Hotel La Rose Santa Rosa

... of scenery and hopefully some excitment! On Wednesday Rob and I are heading up the coast with his mum and dad and spending the nightin Mendocino. Then Thursday we're meeting up with Doug and Flick to camp in the Anderson Valley then Eugene, Portland, Idaho... before heading up to Vancouver to settle down and work out our lives...<br><br>New Adventure.. starts now.

... or American oak, the level of toasting and so on. The guides are very agreeable sorts and encourage questions. Nick, our guide, led us into the candlelit cave with Andre Bocelli music piped in to accompany our wine tasting directly from the barrel.<br><br><br><br>Historic caves at the Del Dotto Winery in the Napa Valley<br>Most people haven&#8217;t actually done a barrel tasting ...

... of our friends showed up and there were 112 Pabst Blue Ribbon's in the fridge. Unlike our last party everyone brought piles of beer and wine so at the end of the night with a pile of drunk people, we somehow still had two coolers and a fridge loaded with beer. Great!<br><br>Spent most of Saturday being absolutely worthless. Rented In Bruges, (probably my favorite movie ever) and had a relaxing quiet evening. Until.....<br>I suggested we ...

... died out and I was able to appreciate the wine country in the morning mist &#8211; but not for long as a I was soon climbing the hills up the Sugar Loaf Ridge state park. Completing my honours system parking ticket I spent and age putting on my boots and scoping out the hill; to be honest I was not sure I was going to get to the top and was already scoping out some side routes. This was until another pair of walkers arrived. A couple who if they were not ...

... refreshing to have 5 people who are completely different get along so well. The problem with living in a new place, city, country every three months is that you are never around your friends long enough. <br><br>Not to mention as soon as you don't have to map quest every single little direction, it's time to move. <br><br>I am excited for new things because I love new things, but seriously.. I'm so not Vancouver. <br><br><br><br><br>

... and a good honest **** up rather than this taste and spit nonsense. So time for a new plan of action then !! Now being an official designated driver I offered to drive round all the vineyards on our own little wine tour, but then we realized the day after next was thanksgiving so Renwood wouldn't be open. Final plan then was to drive to Renwood and back via a couple of vineyards so at least we would go to the vineyard we actually wanted too. Word of warning - don't try and ...

... afford to buy many more. Napa Valley is definitely a very expensive area!! I noticed the supermarkets in Texas had Zinfandel at a very reasonable price so I would get some more bottles from there to take home with me.<br><br>By the time I finished looking at the wineries it was early evening so I found a hotel (also expensive) and just went to a nearby restaurant for dinner and a couple of beers.

... March 16th Went out for a long walk towards Destin Beach and came across about 25 jeeps and 4 wheel drive autos that were all parked on the beach.  The sand is so fine and compacted at low tide that it supported all of the heavy cars without any problem.  Lots of people were surf fishing, but we couldn't find anyone that was catching. Photos to follow- we have such a poor connection that it's taking forever to load any pictures.  

... We found a little spot for lunch. In the early afternoon, a car pulled over in front of us, and we were greeted by Allan MacLeod, who had been present at our Sacramento Friends Meeting event. He was on his way to the same home we were walking towards, to take part in a practice session for some local musicians. He offered a ride, which we declined, but we accepted a ride for some of our gear. We felt like we could fly, we were so light! Walking into Carol and Dick ...