Another Sunny Day!

/Debbie, Joe and I met for our first cup of coffee at the Calistoga Roastery and then we moved to an organic coffee place for our second cup.  I had decaf, but it was good.  Then we went back to the Roastery to join everyone for breakfast.

The plan this morning was to go to the Robert Lewis Stevenson State Park and hike.  We found a place that was a little too hard for me but I survived it.  We did end at a gorgeous view point.

the siblings

Madrone tree, interesting bark

fun rocks to climb on and a great view

Jamie taking a selfie ... no wait it was a panorama picture

Going down was oh, so much easier.  We got back to the hotel in time to go for lunch at a close deli.  Debbie and I shared a sandwich.  

Then Debbie, Joe and I went for beer tasting.  Only to find that they did not have beer tasting.  I had a hard cider and Joe had a beer at the Hydro Grill.

While we were doing that some people came back to the pool. 

2:30 pm we met back in Jamie and Pam's room to get ready for our Costello di Amorosa (castle of Love) for our wine tour.  http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/ Cool place.  We had a 3:10 tour, which included a bunch of tastings.  It was fun. 

Dario built this castle in 1994-2007 approximately.  He wanted to recreate the feel of an authentic Tuscan Castle within the rules of construction in USA today.  We had a tour of the whole castle, ending in the dungeon for wine tasting. 

great hall

sitting in the hot seat in the torture chamber

some people did the chocolate wine pairing

It was chilly so they had some cloaks for people

what a fun time

very nice live music during dinner

I had a ruby tini (ruby grapefruit martini)

and a vegetarian gnocchi - yummy

And then we had to go for ice cream at our favorite spot, the sugar train. 

We went on a short walk and then to Jamie and Pam's room to visit.  We brought wine, cheese, chocolate and olives.  Quite a feast.  You would think that we had never seen food before.  All in all a great day (other than the heat)

Hot, Hot, Hot

Jamie, Pam and Linda arrived about 10:45 pm last night.  We helped them to get checked into their rooms..  Jamie and Pam have the nicest room.  It is a suite.  It is great because it gives us a nice place to congregate.

Debbie, Joe and I met early to go for coffee at Calistoga Roastery. It was a great place.  Then we all gathered at 8 am to go for breakfast at 8 am.  We went to the Cafe Sarafina.  Food was good but it was extremely noisy and we could not all sit together.

Debbie and Joe

Jamie and Pam

Steve and Jennifer

Event of the day was to go to the Bothe State Park and walked the redwood trail.

are we lost yet?

poison oak was everywhere

pretty trail but it was starting to heat up, so it was time to head back and go to lunch and then the pool.  We ate at the Calistoga Roastery.  Great sandwiches.  

The pool felt great  Next time I will wear sandals to the pool  The cement was burning.  

After the pool it was time to head out for ice cream, window shopping, wine tasting and rambling until dinner.  We went to 2 wineries.  

Up Valley Winery we had a mix of red and white.  Some people had a white flight, some and red and Debbie and I did a little of both. Then we went next door to the Huge Bear Winery, which happened to be in an old bank.  Both of these were just tasting rooms.

Time for dinner

A fabulous Italian restaurant Hotel D'Amici.  

I had a very tender steak and potatoes.

dessert was ice cream from a different place.  This was a local ice cream place.  I guess it won the price.  so we will probably be back.  I was able to resist the ice cream both times.  Figured that I was having the wine.

Then we gathered to try to figure out tomorrow's schedule.  I think that we have a plan.  

One thing we had not calculated on when we made the plan to come here was on hot it was going to be.  It was 97 yesterday and 93 today.  This had reduced the number of options of activities.  Oh well.  We are still finding enough to do.

   

Calistoga Aug 12, 2016

Today was a travel day and a confusing one at that.  Joyce picked us up at 7:30 am to get us to the MAX station.  Everything went pretty smoothly.  It was a Horizon Flight so there was complimentary beer and wine but I was not ready for that at 10 am.  We landed before noon in Santa Rosa.

An outdoor cafe at the Santa Rosa airport.  Kinda cool to watch the planes take off and land.

We went for lunch at mOmO's.  It was quite good.  I had a BLAST sub sandwich and George had a tofu curry bowl

We hung out there waiting for Nathan.  He was supposed to land in San Francisco at 12:30 and then catch the 1:30 shuttle bus that goes to Santa Rosa airport.  But he was delayed so he missed that bus.  So he took the BART to the furthest north stop and we drove down.

Bridge into San Francisco.  We waited at the Richmond stop for him.

Artwork at the Richmond BART station.   Then the 2 hour drive to Calistoga.

We stopped along the way to buy some wine.  Nathan also bought some cheese.  It has been 3 months since he had good cheese.

I could not believe the constant line up of vineyards, one right after the other.

Calistoga hot springs resort.  Steve and Jenifer got there about an hour before we did.  The flew into Sacramento.  It was a long drive.  Debbie, Joe and niece Sharon flew into Santa Rosa and went directly to the Indian restaurant for dinner.  We all met there.  Delicious meal.  

Jennifer in front of Pamposh Indian restaurant. No butter chicken and no south Indian foods like biriyanis (rice dish).

night view of the resort pool.  

George, Nathan and sharon took an evening stroll to check out the town. I guess the only places open at night are the bars and the ice cream shops.