SONOMA

On our last evening at Sonoma and the Napa Valley, I took a quick trip into town. Sonoma is a small historic town with remnants of its Mexican past. It was the capital of the short lived Republic of California. Today it is the centre of the Californian wine industry.

Sonoma Town Hall

The old picture theatre caught my attention and I had to look twice at the box office to notice that it wasn't a real live person inside but a model in period dress. 

Then I returned to our accommodation. The Sonoma Lodge. It was very comfortable with a bar and coffee shop, a restaurant, lounges, conference rooms, and a business centre.

 At the back was a lovely swimming pool area with plush lounges for relaxation.

 Our room was comfy with a .....

little balcony. We got dressed up for our farewell dinner. We had enjoyed ourselves with this group and tour. I can recommend the American company, "Tauck Tours." 

The next day it was back to San Francisco. We arrived at 9:30am and our flight didn't leave until 9:30pm. We were able to use the facilities of Le Meridien Hotel and stored our luggage. Then we went exploring again on the cable cars. At last our plane arrived to take us home, 15 hours to Auckland NZ, a 2 hour wait there and then a 3 hour flight to Brisbane. We sure do live down under, but we love it and we are always happy to be back in our hometown. So ended another Adventure before Dementia.

THE CIA

Another day Tauck tours took us to the CIA (no not that one) the Culinary Institute of America." Rising castle-like on the western hills, the CIA at Greystone is one of the Napa Valley's most historic and majestic properties. It's also one of the world's most unique and inspiring campuses for culinary education. "
It was an amazing building. Too big to fit into the camera lens. It was made of huge sandstone blocks.

Inside was very impressive too. It had a huge atrium and stairs to the upper levels. We were chuffed to see the Australian flag flying next to the Swiss flag (TOH being Swiss).

The students were in one of the huge kitchens preparing our lunch.

The spice pantry and a mural of chefs learning their trade.

The students had modern lecture rooms seen at the left and a pleasant common room.

On the way downstairs I glimpsed our table setting in this huge room. The students made us a delicious meal of salad, chicken and asparagus but for dessert........... 

we had to go into a lecture room and learn how to cook it first. I bet the real students don't get given a dessert wine.

The head chef demonstrated how to make a 'Rustic Fruit Gallette and Creme Anglaise.' He was very amusing and had us giggling all the way through. Then we were all given a serving of his creation. It was delicious. It was fun experiencing what the students do there.

With full tummies and happy smiles we left the CIA and went back to the Sonoma Lodge to prepare for our farewell dinner as this was the last night of our tour of Sonoma and the Napa Valley

FUN AT FRANCISCAN WINERY

While we were in Napa Valley our tour group was taken to 'Franciscan Winery', where we had a tasting and a challenge.

After the tasting we were taken into ......

.......the wine 'Library'. The winemaker explained the challenge. We would be divided into 3 groups of 8 and we had 55 mins to 'Blend the Perfect Wine', 'Provide a Marketing Concept' and 'Design a Label and bottle the wine". At the end the wine would be judged.

We were given 5 bottles of base wine: Cab Sav, Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot. We had to blend the wines to create a new one with balance, power and elegance. We had to choose the wines and the  percentage to use. We were given some guidelines like one of the wines should be the base and largest percentage.  Luckily Terry in our group was a chemist and knew how to use the pipette.

Others kept tasting and suggesting the percentages to make a soft, elegant wine. Hee hee it was loads of fun. While they were doing that we were all trying to think of a name for the wine. Linda was making up a Marketing Concept and I was designing the label. After fifty mins we had decided on the right percentages, bottled the wine and stuck on the label and we were ready to present it to the whole group and the judges.

Linda volunteered to present the marketing of our wine. We had called it 'Tauckabout Red" It was a play on words with the name of our tour company 'Tauck Tours".

I used the Tauck logo and a few vine leaves for the label and mentioned the blended wines. We used Merlot, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.  After the three groups presented their wine the judges awarded one group with the best wine (not ours) another group won the best Marketing Concept (not ours) and we won the Best Label. Yoo hoo that was me!

NAPA VALLEY WINE TRAIN.

Ever since I saw a documentary about the Napa Valley Wine Train I added it to my bucket list. Then I saw a post on Pat's blog, about when she went on the wine train.  This made me want to do this trip even more. A few months ago when we were in USA we managed to do this great trip as part of a tour.
The Napa Valley Railroad is privately owned and started doing wine trips between Napa and St Helena in 1989 after hassles with locals about the environmental impact.
The engines used to belong to Canadian National Railway and they have been converted to run on natural gas. The nine cars were built in early 1900's by Pullman Co. They have been extensively refurbished by NVRR.

 Our group was lucky to get the last car with an outside observation deck. It is a lounge and bar car with swivel lounge chairs. There were four glasses of wine waiting for each person to taste. We had a sommelier tell us about the wines. Our tour guide gave us an information sheet about the wineries we were passing.

Bill throws away concern about getting Atrial Fibrillation and enjoys the wine and the nibblies.

Me too. A dream come true. The view from the windows was beautiful. 

 One vineyard after another surrounded by rolling green hills. It reminded us of the Hunter Valley in NSW.

 We went out on the back deck to take photos and film. The track runs along side the State Route 29.

 The train stops in a few places where you can get off for tasting and tours of wineries.

However, we stayed on board and went to the dining car for a gourmet meal. The round trip takes about 3 hours.

A DINNER WITH A DIFFERENCE

After a day on the bay in San Francisco, our tour guide promised us a surprise dinner. Then she told us we had to cook it ourselves for the whole tour group there were 23 of us. We were taken to a warehouse which had been converted into offices, showrooms and an huge kitchen. The company running the kitchen was called, "Hands on Gourmet". They ran these special dinners, where groups came in and they had to cook their own meal with help from a number of chefs. It is a way for people to get to know each other. I can tell you I was nervous as I am the world's worst cook. However, I'm always in for some fun and adventure.

We were divided into 4 groups and we were given a choice of 'Appetisers', 'Starters', 'Mains' (called Entree in USA) and 'Desserts'. Unfortunately I can't remember all of the menu and somehow I didn't get a menu to keep.

(All the photos were taken in a hurry with our phones so the quality is poor but hopefully you'll get the idea of what we had to do and what fun it was.)

Each group had a chef to explain what had to be done.

 They showed us how.

They gave us wine to drink while we worked.

 Then the fun started. Everybody had something to do. It was an exercise in bonding with strangers. It was loads of fun.

Bill enjoyed making tartlets.

 I was deep frying doughnuts.

They turned out well with the help of a new found friend. Then we coated them with sugar and cinnamon served with a special sauce, which I can't remember the name.

We nibbled and drank wine all through the preparations and then we all shared each others creations. It was a great way to get to know all the other tour members, we were the only Aussies everyone else was from all over the States. They were all friendly and helpful. It was a fun way to have dinner and we didn't have to clean up. Yea!

A DAY ON THE BAY

When we were in San Francisco we joined Tauck Tours. They took us for a catamaran sail on the Bay. While we waited for the yacht we walked along Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. The pier was overtaken by sea lions some time ago.  The city built these pontoons especially for the sea lions so that the pier could be returned to humans again. The tourist kind.

 Why they all crowded on one pontoon when there were plenty for them to rest on, I don't know. Maybe they were keeping warm it was sunny but cold. 

Kissy kissy!

Our group boarded the yacht. We had a colourful and friendly captain. He looked like an old 'sea salt'.

Our tour guide on the left points out places of interest. Bill and I sat inside out of the wind except when we wanted to take some shots. We had a nice lunch on board.

 We passed Alcatraz and sailed towards........

 That well known icon of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, which is actually red. The bay and the bridge are often covered in fog but we were lucky on this day.

Yep we went right underneath.

On our way back to the hotel the bus stopped at the lookout so we could see the bridge from  different angles.
Then we drove over it to get home.
The tour directer promised us a surprise dinner for that night.