie got some food to feed the llamas and goats with and after it was all gone we ran back to the geyser through a

forest of bamboo emerging just in time to watch Old Faithful to go off one more time. By now it was 5 p.m. which meant that most wineries were now closed. There was only one winery on Miguel's list that we had not yet visited but we knew that it was even pointless to attempt. The draw of this place is that you have to take a gondola to the top of a mountain in order to even get to the tasting room! At least we have something to look forward to next time :) We made our way to the Silverado Brewing Company for dinner, forgetting all about our free tasting which Miguel had given to us, then headed back to Sacramento where we opened up a few of our favorite purchases and drank them in the most sophisticated manner; out of plastic cups while lounging in our pajamas in the hotel room.