The road to St. Helena

Since I don't have more than a weekend off until Thanksgiving, 

I decided to take us on a little trip down vacation memory lane.

Join me on the journey The Cyclist and I took from Solage/Calistoga to St. Helena...

We took the back road and went by some vineyards....

... across a little bridge...

...and passed some more vineyards...

...while I took 100 photos of grapes, The Cyclist spotted this fig tree....

...and we proceeded to help ourselves to a big bag of figs....

...they were tasty in our salad for the rest of the week!

We were tired of wine and decided to stop at a brewery for lunch instead.I spotted this pretty flower on the way in...

...and we arrived at Silverado Brewing Co.

...it was in a neat old building...

...with a nice front patio...

...with a vineyard view...

...they were celebrating Oktoberfest...

...and had a special menu.I should have done a Yelp review, but I did not.  Now all I can remember is I had some German soup and the food was pretty good.Not much info for a review there.
After lunch we moseyed on down to the little town of St. Helena...


...I spotted this nifty old truck parked on the road...

...and then some, uh..."art" caught our eye's...

Yeah.

Confused, we wandered into this olive oil shop...

...they had lots of tasty stuff.  Including the arbequina olive oil that was on our caprese salad at Brannan's Grill.
Just down from Olivier was Woodhouse Chocolate...

....oh my....

...the delicious-ness.

Seventeen dollars of chocolate consumed in 5 minutes by The Cyclist and I was totally worth it.

Oh, and don't forget to check out their pretty chandelier...

Until my next vacation.....have a beautiful day!

Travel - Solage, Calistoga, CA, Part Duex

I mentioned in my last Solage post that the property is connected by multiple paths and gardens containing some hidden artwork gems. After my run on Friday morning (don't applaud, I was only attempting to sweat out the overabundance of wine, among other things, from the night before), I wandered the grounds and took a bunch of photos, which you can check out below.

Additionally, because I'm now an iPad nerd and no longer the Old Lady & the Computer (well, maybe a little bit), I did doctor some of these photos using Photogene.

Please enjoy your outdoor walking tour of Solage....

Welcome...

...ahhh, flowers...

I ♥ this pic ↑!!

Bocce Ball anyone?

...to give you a better idea of the "studios"

These little quails were hanging out near our porch when I got home...

...what's that?  You can't see them?

Does this help...?

...yes, I am a nerd.

But ColorSplash is coolio.

And, mama birdie....

We had a great time at Solage!  I hope we get to go back again.  

Next week I will bring you Calistoga, St. Helena, Yountville & Napa, wineries and more. 

Hope you enjoyed the photos!