On July 2nd, 2006 Robyn and I went to Napa (or there abouts) to photograph a wedding/celebration. The day after (the 3rd) we drove back to San Francisco at a leisurely pace and decided to stop whenever we wanted to take pictures of whatever we wanted.
Let's start from the beginning:
While the picture above is the beginning of the photo tour the actual day began here:
This is the inside of the Calistoga Bar and Hotel. The cheapest place we could find in the area. For $79 bucks a night we got a small room with a bathroom that was shared by all the tenants. But at least we got a continental breakfast!
Here are some pictures of Calistoga. It's apparently famous for its mud baths. We didn't partake of one (it was too hot already for my taste), but we got some decent pictures of various signs trying to lure us into the mud:
Also, surprisingly, Calistoga is a sweet spot to pick up Tibetan treasures.
In preparation for the 4th of July Calistoga busted this guy out:
And they tied their lawn chairs to the polls running down the main street to reserver the best seats in the house for the 4th of July parade.
But that's not all. They were having the Napa County Fair and they had sent out their mascots to drag you to the fair if you weren't already coming.
Okay those ladies aren't the mascots but they were fun to see. The one in the rear was getting a real kick out of those crazy mascots.
Just as we were reaching our car the mascots (who I wish had better names but really I don't know what they were suppose to be) found us.
First stop after finally getting out of Calistoga was the side of the road next to some vineyards. I'm not sure what these contraptions guarding the grapes are but they sure do look neat:
We also drove past a variety of mansions (or maybe castles) in the different vineyards.
Then there were little towns, I don't know the names of all of them but here is a selection of American pictures we took driving through these towns.
For those who haven't been to Napa here is the world famous Napa Wine Train. It is my understanding that you ride this marvelous vehicle and drink wine and eat food while on it.
Our last stop before leaving the wine country was at a little road-side eatery that was painted like a cow. We assumed we'd be able to get milk shakes there but were quite incorrect. None-the-less we were pleased with the picture taking opportunity. Meet Money Frog, Cowboy and Cowgirl:
There is then a stretch of land between Napa and Highway 1/101 that it very rural farmy (yes I just said "rural farmy"). And this is where we took some of my favorite pictures. I'd seen an old rusted out train on our drive to Napa that I wanted to take some pictures of and was overjoyed with it when we got up close:
Please Ignore this sign:
Other American signs at the train site:
And these are just nice:
We kind of took highway 1/101 for granted since we're on it fairly frequently, but a few important things did take place:
And of course, our destination:
