We weren't in a big rush this morning because we were headed out towards Wine Country. Well, we should've dragged out our packing up even more, because we got out to Napa around 9. Apparently, it was too early for others for wine tasting! But the land around was really pretty to look at, so it wasn't a total loss. The acres and acres of vineyards go on for ever! We drove around downtown Napa for a while. Cute town. Then we headed out to Fairfield, home of the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Company. How cool! After watching the Food Network and "Unwrapped," we knew that we had to go on their company tour. And it is free, so it's even better! And they give out free samples along the way so it's still even better! We waited in the line for about 15 minutes for the next tour. We got our fun little hats that you needed to wear and were ready to go. The only thing is, you can't take pictures on the way through. (Don't want any secrets getting out!) They take you through the factory gallery where you can look down at each of the steps in the jelly bean-making process. And the tour guides give you company history along the way. Did you know that they also make the Sunkist gummy candies, and candy corn? I didn't know that! Just a fun tidbit for you. And they make some pretty great art pieces out of jelly beans. From Ronald Reagan (who was from Fairfield and had the jelly beans brought to the White House) to Prince William and Kate, and the Statue of Liberty to a Bald Eagle. It takes over 10,000 jelly beans to make one picture! After watching them make the beans in each step, they gave out samples of each step. At the very end of the tour, they give out a free bag! Totally worth it! We then spent some time looking around their gift shop. So many choices of flavors to look through. So we got some of everything! It will make a great dinner tonight!
We then drove out to our camp. I definitely like the cooler weather. We aren't even near the heat and it's already 90 here! Much different from the 70s in San Francisco. Of course we are in tank tops and shorts, and they are all wearing long pants or long sleeves. We got a bunch of stares... I don't know why! On the way out here, there was all kinds of agriculture going on. For miles, that was all there was on the side of the road. A lot of them had signs saying "Agri-Land." Not sure what it is, but they grow all kinds of crops. There was one point where we went for about 5 miles without seeing another car (and about 35 miles without a speed limit... I kind of guessed...) We drove by the trucks full of vegetables- saw tomatoes, cucumbers, and garlic. It is awesome seeing where a lot of the food we eat actually comes from.
There isn't much to do out here, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to drive down to Fresno to go to Target. The shopping area is lined with palm trees! And the Target was right next to a Walmart- literally in the same parking lot. I thought Connecticut was bad when they are down the street from each other. We got a cube of wine (not a box, a tiny little cube that they should sell in CT. Much classier, and easier to hold, than a box) and a card game to play tonight to pass the time. That's what we'll be doing when we sign off here. Till tomorrow!
Showing posts with label Wine Country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wine Country. Show all posts
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Day Forty-One: Hey, We Have the Same Birthday!
We woke up this morning to what we thought was rain. We checked the weather app and it said that it was foggy with a 10% chance of precipitation. So it turns out that the dripping was indeed fog, and not rain. Oh, and the humidity was 100%. It's so different without the heat! Couldn't even tell that it was humid out. I've never seen it that high before. Apparently, the mornings here always have fog coming off of the water.
We fought with the wet tent for a couple of minutes. (Don't tell dad that it was wet when we put it away. The Boy Scout in him wouldn't like it. We never camped in tents in Girl Scouts... it was either a cabin or some sort of building.) We were going to go for a run with the lady next to us, then realized that she was from Mexico and we wouldn't be able to converse with her and run at the same time. It's difficult enough to do either of those separately, but together... She found someone to run with though. (Their license plate was a Mexican one. I don't know any other Mexican districts, so we can't make a list of them. It was "Distrito Federal.")
It was finally off to San Francisco. On the way out of Eureka, we found where the sidewalk ends- the sign said so! (That's a reference to Shel Silverstein, for those that didn't get it.) We took the "Avenue of the Giants" detour. It is a 31-mile road that runs parallel to 101. The trees really were giants! They had an auto tour that we took that led to different informational plaques about how they saved the trees from lumbering and other stuff. There were a bunch of different groves dedicated to people who helped out.
It was back to 101 and on towards Wine Country. It wasn't just wine and vineyards, but orchards too. The fields were huge! They stretched out really far. We decided that we would buy an already established vineyard so we didn't have to do the planting, and we would get Adam and his friends to be our help picking everything. We only got turned around once trying to find a rest area. (It's much easier when the road is one road and you don't need to get off at all.) We also saw a guy with dreadlocks down to his knees, no even kidding, they were that long, and no less than 3 tie-dye t-shirt stores.
Once we got to the campground, we were having a difficult time deciding what to do. It was gorgeous out so we wanted to spend some time at the pool, or drive down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We ended up doing both. It's a good thing we did because our timing was perfect. We didn't have as much traffic as we could've getting down there. We stopped at the Vista Point to park so we could walk over it. Oh boy, was it windy! I was afraid to take phone pictures because I thought it would blow away! There was a lot of foot traffic on it with all of the tourists on the way out, but not as much on the way back. We took a ton of pictures with Dawn's camera. (It's a lot harder to blow something off from around a neck.) You can see everything from the bridge, like Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Bay Bridge. And the ships bringing all kinds of things from China and Japan. Then we stopped at the gift shop on the other end and walked around the area, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Not too much recreational stuff, but there is a bike trail that goes all around and some beaches. After the 3.5 mile walk, (1.7 each way) it was time for dinner and then back to the campground. We heard no less than 3 different languages around. Kind of cool, except they left the kitchen area a MESS! Going to do the rest of the city tomorrow!
We fought with the wet tent for a couple of minutes. (Don't tell dad that it was wet when we put it away. The Boy Scout in him wouldn't like it. We never camped in tents in Girl Scouts... it was either a cabin or some sort of building.) We were going to go for a run with the lady next to us, then realized that she was from Mexico and we wouldn't be able to converse with her and run at the same time. It's difficult enough to do either of those separately, but together... She found someone to run with though. (Their license plate was a Mexican one. I don't know any other Mexican districts, so we can't make a list of them. It was "Distrito Federal.")
It was finally off to San Francisco. On the way out of Eureka, we found where the sidewalk ends- the sign said so! (That's a reference to Shel Silverstein, for those that didn't get it.) We took the "Avenue of the Giants" detour. It is a 31-mile road that runs parallel to 101. The trees really were giants! They had an auto tour that we took that led to different informational plaques about how they saved the trees from lumbering and other stuff. There were a bunch of different groves dedicated to people who helped out.
It was back to 101 and on towards Wine Country. It wasn't just wine and vineyards, but orchards too. The fields were huge! They stretched out really far. We decided that we would buy an already established vineyard so we didn't have to do the planting, and we would get Adam and his friends to be our help picking everything. We only got turned around once trying to find a rest area. (It's much easier when the road is one road and you don't need to get off at all.) We also saw a guy with dreadlocks down to his knees, no even kidding, they were that long, and no less than 3 tie-dye t-shirt stores.
Once we got to the campground, we were having a difficult time deciding what to do. It was gorgeous out so we wanted to spend some time at the pool, or drive down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We ended up doing both. It's a good thing we did because our timing was perfect. We didn't have as much traffic as we could've getting down there. We stopped at the Vista Point to park so we could walk over it. Oh boy, was it windy! I was afraid to take phone pictures because I thought it would blow away! There was a lot of foot traffic on it with all of the tourists on the way out, but not as much on the way back. We took a ton of pictures with Dawn's camera. (It's a lot harder to blow something off from around a neck.) You can see everything from the bridge, like Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Bay Bridge. And the ships bringing all kinds of things from China and Japan. Then we stopped at the gift shop on the other end and walked around the area, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Not too much recreational stuff, but there is a bike trail that goes all around and some beaches. After the 3.5 mile walk, (1.7 each way) it was time for dinner and then back to the campground. We heard no less than 3 different languages around. Kind of cool, except they left the kitchen area a MESS! Going to do the rest of the city tomorrow!
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