2017 Travels Begin

Our 2017 travels got off to a slow start as we bought a new( to us) RV. It is a 2007 Monaco Executive, we went from 38 ft. to 44 ft. Since we live in it full time the 6 extra feet really makes a difference.

Our new Home

We left Casa Grande, AZ and went to San Diego to visit family. We have a new great nephew that we had to see and we love that area. Then we traveled to Petaluma, CA where we stayed at the Elks RV park. We wined our way around the beautiful wine country in Sonoma, Napa & Calistoga.

One of my very favorite winery’s is the  Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. It is a true castle with 107 rooms on 8 levels above and below ground, that cover approximately 121,000 square feet. The details and building techniques are architecturally faithful to the 12th and 13th century time period. Among many other features it has: a moat; a drawbridge; defensive towers; an interior courtyard; a torture chamber; a chapel/church; a knights’ chamber; and a 72 by 30 feet great hall. We took the wine tasting tour and it worth every penny.

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The next winery we visited was Francis Ford Coppola winery.

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We had dinner on Tuesday night at what is called A Tavola. It is served family style, where the waiters come around to your table and serve you. The wait staff is dressed and act like a big Italian family. One is dressed in his pajamas carrying a prop cigarette,  he said “I just woke up and did not know we were having company”. Another member starts to play the accordion. It was so much fun and the food was wonderful, there were so many courses we lost count all for only $42.00 per person (not including liquor). 

The museum displays the beautiful Tucker car from the movie Tucker: The man and his Dream.

Upstairs is the Godfather’s desk.

This next winery is the Ferrari-Carano Winery. The gardens were so beautiful.

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The last two California winery’s we visited were Cast Winery and Wilson Winery. They both had wonderful wine and beautiful vineyards. 

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In our next post I will show all the wonderful places(other than wineries) we visited along the coast on highway 101.

There are 10 comments for this article
  1. Susan Prichard at 5:57 am

    You two certainly know how to have a good time. Hugs to both of you and Noe.

    • Kathleen at 1:50 am

      Thank you Susan, we sure try our hardest….

  2. She at 7:03 am

    Miss you guys! Still in Albuq and would love to see you if you come anywhere near by.

    • Kathleen at 1:52 am

      We miss you too. We plan on being in ABQ in October, I’ll let you know the dates when we finalize them

  3. Barbara Goble at 8:31 am

    We used to live in Napa. the wineries are all beautiful. Wine tasting was a weekend adventure. Thanks for the memories.

    • Kathleen at 1:53 am

      It is so beautiful and so many wineries and so little time haha.

  4. karen stein at 1:08 pm

    How fun! Thanks for sharing your experiences. I hope to visit these wineries when I get out to the CA wine country again. I’ve been to some of them there but not these.

    • Kathleen at 1:55 am

      It would be so much fun if we could do it together, We sure miss you and Will.

  5. Alana at 1:29 pm

    Beautiful journey your on.! So nicely done Kathleen!

    Looking forward to next posts!

    • Kathleen at 1:56 am

      Thank you Alana, tell Barry we said hello.