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Travel & Tourism

Wining & Dining on Napa Valley Wine Train

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Getting ready to board the Wine Train.

It was our first time to Napa Valley and California’s wine country. After a bunch of hiking and exploring the Marin Headlands to the south, we were looking forward to some spectacular wining and dining. Napa Valley seemed like just the place.

We like riding on trains and don’t get the opportunity to do so very often. We also preferred to have someone else do the driving since we’d be testing a bunch of wine and weren’t familiar with the region. And, we were looking forward to some great food along the way.

Drinking wine on the Wine Train. Life is good.

Enter the Napa Valley Wine Train. Called one of Napa’s most unique and delicious dining experiences, the Napa Valley Wine Train takes you right through the heart of Napa Valley, passing vineyards and wineries.

The train itself and riding on it was a fantastic experience. We loved every minute of the train ride. The scenery was wonderful and different for us, and we enjoyed it all in upscale comfort.

We had booked the Grgich Hills Winery Tour. So, after a wine tasting seminar at the Wine Train station, we boarded the train at 11 am and were seated in the fine dining car. We starting enjoying our 3-course gourmet lunch at around 11:30.

Jerry, getting ready to eat some roasted tenderloin.

The lunch was to die for. We were seated in a refurbished 1915-1917 Pullman Car for the scenic ride through Napa Valley. To start, Jerry had lobster bisque soup and I had a baby lettuce salad with candied walnuts and smoked goat cheese in a honey cider vinaigrette. Then, Jerry enjoyed a roasted tenderloin on gorgonzola toast with asparagus sautéed in a cabernet beef demi sauce. I had thyme-glazed pan seared roasted chicken breast on baby carrot soft polenta and kale in a grilled orange Beurre Blanc.

Getting a tour of Grgich Hills Winery, in Napa Valley.

Because we were riding a wine train through world-famous wine country, of course we had to imbibe wine. Jerry had a glass of Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon (2007) and I had a Robert Mondovi Pinot Noir (2008). It was all delightfully delicious — even more so given the fact we were doing it from a train traveling through Napa Valley.

Just tasting wine, over and over again. This is during the Grgich Hills Winery tour.
At around 12:30, we disembarked from the train for a 1-hour tour of Grgich Hills Winery. Grgrich Hills owns five vineyards in Napa Valley.

Some interesting things we learned on the Winery Tour:
 –Miljenko “Mike” Grgich began “stomping grapes” at age three for his family’s table wine. Many years later Grgich worked under some of the most celebrated California winemakers. In the historic Paris Tasting of 1976, his 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay bested the top white Burgundies to win first place. (This catapulted him to the forefront of the world’s great winemakers.)
–It takes about 15 people to pick 18 acres of grapes in seven-and-a-half hours.
-Grgich Hills Winery produces 70,000 cases of wine a year.
–They purchase barrels, which store the wine during production and whose wood gives it much of its flavor, for $1,000 each new and they use them for three or four years before selling them for about $100 each.
–Cabernet spends the most time in the barrels – about two years — and will be in the new barrels.
–Grgich Hills’s Chardonnay spends about 10 months in the barrels.
–One normal barrel equals 25 cases of wine — 300 bottles of wine.
–3 normal barrels equal approximately one ton of grapes.
–How to volatize the esters (before tasting/drinking the wine)
–Grgich Hills Estate is world-renowned for its wines, including its Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Fume Blank, Merlot, Zinfandel and Violetta, a dessert wine.
–While I wouldn’t call myself anything but a very amateur wine drinker, I can report that Grgich Hills’ wine is tasty, particularly their flagship Chardonnay.

To die for: Chocolate fudge cake in a Cabernet sauce.
After tasting five different kinds of wines and learning a lot at Grgich Hills Winery, it was time to re-board the train. Once on the train, we enjoyed desserts that were to die for. Jerry had a creme brele and I had a piece of Cabernet chocolate cake. Nothing like to-die-for desserts to cap the day of wine tasting and train riding.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is an extraordinary experience. We had an amazing time. Particularly for folks who have only limited time available to experience Napa Valley and who are interested in riding a historic train, enjoying gourmet food and touring and tasting wine from local wineries, the Wine Train is a perfect solution. Book your experience.

Elk, Crashing Surf, Elephant Seals and a Lighthouse Make for Epic Day

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At Tomales Point.

On my most recent trip to the San Francisco, CA, region, I spent a day exploring the Point Reyes National Seashore region, located about an hour-and-a-half northwest of San Francisco.

The highlights were hiking to Tomales Point, which marks the end of land on the Pt. Reyes Peninsula,  seeing elephant seals at Drakes Beach, and exploring the Point Reyes Lighthouse, which was (perhaps aptly?) shrouded in fog.

Point Reyes National Seashore is a 71,000-acre area located on the Point Reyes Peninsula, in Marin County. My hike to Tomales Point would take me to the north end of land for the Point Reyes peninsula, which is geologically separated from the rest of Marin County and almost all of the continental United States by a “rift zone” of the San Adreas Fault, about half of which is sunk below sea level and forms Tomales Bay. (Wikipedia)

The scenery on my hike to Tomales Point was breathtaking.

The hike to Tomales Point and back is about 9.5 miles. It’s rolling, and I was rewarded the entire way. Earlier in the morning, en route to the trailhead, I was getting rained on as I traveled over the Golden Gate Bridge. I packed my rain gear and planned on getting wet on the hike and yet hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the scenery.

Elk and ocean in the same view.

But I got lucky. When I arrived at the trailhead, it was all blue sky. I left the trailhead mid-morning and had the trail to Tomales Point all to myself. Well, not really. I shared the trail with hundreds of Tule elk.

Crashing surf.

I am from Wyoming and spend a lot of time in Yellowstone so seeing elk was not that shocking to me. However, hiking among so many of them certainly was a rare treat. The biggest deal about hiking among the elk on this hike was that I was also hiking amidst crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean. Now that was extraordinary! Many times I had both elk and ocean in my view, and that was really, really cool.

ELEPHANT SEALS AT DRAKES BEACH Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any better, I stopped at Drakes Beach. I was simply going to get a vantage of the ocean from a beach perspective since it was now a bit foggy above the shoreline. When I got out of my car I noticed orange ribbons and warning signs blocking people from accessing the beach, which was right in front of me.

There was a photographer nearby (Jim Coda) and I asked him what the signs were all about. “Probably to protect the elephant seals,” he said. Oh my gosh, I hadn’t even noticed them! There they were — three or four big creatures right in front of me lying on the beach. I had just figured they were big rocks or clumps of beach matter. I watched as the one right in front of me sighed and “waved” at me one time with his tail. It was an amazing experience to be so close to them.

Elephant seal on Drakes Beach.

According to the National Park Service website, elephant seals range from Mexico to Alaska and Hawaii in search of food. They spend 80 percent of their life in the open sea. Not only do they spend most of their life in the ocean, 90 percent of that time is spent underwater: eating, sleeping, digesting, and traveling.

They are built to survive continuous dives to depths that would squeeze the life out of any other mammal. The average dive reaches 1,000 to 2,000 feet, lasts close to half an hour and is followed by only 3-5 minutes at the surface to breathe. Seeing and watching the elephant seals were a major highlight for me and I couldn’t wait to share the news with my husband and three sons.

POINT REYES LIGHTHOUSE After completing the hike, I went to see what all the fuss was about with the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American continent. As you probably know, lighthouses provide mariners increased safety by warning them of rocky shores and reefs. They also help mariners navigate by indicating their location as ships travel along the coast. Mariners recognize lighthouses by their unique flash pattern.

On days when it is too foggy to see the lighthouse, a fog signal is essential. Fog signals sound an identifying pattern to signal the location to the passing ships.

According to the National Park Service website, the Point Reyes light first shone in 1870. Its lens and mechanism were constructed in France in 1867. The clockwork mechanism, glass prisms and housing for the lighthouse were shipped on a steamer around the tip of South America to San Francisco.

Meanwhile, 300 feet below the top of the cliff, an area had been blasted with dynamite to clear a level spot for the lighthouse. To be effective, the lighthouse had to be situated below the characteristic high fog. This is all fascinating for this “land-locked” Wyoming girl. 🙂 I hiked the short distance to the lighthouse, although don’t have any great photos because it was so foggy. I’m including a very short clip near bottom of this post to prove it was foggy and that I was there, though.

OTHER MARIN HEADLANDS HIKING BLOG POSTS:
From Surf To Top of Mt. Tamalpais
Surf, Rolling Hills, Lung Busting and Zen

VIDEOS:

TOMALES POINT HIKE – BREAKING SURF CAPTURED FROM STEEP, EXTREME CLIFF

TOMALES POINT – “RICH” AT TOMALES POINT

THE ENTIRE TOMALES HIKE COMPRESSED INTO (12 MINUTES)

ELEPHANT SEALS AT DRAKES BEACH

POINT REYES LIGHTHOUSE (UNDER FOG)

Living and Working on the Frontier, Part 2

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In 1994, we founded a business in Wyoming called Yellowstone Journal Corporation. For 15 years we innovated and expanded. It was hard work. It was never easy. Yet it was extremely fulfilling — similar to climbing a mountain. It’s almost all work, but the rewards at the top are worth it. We sold the business to Active Interest Media, the publisher of Backpacker Magazine, Yoga Journal, Climbing, American Cowboy, and other niche magazines, in September 2008.

Now, I’m starting up a new mountain, developing a new business. Here’s that part of the story (Part 2, published in Wyoming Entrepreneur.)

(And, if interested, here is Part 1).

At Vino Bello Resort, We (Officially) Arrived

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I have been traveling to the San Francisco, CA, region every month for the last five months for life coach training in San Rafael. My final course was last week. And, thanks to my parents, who so graciously offered to watch our three sons, my husband, Jerry was able to fly out and meet me in California. We spent 3 nights there on what could be called a “second honeymoon.”

Jerry and I near Muir Beach -- almost done hiking.

As readers of this blog know, I love to embark on long, epic, hiking adventures.

Jerry’s an avid hiker, too, and I couldn’t wait to show him the area trails I had discovered. So last Monday, we hiked our legs off in the Marin Headlands region. We hiked 22 miles, including 4,000’+ of elevation gain.

We hiked most of the trails in Muir Woods National Monument, plus linked trails to hike the Dipsea and Steep Ravine trails, before linking several more trails to hike to the East Peak of the 2,571-foot-high Mt. Tamalpais, before descending on yet more trails upon our return to Muir Woods. But that wasn’t enough — we wanted to hike a shore-hugging trail, too, so we drove to nearby Muir Beach and hiked the Coastal Trail to Pirate’s Cove before returning and wading bare feet into the Pacific ocean.

In other words, we were not having a lazy time of it. And our sustenance while hiking — energy bars and bottled water — was nothing to boast about.

Boy oh boy, were we ready for some gluttony.

And what better place to be gluttonous than California’s Napa Valley?

So next up: Vino Bello Resort. We entered its address into my Droid’s navigation system, and exited Muir Woods National Monument to head to the land of fine wine.

After driving through rolling green hills and past vineyards and wineries, we approached our destination, the Vino Bello. Pure luxury is what it looked like from the outside as we parked our car. Here, the Droid navigation lady said in her usual nice voice, “You Have Arrived.”

The nicest "condo" I have ever seen or stayed in.

Boy, had we ever!

California wine country’s newest luxury resort, the Vino Bello Resort, with its “World Tuscan” decor, and set amidst vine-covered hills, beckoned.

Wine tasting, part 1. Here we test Trinitas in the Resort's Tasting Room.

Ravenous, and with mud caked on our lower legs and to the bottoms of our shoes, and smelling a little worked-over and stinky, we were greeted by people behind the desk calling us by our first names and ready to respond to our every need. We were being waited on hand and foot. Dare I say, pampered? 🙂

It only went up, up, up from there.

Once in our room we discovered we not only had a big warm shower awaiting us but a shower with not one — but 5! — showerheads.

Not too shabby.

We enjoyed an upscale condominium-type room that included a full kitchen, a full living room complete with fireplace, a full jacuzzi bath, spacious bathroom, and a huge comfy poster bed.

The resort is pure luxury. It includes a state-of-the-art underground, 22,000-square-foot spa, called Spa Terra, where guests enjoy serenity, with natural stone and copper water and a wide variety of spa treatments. Inside the spa we found a relaxation lounge, 10 treatment rooms, including couples rooms that are cocooned in the heart of the earth. Both ladies and gentlemen’s private lounges feature whirlpools, steam grottos and soothing water walls. Like I said, this is quite a place — a destination in itself.

We got cleaned up and then explored the great selection of American wines at the Estate Wine Cave and Meritage Wine Tasting Bar, where we tasted several glasses of Trinitas wine, paired with local gourmet truffles. Are you kidding me? Chocolate, a variety of wines to taste, massages and facial treatments and luxury accommodations. Did I mention we had arrived?

Posing in the 22,000-square-foot underground cave spa.
One of the pools at the Vino Bello Resort.

After a bunch of wine tasting and further exploring of the grounds of the hotel, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and retreated to one of the hot tubs under a starry sky before closing in for the night. We slept in and had a hard time getting ourselves out of the room the next morning. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast from the restaurant before our stay at the Vino Bello came to an end. We had to leave sometime, right? After experiencing all this, I understood why my friend who recommended the Vino Bello to us warned me that we’d never want to leave the resort.

We did, but only because we had a (wine) train to catch.

The Vino Bello Resort was luxury and pampering all the way around for this frontier couple.

Indeed, for at least that one night, we had arrived. And it was epic.

Vino Bello Resort is part of Shell Vacations Hospitality.