We made our way to “Wine Country”!  Our first stop was Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Geyserville, CA, it was big and beautiful as expected.  Inside the main building was a small shop, a wine tasting room, a bar room and indoor seating as well as a movie gallery with many items from his films.  Beautiful pool area where you can rent a cabana or chairs for the day, but very expensive needless to say.  Jim and Lorraine enjoyed a glass of wine while roaming the vineyard and the vegetable gardens.  Large vineyards and an area with many herbs and flowers on the property too.

We had to drive through Calistoga before Napa so we stopped and enjoyed a walk through this small town before lunch.  Mike tried a bit of red wine with Jim but it’s not his cup of beer!  We did find a brewery, Russian River Brewing Company, for Mike to enjoy a drink. 

Our next day in Napa we visited the downtown area.  First stop was Oxbow Public Market where we enjoyed a delicious charcuterie tray from the cheese and wine merchant.  The market reminded us of the Reading Terminal as most of the markets do, but not as large.  The men went right to Fieldwork Brewing while the ladies took a walk around town.  We walked a lot this day with much to see, we even happened upon the Napa Porch Festival.  The festival features an array of different bands playing on porches of homes throughout this small town.  You can roam around many streets of bands, people, lemonade stands for you to enjoy. 

We rented a park model type villa right in Napa for this part of our trip.  It was a great find because we were able to cook dinner for a few nights and just enjoy sitting and relaxing after dinner right on our porch. 

The next day we stopped at a beautiful winery, Domaine Carneros, however you needed a reservation for tastings only.  They did not have a bar to just purchase a glass of wine and walk the vineyard, just tastings and a small shop to purchase wine.  It seemed that most of the wineries only offered tastings for a fee ranging from $35-$150 per person depending on the winery.  Since most of us do not enjoy wine enough we decided to just make our way to the town of Sonoma.  The downtown area was larger than Calistoga but not as large as Napa.  Many shops and restaurants line the streets with a large park in the middle of town for families to enjoy. 

Wine Country was very beautiful with many hills of vineyards for miles upon miles.  We were very happy to experience this part of the country.

Our next stop San Francisco!