Cali in January

Last month, Matt and I took a last minute trip out West to visit his dad and Anny.  They live in the San Francisco Bay area, just between Sausalito and Napa, and are always superb hosts.

No matter how many times we visit, there always seems to be something new to do and see.   This trip was no different.  We started out with a day trip to Napa and a wine tour in a castle.

Yes, a castle. 

What do you do if you have more money than you know what to do with and a successful family winery in Napa Valley?  You  do the most logical thing you can think of with your money:  retire, build yourself a castle, and open another winery, right?

Castello di Amorosa was a pretty neat place to take a winery tour.  It's privately owned, and just a little more interesting than an ordinary winery. It started as a retirement property for the owner of V. Sattui, just down the road in Nappa Valley, and over time morphed into a 121,000 square foot winery with an authentic medieval Italian-style castle.  It's even got its own dedicated torture chamber, just to keep things realistic (you know, because medieval castles in California are all over the place).

Our tour was great. We really got to see how wine is made, barreled, and stored.  The tour included a tasting, complete with a barrel tasting.  We were able to taste the wine that had been barreled just a few months prior, and then taste the same genre of wine after it had been properly aged, bottled, and ready for sale.

No grape smashing with your feet here.  The weight of the grapes in these huge containers 

naturally crushes the fruit on the bottom.

I can't really say that I'm a "wino", but I really do love a good glass of Shiraz.  I hated wine when we first got married, but as with my taste for beer, it has grown over the years.  Being at a tasting where I couldn't swallow and appreciate the wine was a bit of a torturous experience, but Matt was happy to help me out by finishing my allotted samples.

One of our favorite things about our visits to Ron and Anny's is the food.  We always eat really well.   Although we didn't make it to the French Laundry for dinner, we did stop and take a photo for our favorite foodie, Lynne, as we were driving through wine country.  Maybe next time we're out there, assuming we have some extra cash and plan far enough in advance to make the reservations 3-12 months prior, we can actually get inside the restaurant.

Another fun thing we did on our trip was a walking architectural tour of downtown San Francisco.   The history of the buildings and the mix of styles and of old and new was really interesting. 

I also enjoyed learning about the politics of building in a large city, and the selling of "air rights".   Essentially, many cities have limits on how many floors a building,  or block, may build upward.  Each property owner owns the "air rights" above their plot of land.  If one building does not build to its allotted maximum number of floors, the owner can sell those extra floor rights to a neighbor.  It's all a little confusing, but still pretty interesting for this girl from a town with no tall buildings to speak of.

The designer of the Hobart Building, Willis Polk, might have rolled over in his grave if he'd known that this flat wall would ever be exposed.  At the time of its construction, the Hobart building butted up against another building where that exposed face is, and the only part visible from this angle was the beautiful terra cotta exterior above it.  The neighboring building was subsequently torn down and replaced with a much shorter building in order to sell its air rights to one of the buildings next to it, leaving this unattractive flat wall nakedly exposed.

While we were downtown, we drove up to Twin Peaks so that we could get a nice view of the city.  It was a little hazy that day, so I couldn't get a very clear shot of the city and Golden Gate bridge, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

The trip was such a nice break from work and keeping up with school and housework.  We were able to sleep in every day, eat well, see the sights, and spend time with family.  Ron and Anny make it easy for us to go visit them and we really appreciated such a nice grace break before things get crazy this spring.