The last weekend Steve had off of work, on Saturday we headed up to Napa Valley to the northern end to a city called Calistoga. They are known for the natural hot springs, so I found a place for us to do a winery tour and then a hot springs-fed pool to soak our sore muscles from our Missions Peak hike.
Napa Valley is about an hour and a half North of us, but we decided to take a detour through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Not far from the route to the bridge is the famous Lombard Street -- the crookedest street in America. So we took another mini-detour and drove down just for fun.
It was hard to take a good photo from the car, so I grabbed this one below from a website so you could see the whole street. It's really beautiful, especially in the spring/summer when the flowers are in bloom and you can really appreciate the gorgeous landscaping.
After our windy little drive, we headed over the bridge. This city is so beautiful!
It was cloudy, so hard to see the city from the other side of the bridge, but it was a great vantage point to take in the whole city.
A few hours later (after a stop at this quaint little Italian restaurant called Olive Garden), we arrived at Sterling Vineyards. The winery is situated at the top of a hill, so after entering, you have to take a tram up to it (can you see it in the second photo below?), giving a great view of the vineyards as well as the whole surrounding area.
As we sampled a few of the wines, we wandered around the winery, learning about the wine making process on the self-guided tour from a series of plaques and videos. Since it's winter, there isn't a lot to see since the wine is in the vats and barrels in the aging process. There were lots and lots and lots of barrels...
At the end of the tour, we ended up on the roof where we took in more great views of the valley and the Sterling vineyards.
We hope to come back during a different season. We hear that spring is nice because the whole valley is blooming, but they have a lot to see in the fall at harvest time, too. They also have wine-stomping festivals then and the valley, we were told, smells wonderful! I'll take you if you come visit! :)
Afterward, we drove five minutes to Calistoga Spa Hot Springs. It's a spa and hotel with public pools heated by the natural hot springs.
They have three pools -- one was 104, the next was 100, and the last one is 80 degrees. It was so perfect for our achy muscles, so we stayed in the two hot pools (the 80-degree pool was too cold for us after being in the hot ones!) until we were good and pruny before we drove home. The drive back through the valley was probably beautiful, but we couldn't tell because it was pitch black! Another good reason to come back when the days are longer...
So, when do you want to come visit? :)
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