November has been an adventure, with an election, a new job and new baby in the family, and again able to camp in a month that should be only for soup making, fireplaces and down comforters. So once again we find ourselves in the Napa valley and camping. I made reservations back in September, when hubby and I took our last trip. We love Bothe Napa SP with its oak woodlands. We arrived around 4 after a 4-5 wet and rainy drive, got water at the entrance station and havingreserved site 21 as we love it’s sunny back side, we realize 20 might have been a better choice now after we arrived (took a bit to get one of the sway bars off), as we had to use at least three levels to raise the front up which still is low- luckily for pillows!We’ll just drink wine and eat French pasta.
Getting water at the entrance station. All parks are so different when it comes to locations for accessing water for trailers.
The park was pretty busy with campers, and yurt users, and the weather was varied with rain and sun.
Monday up at the light, hubby had packed the food and forgot some essentials like half and half. Not to worry as Calistoga is only a seven minute drive where wine is more expensive than most non-vineyard places, but the cream is cheap. Breakfast was a feast as he brought home the bacon, we added in eggs and made cinnamon rolls!Next it was a hike to the Bale Grist Mill to look at the gathering spot that most everyone flocked to back in the day. It’s closed in the winter during the week so we had it to ourselves. Impressive piece of machinery. It was a perfect day, sunny and mild for the five miles we did. Hung out at the campsite, drank some Almanac beer then went into Calistoga to rent a movie and pick up some over priced wine. I frequented the stores, Blackbird and the bookstore are my favorites!
So nice to have coffee with cream and relax!
Took the History Trail to the Bale Grist Mill.
Bale Grist Mill is right on the road and only open on the weekends. No one was there and the hike round trip from the campground was easy.
Love to visit Calistoga! Also went into St. Helena.
Tuesday we decided to go taste the work of students at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, the old Christian Brothers winery. Made reservations and enjoyed a few items on the menu, complete with discussion about the program that students are involved with for two years. Next we walked downtown St. Helena, then capped the day off with wine tasting at Freemark Abbey. Perfect day, but had to use the noisy generator to charge up the batteries for a calamari dinner with rice and salad.
The other side of the kitchen at The Culinary Institute of America.
