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Dario Sattui has a history worth retelling.  As a young man, he had heard numerous stories of how his great grandfather came to America from his homeland of Italy and grew his bakery into a very successful wine shop beginning in 1886 by simply duplicating the process his family used to make wine for their personal consumption.  By 1920 he had one of most successful wineries in San Francisco but prohibition was passed and he had barrels of wine in his possession.  Convinced it would not last long, he mixed all the wines together and added brandy to help preserve the quality of the wine, then he walled up the barrels in the basement of his business location.  Prohibition lasted 13 years and he was afraid to take the barrels out because he was afraid he would be arrested for hiding the wine.

History of V. Sattui – bottom left is the warehouse where the barrels were stored behind false walls.

The building was sold several times without ever disclosing the false wall and the hidden contents.  Dario made a phone call to the then owner asking if he had found any memorabilia from his great grandfather’s business only to be told the owner was doing some remodeling and discovered the barrels which created an expensive issue for him.  He offered to sell the barrels to Dario at a very modest price providing he be responsible for any cost of removal.  Remember, these barrels are heavy.  Dario agreed and took possession of the barrels.  Once in his possession, he tasted the wine only to find his great grandfather, Vittorio had created one of the best madeira wines in the country and began selling it at his fledgling winery in Napa Valley.  V. Sattui became an instant success story enabling Dario to buy the property for his second winery, Castello di Amorosa which we visited yesterday.

Today we got information related to vines and grapes themselves.  Did you know that if you squeeze white grapes, you get white grape juice and if you squeeze red grapes, you still get white grape juice?  You have to let the red grapes and skins ferment together to get the red grape juice.  Did you know that grape vines and roses are susceptible to the same diseases and insects so many of the wineries plant rose bushes at the ends of each row to help them inspect qui

In addition to the winery, there is deli on premises and took advantage to create a gourmet lunch of freshly baked bread, parmesan garlic dipping sauce, tomato-olive salad and Italian salami.  Doesn’t it look good?

We stopped into two other wineries to see what they looked like because all those perfectly straight rows of vines with borders of Italian Cypress trees and roses are beautiful. 

Entrance to Robert Mondavi Winery

Then we headed to a special place; the Jelly Belly Factory.

What an operation they have here in Fairfield, California!  This is one of three locations that supply the jelly beans for the entire world.  The second location is in Illinois and they have a third location in Thailand for all the overseas shipments.  There are over 100 different flavors and each is made with nature flavors, like peach puree in the peach flavored Jelly Belly.  We were able to sample any flavors we wanted and, of course, we were able to buy whatever we wanted.  $$$$

Tomorrow we go to visit the Avenue of the Giants Ancient Redwoods.

We arrived in Napa Valley in time to make a 3 p.m. tour at Castello di Amorosa (Castle of Love) an authentic Tuscan castle. 

Not “authentic” in the sense it was dismantled from it’s location in Tuscany and reassembled here in Napa Valley, but using only old, hand-made materials (like nearly 1 million antique, hand-made bricks from Europe) that would have been used 700-800 years ago.  This castle is a marvel transforming you to medieval Italy surrounded by 171 acres of vineyards.

The castle is over 121,000 square feet with 2/3 of the space underground being used for the winery processing and storage of barrels of wine for aging.  These caves stay a cool 60 degrees all year without any air conditioning or cooling of any kind.This property is a contradiction between medieval times and modern processing methods for making wine.  Since the castle has actually been built in the last 25 years, there are plumbing lines that go from the special vats on the ground floor through the walls down 3 levels into the caves to fill the French oak barrels stored below ground for two years.  Then when the wine is ready, it is drawn out of the barrels and into the bottling area using more built in plumbing.

Grand Barrel Room

We tasted wine right from the barrel – it was made in 2017 needs to ferment for another 2 years

The castle is complete with a courtyard, great hall with frescos decorating the walls, chapel, torture chamber and dungeon.

Chapel

The Great Hall

Courtyard

MG flirting with guard in Torture Chamber

There are authentic antiques everywhere in the castle bought at auction to help make the castle as real as possible.  The grounds have various animals wandering around including this peacock and baby we saw outside.

The winery is dedicated to Vittorio Sattui, great grandfather of, Dario Sattui, the current owner and visionary who conceived the idea and plans.  Vittorio was a pioneer winemaker in California from 1885-1920.  There are still wine bottles containing wine made by Vittoria stored in cave.  The wines are not sold in stores or to restaurants but only at the winery or shipped directly to customers.

Actually, tomorrow we are scheduled to visit V. Sattui, the original winery established by Dario in 1978.  I hope it will come close to the wonder we experienced today.  I may be wrong, but I believe you can appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of this property even if you don’t drink wine and based on what we saw driving to this area, there are many more properties in this area worth seeing.

One of hundreds of vineyards along road in Napa Valley 

Cluster of grapes on vine

We arrived in Reno and needed a few days to take care of normal-life things like laundry, bills and nails.  On Sunday Carol, Jim’s sister, arrived and the next day the three of us headed out to continuing our trip.  Carol will be with us for about 10 days and she returns to Pennsylvania and we fly to Alaska.

We started our adventure stopping in Virginia City, Nevada.

What a quaint little place, complete with old general store, gun fight and train ride.  We heard all about the history of Virginia City including some really interesting facts like $44 million in gold and silver has been taken from the mines in Virginia City which equates to $23 trillion  (with a T) in today’s dollars.  The railroad  was once a major part of the wealth in Virginia City, but as the mining operations slowed so did the need for the railroad and in 1950 it was retired.  It’s now only used as a tourist ride to Gold City a few miles away and back.  While on the ride, we heard about several of the mines like the mine that had 140 degree temperatures in the shaft so the miners had to chew ice and take breaks in an ice room every fifteen minutes.  But to help attract miners willing to put up with the heat, they paid them $4 a day in contrast to the $.80 per day the other mines paid.

Waiting to board the train

There was also the remnants of a shaft that made lots of money but never found the first fleck of gold or silver.  It did, however, have something to do with selling shares of stock.  Some of these people probably own some shares of the Brooklyn Bridge too!

Old mines along the train route

We also took a trolley tour through the town where we heard about the fire of 1873 which totally destroyed the city but there was so much wealth in the town, it was rebuilt with no problems.  Virginia City is where George Hearst made his millions that allowed his son to buy his first newspaper.  Actually, Virginia City is said to have helped San Francisco rebuild after the fire and the earthquake.  (Rumor has it they want their money back).

This school house is a far cry from others built in the same timeframe elsewhere.  It even had indoor plumbing.  After exploring all morning, we found a wonderful little restaurant for lunch called the Cider Factory complete with small garden tables where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch.

We moved on to our destination in Lake Tahoe.

Main street in South Lake Tahoe

What a contrast from the quaint little town we just left to the bustling tourist town of South Lake Tahoe complete with high rise hotels, tourists by the droves, and shops and restaurants at every turn.  I didn’t realize this before we got here, but South Lake Tahoe sits on the border between Nevada and California so the big Casinos are built on the Nevada side and the non-casinos are built on the California side.  I wonder if the State taxes are handled the same way?

Because of our change in plans, we stayed in Monterey one extra day and that gave us the opportunity to visit the Old Fisherman’s Wharf (I guess as opposed to the new fisherman’s wharf), and we thought a perfect place for lunch. 

Views of Monterey Bay from end of wharf

The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect for sitting outside.  The only question was which restaurant since there must be 15 or 20 in this concentrated area.  What was really unique is many of them had a table outside and were serving samples of their version of New England Clam Chowder to persuade you to eat at their restaurant.  Being an avid Google user, we went with our tested method of using the ratings and decided on Café Fina and they even had a table for two outside.  

After being there a while you could tell there were a lot of local people eating here, which is always a good sign.  We shared an order of steamed clams and split the most delicious grilled calamari sandwich.  The food was great and the atmosphere was perfect being outside and watching all the people passing by.  Of course, we walked around and looked at some of the shops and then we went on a little adventure.

Jim had found a large organic farm operation between Monterey and Salinas that gave tours.  Off we went hoping to get on one of those tours.

They were very nice, but the tour left at 1, and it was now 2 p.m.  Oh well.  After talking to the cashier a while, she offered us a pint of fresh strawberries for free because we missed the tour and because we are from Florida.  There was water there so we were able to rinse them off and taste them.  I have to say they were the best I have ever eaten.  Sorry Plant City!

Since MG likes rabbits we had to get this picture while at the farm 

Then we headed back to our hotel to rest for a little while because we were planning to watch the sunset later off the coast of Monterey.  It was such a perfect sunny day the sunset would be really good.  Surprise!  By the time we left our hotel at 6:30, the sky had turned to solid fog and clouds.  There would be no visible sunset tonight.

Have I told you about the weather in Monterey?  Year round the temperatures only vary by maybe 10 degrees.  The lows in winter may be high 40s and the highs in summer are in the high 60s, maybe low 70s.  This is my son-in-law, Kerry’s kind of weather but not me.  I have been cool or down right cold much of the time we were here.  In fact, our hotel room doesn’t have air conditioning, only heat.  Besides, you never know when that fog is going to roll in.  Remember the saying, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”.  Well SF is only 120 miles away!

Thank goodness tomorrow we head to Reno where I am assured the temperatures are back in the high 80s.

The number one thing people always mention when you say to are going to Monterey is the Aquarium, so naturally, that’s where we went.  It just happens to be located at the end of Cannery Row so we would be able to hit two ‘must sees’ in one day.

The weather was very cool and overcast so I guess that’s what inspired all the other visitors to the Aquarium on the same day, but it was jammed with lots of families with children.  I was surprised again at the high percentage of tourists from other countries based on the languages being spoken around us.

There are lots of beautiful exhibits in the  Aquarium, but from a sheer beauty perspective I think the display of the Jelly Fish were nothing short of amazing.  This display was alive and moving.

My favorite, and probably everyone else’s favorite, has to be the sea otters.  These little guys were so cute up close and personal, swimming on their backs, playing with toys, and grooming constantly.  People, including us, stood for long periods of time just to watch them do their thing.

Otter playing with his toy

By mid afternoon, we had had our fill of crowds and decided it was time to leave.  We walked through the cannery understanding more about the area from things we had learned in the Aquarium.  Actually, the Chinese were the first non-indigenous people to settle in this area.  Then came the Japanese, followed by the Sicilians who brought the skills to fish the sardine population.  During WWI this industry began to grow until it reached major proportions that created Cannery Row to can all those sardines.  Unfortunately, the sardine population was exploited to almost extinction and Cannery Row became unnecessary and a ghost town.

Thanks to several local members of the community, ghost town Cannery Row was turned into a major tourist destination complete with shops and restaurants.

Monument to the men who built Cannery Row

View of Cannery Row and Monterey Bay

Just to keep you informed, we have had to make a change in our itinerary to exclude Yosemite because of the fires in the park.  It makes no sense to go with the decreased visibility because of smoke and also increased travel time based on closed roads.  We will be staying in Monterey an extra day and then traveling directly to Reno for extra days.

As planned, we drove North on Hwy 101 to Pismo Beach since the crowds were too big and traffic too slow over the weekend.  We were right to think that Monday was a much better day to explore this beach because all the weekenders were gone leaving just a small group of vacationers.  Jim’s assessment of Pismo was, “its just like most small beaches” but the quick look I got made me think of a miniature Daytona, without the wide strip of sand.

We decided to move on to Monterey but along the way, we saw a sign that told us the Hearst Castle exit was in 1 mile.  Without much time to debate the pros and cons, we got off and headed west to see what William Randolph Hearst built for his castle.  We had no idea it would take us all the way to Route 1 along the coast and probably add an hour to our journey to Monterey.

When we arrived, all we saw was a visitors center and no “castle” anywhere in view.  The docent inside explained that there were tours available and you had to take a bus to the house because the driveway was 5 miles long up a very steep winding hill. 

On the bus, we heard a little background on the property and house which was very interesting.  For instance, this property was originally 40,000 acres bought by George Hearst, WRH’s father, as a working ranch.   George made his money after 10 years of prospecting for gold by finding one of the largest silver lodes in the west.  It was this money that allowed him to buy his cattle ranch and grow it to 250,000 acres.  His wife was a school teacher who took their only son, William, to Europe for 16 months when he was 10 years old.  This gave him his love of art and 16th, 17th, and 18th century architecture and antiques.

The very pinnacle of the property was the place the family would go and camp in tents but George never built any structures on this site.  After William was a successful businessman owning multiple newspapers, magazines, and radio stations, he decided to build a cottage on the property for his family.  A modest 8 bedroom, 8 bath two story building quickly became the small house to the quest cottage with twice the number of bedrooms and baths.  Within a short time, these buildings were dwarfed by the main house with 118 rooms, tennis courts, indoor swimming pool with gold tile and an outdoor pool called the Neptune Pool (now being historically renovated).

Neptune Pool under historical reconstruction

Walkway to main entrance

Main entrance of castle

Living Room

Dinning Room 

Library

Hearst’s Office 

We spent the entire afternoon exploring the house and grounds and wonderful furnishing of this one of a kind marvel created by William Randolph Hearst using the first certified female architect Julia Morgan who also acted as contractor for the project.  She was so far ahead of her time, she created all these buildings of steel reinforced concrete including all interior walls which served two purposes; it made each room fire controlled, so would not spread outside the room where it started, and it made the house earthquake resistant.  Actually, when the 2003 earthquake which was a 6.5 hit the area, the engineers found not structural damage to this house even though it is almost 100 years old.

Flowers all around the property

Tennis Court

Te

Indoor swimming pool below the tennis court

View of Pacific Ocean as you leave the castle

We learned much more than we could put into the blog, but suffice it say this was one split second decision we did not regret……… Well, maybe a little.  After spending all afternoon there, we found out the PCH was closed just north of the castle and we had to backtrack the way we came meaning we would not arrive in Monterey until 8 p.m.  The 101 Hwy has nothing but small towns with limited services and more limited eating options.  Oh well, dinner at Subway isn’t too terrible.

Before I say anything about today’s adventure, I want to express our amazement with how the Parks Department has upgraded the Grand Canyon making it accessible to every American and foreign visitor.  We had forgotten that our GC is one of the seven wonders of world until this trip which probably explains why English is not heard very much anywhere in the park.  There are visitors from all over the world who come to see this great treasure.  The park has something for everyone and if its not on your bucket list, you may want to think about adding it, (except maybe our friends with a fear of heights).

View along the way to Bryce Canyon from Grand Canyon

We were on the road by 5:15 this morning because we had a 1:15 pm tour in Bryce Canyon and heard there was construction delays on one of the roads.  Besides, we were up anyway!

Our Bryce Canyon adventure was a mule/horse ride into the canyon and back out.  It has been 50 years since I did any serious horseback riding and, truthfully, I was a little apprehensive about getting back in the saddle at all, much less down into a deep canyon.  But Jim had done it back in the 1980s and wanted to do it again so why not.

Jim and I each got a horse instead of a mule.  According to the wrangler, Jim’s horse, Buckets, was lazy and my horse, Blaze, was mean.

MG on Blaze, take notice he was tied up till we were ready to go

Not a good beginning in my mind.  Then I remembered why I gave up riding; it’s a long way up to the stirrup to get into the saddle from down here where my legs start and end!  Nothing like making a scene right off the bat.  Once in the saddle, I could see what they meant by mean.  Any time a horse or mule came near Blaze he would pull his ears back flat like he wanted to kick or bite.  Oh boy!  Do I really need this?

Off we go, with Jim in front of me and as the group of 35 or so split up, I wound up being the last in our group.  We were given strict instructions not to fall behind and to stay about 3 feet away from the horse in front of you.  I could watch Jim continually have to kick Buckets and encourage him to keep up, while I was trying to keep Blaze at a distance so he wouldn’t bite or kick anyone.  We started down the trail into the base of the canyon and the wrangler said they are trained to walk the edge of the trail but don’t panic because none of the animals are suicidal.  Every time we got incredibly close to the edge I just repeat, “your not suicidal remember”, which got me down with only sweaty palms.  About half way down, Buckets had to relieve himself again and came to a full stop.  The wrangler behind me told Jim to get him moving again because he just went and was just wasting time.  Well OK!

The views were spectacular whenever I took my eyes off the trail and Jim got some really good pictures.

View of the canyon from the top rim as we entered the Horse Trail

About half way around the canyon floor, we realized the mule in front of Jim was powered by natural gas which lingered long enough for us to ride through it.  That was also the point when I realized Buckets must be an older male horse with prostate issues.  In the meantime, Blaze and I had bonded.  After about 45 minutes my bottom was sore and I was wishing we had done this before I lost those 10 pounds.

Coming back up from bottom of the Canyon

The red towers in the canyon are called hoodoos created by the erosion over time from the elements.  They have very different and distinct shapes and they are given names to help identify them.  The only one I remembered seeing was called the Queen and hope it was not named after Queen Elizabeth because it was ugly.

On our way back up the canyon trail, I noticed Jim was dropping the reins and letting Buckets do all the work while he took pictures.  Blaze on the other hand was getting really tired and I had to keep kicking him to move but my legs had gone numb which made it hard.  I can’t tell who was happier to get back, me or Blaze.  I will admit, the wrangler had to help me off and I could not walk for awhile until the feeling came back.

On the drive to the hotel, we passed the Red Canyon where you had to drive through two rock tunnels and  took in some awesome views.

Tomorrow we drive to Ventura to celebrate my Grandson’s and my birthday.  We will be writing more when we resume our adventure on the 14th.  Come back, promise!

Just how long does it take for your internal clock to reset?  It just doesn’t seem right to me to be staring at the ceiling at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m.  We were in the 24 hour McDonalds at 5:30 this morning eating breakfast and that’s just WRONG.

This early start did give us a jump on many of the other park guests and there were times during the morning when it seemed we had the entire Grand Canyon to ourselves.  We took the “tips” brochure’s advice and went to the far end first because most people don’t read and start at the visitor center.  As we walked along the rim, the sun was getting higher in the sky and changing the colors in the canyon from dim to vivid and making each view different.

Morning view of Canyon from South Rim near Canyon Village

 View of Bright Angel Trail into the canyon

Along the path we came upon a rabbit drinking from a small puddle created by the rain yesterday.  He drank until it was gone and then moved on.  While we were in the park, we’ve seen lots of elk, a few wild horses, lots of squirrels and a mule deer.  We’ve been told that during this dry time, the rangers put out buckets of water for the animals.  One of the birds that seem to be in abundance is the Raven.  They look and sound like black crows but they are the size of a small cat.  Evidently, they are considered very intelligent and can open a zipper on a backpack faster than you can shoo them away.

July starts the rainy season in the Canyon and not a minute too soon based on how dry everything looks.  Unfortunately, with the rain comes the lightening.  Grand Canyon sees 26,000 lightening strikes per year, second only to Orlando, Florida but up here, that lightening means fire most of the time.

Tonight we took a Sunset Canyon tour and watched the sun casting its shadows on the canyon walls with the backdrop of storm clouds from the north rim.  Here are some of the pictures but bear in mind, the camera never captures the incredible views the eye can witness.

Light from Sunset reflecting on the Canyon wall

Sunset over Grand Canyon