NAPA

Wow, an entire week in the wine country. Before the kids arrived, wine tasting was one of our favorite hobbies! Try the Silverado Trail, which is the road on the other side of the Napa Valley (Hwy 29). Not as many wineries, but a lot less crowded. You may also want to stop in Calistoga for a mud bath, sauna and massage. I also liked roaming the backroads of Sonoma County looking for wineries.

Hopefully Stoner or Rocklicker will see your posting. There is a rockshop in Hopland (I think) in northern Sonoma County. I think the rock shop is off hwy 101.

Are you visiting other places while in California- San Francisco or further south? Other nearby wine areas to explore include the Livermore Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Southern Santa Clara Valley, or even the Sierra Foothills.

My weekends are busy with the kids' sports, but I can take a day off or two during the week. I was looking for a reason to take some time off LOL.

Wow! Sorry I haven't been on the rock board. We have a show going on here real soon that I am helping with. Anyway... WOW you will be right in my neck of the woods!!!! Napa is about 45 minutes from here... Sonoma is right up the road (er Hwy 12)! ;D

First off I would be glad to recommend some smaller wineries to you. We go wine tasting often and like the smaller ones. My favorite ones are those at the end of a dirt road where you are in someone's basement or barn tasting wine. We have some wine friends including a wine dude who works in Sonoma (Arrowwood winery I think). He knows a lot about the Napa/Sonoma side. I am more familear with the Alexander Valley/ Healdsburg side. I will ask him about some good stops!

If you want to meet up we can! Feel free to stop by the rocklicker workshop (currently a mess) and check out what i've been up to. There's a number of collecting sites around... it depends on what you want to do. We go lots of jasper up here. There's a cool agate site I want to check out in Berkeley (about 45 minutes from Napa and home of Rallyrocks) full of the obscure Berkeley Agate. We got that rock shop Cal talked about (bring an extra pair of shoes and gloves if you want to go to the side yard. Good rocks but doubles as a litter box). Tehre's a few more up North too.

I have been very busy with the show but that will be over after the 19th. Then back to the board!!!!
Steve

Other items you may be interested in:

Gaumers Rock Museum; Red Bluff, CA. North of Sac.
Jade, jadite in Eel River, Mendocino Co (north of Santa Rosa, near Wilits)
Lake County Diamonds in Lake Co, East of Sonoma Co.
Obsidian in same area.

Hope this helps,
Bill