Napa Valley

So, now we're in Vacaville, CA. Yesterday was our first sightseeing day. We drove over to Napa, where we had lunch at the Oxbow Public Market - sort of a mini Faneuil Hall for you New Englanders. It has several different kinds of eateries, but we went simple with Gott's Roadside, an infamous burger joint right next door. I had fish tacos. (I'd like to start documenting my fish tacos, but I'm a little slow on the uptake.) Rick had a burger of course.

The market is chock full of a variety of food vendors:

Spices

Meat

Cupcakes

Produce

Chocolate

Italian pastries

...as well as fish, olive oil and the ubiquitous wine.

After lunch we drove up the valley and took in the vineyards. The landscape and the vineyard buildings are gorgeous, even in this season with the vines barely budding.

In Calistoga we drove west, up over another winding road, into the neighboring valley, and south through Santa Clara and Petaluma. At the bottom of the valley we passed through some unusual and grand emerald green cattle and sheep grazing country, and then along the San Pablo bay, where we spotted some shore birds (avocets, black-necked stilts and great egrets and snowy egrets) and ran into the rush hour traffic before we got home.