Friday, February 26 - Old Faithful (Napa, CA)

 

Today we were up and out the door early. The boys had an appointment to be groomed at 9:00am. We dropped Bayer and Buddy off and took Mr. B with us. He really didn’t need his hair cut as it grows slower.

Then we went to Black Bear Dinner for some breakfast. The food was priced reasonable, but they give you sooooo much food, even Jesse couldn’t finish his serving.

Then we decided to take a ride to Calistoga.

 

It is about 35 miles from here, but WOW it was a really pretty drive…that is were all the wineries are. We pasted by 30-40 wineries. We saw many fields of vines, some really nice homes and some middle to lower income homes.

Once we arrived in Calistoga there really wasn’t much to the town itself.

We did find California’s Old Faithful Geyser. We paid the fee of $10.00 per person, $7.00 for 60 and over. My opinion too much money for this attraction.

The sign says it goes off every 5-10 minutes. I sat there for two of them that were less then 5 minutes apart and only lasted about one minute each.

After our drive through the town we headed back to Napa.

My bug I had is not all gone so Jesse took me home for a visit to the water closet then we left to pick up the two big boys. They look much better and Buddy is white again.

We came home and hung out awhile.

Then decided to ride over to the Baskin Robins right up the street for an ice cream sundae. 

We had artisan bread and leftover chili and macaroni & cheese for dinner, watched movies and HGTV until bed time.

Thursday, February 24 - Running Errands in the Rain (Napa, CA)

 

We spent the morning just hanging out watching morning TV and computering.

We defrosted the freezer and I put together some chicken taco soup in the crockpot.

As I was getting ready to go out, guess what????  It started raining again and rained the rest of the day.

We took the boys and when out anyway. Our 1st stop was the nearest post office.

We needed to find out if we could have some mail delivered “General Delivery”. We asked about having it delivered to the camp site and was told it wasn’t a good idea because there were too many part time people working here.

At the post office they told us we needed to go to the main Post Office. Using Hazel (GPS) again we found it and was told it was okay, so we called Escapees to ask them to send our mail.

Next we went to one of the three dog groomers I looked up on the internet to find a place for the boys to get cleaned up. That one wasn’t it…The second place we went seemed good and I made them an appointment for tomorrow morning.

Then we stopped at Trader Joes and picked up a few items, including two bottles of 2 buck chuck @ $1.99 each. In the same shopping center we went into the Hallmark store for some cards. Then we went to Whole Foods and walked around.

Back at home we watched American Idol and some other shows.

We had our soup and fresh bread we purchased at the store for dinner.

It continued to rain all evening..Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Wednesday, February 23 - The Rock (San Francisco, CA)

 

Yesterday we had to rush home in the afternoon because I started to not feel well and I needed to use the water closet. Well I must have gotten a bug because it continued for the rest of night.

Jesse had left over Chinese I made a grilled cheese for myself hoping to plug my bottom.

Well I had a rocky night, not feeling a whole lot better this morning, but we had made reservations to go to Alcatraz and that’s what we did. I didn’t eat anything thinking fasting might be the best idea.

We headed out the door about 10:15 and drove to San Francisco which is about one hour away from our camp site.

We took the Bay Bridge over to Pier 33. This bridge was much bigger and longer then the Golden Gate.

 

The boat we took over to the Island

The island

Carved by natural and human forces, Alcatraz served the army as fortress and military prison, and the department of justice as a maximum-security federal prison.

Once on the island you have to walk up to the cell house which is equivalent to walking up 13 story building.

We took our time because I didn’t feel very strong today, Jesse was very patient with me.

When you arrive you see a film on the history of “The Rock”, then you walk to the shower room

where you receive your audio headphones, and they instruct you where to go throughout the cell blocks.

Here are some of our pictures.

Unruly inmates were segregated in Cell block D known as isolation.

Views of San Francisco from the island

 

It was a very nice tour and very interesting.

We returned home and I made turkey minions, baked potato and green beans for dinner. I was feeling much better so I was glad it was only a 24 hour bug.

Tuesday, February 22 – Around Town (Napa, CA)

 

We walked around the town today just to see what there was. There are mostly restaurants that are expensive. A few shops one of which was Tyler Florence.

We stopped in a little place for a little lunch called Sweetie Pies. Very cute place that had really good looking desserts. We didn’t have any but I am sure we will go back for some before we leave the area.

Our camp site

Day use area, notice the heron that in in front of the fourth picnic table.

Some vines that are right outside the park

Monday, February 21 - Travel Day (Napa, CA)

 

We left this morning about 10am, traveled 135 miles and landed at Skyline Wilderness Park around 1:00.

We plan to be here 2 weeks exploring the area.

We drove through San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, BTW I was not impressed with the bridge. It is not as big as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, maybe I will see the draw when we go back to look around the area.

Here are some pictures I took from the drive.

Snow on the mountains in the distance

 

You can see the top of the bridge in the background

The Bridge

Alcatraz

Saturday, February 19 - Rain, Rain and more Rain (Gilroy, CA)

Thursday 2/17

We were traveling today. We wanted to stay in Morro Bay, but were unable to find a campsite for the weekend. One of the reasons for wanting to stay there was so we could visit the Hearst Castle.

We did get a picture of the rock in the water from the road in Morro Bay.

We decided to stop while traveling to Gilroy to visit the castle and then continue on or way. We looked up the times and figured the 10:20 tour would be the best time for us so we were packed up and left at 7:55am.

It rained most of the way to and was raining pretty hard when we got there. We parked in the large parking lot for RV’s, Jesse walked the boys and then we walked to the visitors center.

We went to get tickets BUT the 10:20 time was all sold out and the next tour wasn’t until 12:30. We didn’t want to wait so we just saw the film they show then went on our way.

I have no pictures because you couldn’t see anything to take pictures of.

We went through a part of our journey when the sun came out and I got a rainbow.

We arrived after traveling 270 miles to Gilroy Garlic U.S.A. RV Park, located in the “Garlic Capital of the World”. It was pouring rain, so I walked the boys while Jesse got us set-up. He only hooked water and electric. We used their cable TV for the night.

We had some leftover soup for dinner and just relaxed.

Friday 2/18

It rained all day.

I made us some eggs and toast for breakfast.

There was a short break mid-day where Jesse went out and hooked up the Dish and connected to sewer.

I made Chicken Marsala for dinner and we stayed in all day and hibernated.

Today

It was still raining, but Jesse wanted to go to Carmel and Cannery Row in Monterey.

The 1st thing we did was pay $10 to park and we walked to the pier to get something to eat. We went to the Fish Hopper. Here are some of the items on the menu.

We shared an open face sandwich of Dungeness crab and French Fries. We were seated right next to the window and the fire pit.

After eating we walked around in the rain looking at the water and in and out some of the shops.

We drove down coast line to Carmel but never got out of the truck, but did take a few pictures.

After a while we headed back to Gilroy and went to Walmart to get some prescription refilled and pick up a few grocery items.

At home we raided the refrigerator and just hung out.

Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow!!!!

Wednesday, February 16 - Farmer’s Market (Solvang, CA)

 

Today we didn’t have any real plan for the day. Around lunch time we decided to go into Solvang and walk around some more and get lunch.

There are many places to choose from, so we looked at several menus along the shops. We decided on a new little place that was very “Panera Bread” looking only on a much, much smaller scale.

I order a grilled chicken Panini and Jesse ordered a tuna melt. They had not gotten their food order yet which meant they didn’t have any chicken, so I got a tuna melt also which came with soup or salad. We both got the special cream of broccoli. The cook felt bad because he did have any chicken so he gave me a freshly made blueberry muffin to make up for it.

After our nice lunch we walked around town. Wednesday’s they have a farmers market in town so we walked through there.

Some of the vegetables looked really nice, but we were traveling tomorrow and not sure how much cooking I would be doing, so I didn’t purchase anything.

Before leaving Jesse wanted to purchase some pastries so we went to one of the bakeries and went wild. This will be dessert and breakfast for a few days.

After we returned home I finished up the laundry and just relaxed watching TV and playing on the computer.

Hugs until tomorrow!

Tuesday, February 15 - Touring Solvang (Buellton/Solvang, CA)

 

Today we were out the door about 9:45am. We headed to the town of Solvang to the Belgian Café for breakfast. It was a cute little place that had the best waffle I have ever tasted, but it was the most expensive waffle we have ever eaten. It was rectangle not round and it was served with 2 pieces of bacon and a few pieces of fresh fruit, I had water and Jesse had a cup of coffee and the bill with tip $26.83. OUCH!!

We walked around and found the visitors center. Solvang was founded in 1911 as a Danish-American colony. We also learned that they were famous for Aebleskiver, a Danish dessert served with raspberry jam and a dusting of powdered sugar. So we had to try one. An order comes with three Danish and we shared. They were good, Jesse liked them better than I did.

We walked around this little town and the shops.

We moved on to the Old Mission Santa Ines. We walked through this self guided tour learning how it was built by the Spaniards to convert the Indians to Christianity.

The grounds outside the Mission

After we left there we drove over to the Ostrich/Emu farm. They are very smelly but funny animals. We bought a bowl of food to feed them, I am not sure how to tell them apart.

After the farm we went home to the boys, they were happy to see us.

For dinner I had defrosted some vegetable soup I had made a few weeks ago and baked some rolls to go with it.

We computered and watched TV for the rest of the evening.