Napa -- Part Two

After we left Chateau Montelena we drove down Highway 29 to St. Helena. There is not a foot of any road in the Napa Valley, or for the most part leading out of the Napa Valley, that I have not ridden on a bicycle, often many times, so wherever we go, memories abound. Much has changed since I moved away in 1986, of course, but I've been back several times since then so it's been incremental. Mostly, there is just more - more wineries, more vineyards, more shopping, more lodging, more restaurants -- more of everything. More traffic, as well, which is a major turn-off!

Our only goal for the afternoon was Beringer, where Sylvia, Walt and I all worked way back when. Well -- they stayed on and retired from there, I left, rather foolishly in retrospect. Much has changed here, too -- growing pains! The grand old Rhine House has thankfully changed very little -- mostly in how it is used. When I worked there, I was lucky enough to have that nice little upstairs corner office in the photo, with the balcony. Words really cannot describe what a wonderful place this was to work in those days. I'm sure it's also lovely now, but not in the same way because we were much smaller then, the employee family tight.

These wonderful stained-glass doors are hard to photograph with a hand-held camera, but you can tell how beautiful they are. When I worked there, and indeed until quite recently, these doors were never used. Now, they are fittingly being used once more for entry into the Rhine House. The house itself has always been lovingly maintained by its series of modern owners, and is always beautiful. Almost 3 years of my life were spent in this wonderful environment.

This beautiful staircase is closed off to the public, as it was during my tenure. For years, one of the larger offices upstairs was used as a tasting room for high-end wines, but no more. All of these interior shots are going to be less-than-perfect, but I can't resist using them.

Almost every room in the Rhine House features these wonderful, original stained-glass windows. If memory serves, some were broken in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but thankfully many remain.

I believe this was the dining room in the original home, but would not swear to that. I include the photo to show the detailing of wood, including the floors. This is all original from the late 1800s (1881, going on memory here).

All the merchandising here is done with such flair, and such adherence to the age and elegance of the building. And those wonderful wines, of course.

After we left Beringer we went to the Sunshine Market. When I lived here, Sunshine was a smaller grocery store that competed for the burgeoning gourmet business with the local Safeway and such places as the Oakville Grocery. Because it was rather the ugly stepsister, I rarely went there. For some years now, things have changed in a big way. Sunshine now focuses on the gourmet tastes of the local residents and is swimming with customers. We bought a frozen pizza made in Italy, some Dulce de Leche ice cream, and I bought a bottle of old-fashioned Straus Family milk, from Tomales Bay. Organic, non-homogenized, packaged in an old-fashioned returnable glass bottle -- lovely! All that luscious cream rose to the top -- when I was a kid, I hated that. How times change!

Sylvia and I had a wonderful day, and then a wonderful evening. Walt had gone into San Francisco to a Giant's game so we had the house to ourselves. Rather excessive amounts of wine were consumed, before and with the pizza and ice cream, and lots of good girl-talk.

For Saturday, a pool-party was in the offing. We hit the pool area early to clean up and prepare that, then spent the rest of the morning making a variety of salads to go with the burgers (hamburgers, ahi tuna burgers, or Gardenburger). What a pleasure to cook in that kitchen, with its space, extra sink, and to-die-for commercial-style gas cooktop.

Sylvia had invited her two daughters, who live in Sacramento and Marin, along with others who had conflicting schedules. I knew the daughters when they were teenagers, have seen them since then but not for awhile. Both had their kids with them -- two were teenagers I haven't seen since they were toddlers, the others were 7 and 8 and this was my first meeting with them. Lovely children, all of them. We spent the afternoon lounging around in the shade, watching the kids in the pool, playing Trivial Pursuit, capped it off with burgers and all those salads -- plus lots of wine, of course!

I left early Sunday morning, after a stop for coffee in Napa with Walt and Sylvia. A Mocha for the road never hurt anyone! The visit was way too short -- and yes, to answer questions asked and unasked, I could happily live anywhere in that part of the world again. San Francisco, Marin, Point Richmond, Napa, Sonoma, even Mendocino would be lovely, but for me totally unaffordable. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to visit from time to time. I'm especially grateful that I have all these wonderful friends of so many years standing. I love all of you, and am so glad to have had this chance to visit.

I don't know why this trip turned out to be such a quest for memories and nostalgia, but that's certainly what it was. I had in mind driving over to Point Reyes Station and driving up the coast, just to cap off the memories, but decided that was a bit too much for this trip. I wanted lunch at a lovely old oyster company on Tomales Bay anyway, and I would have been way too early for that even if oysters are in season -- and I'm not sure they are. I lived over there for a year or two as well -- long before any of the rest of these places. I'll save that for another trip south.

I hope you've enjoyed this travelogue -- I've certainly had fun doing it.