Vacationing in Napa Valley, California! Part One :)

Hi Everyone, I really hope your week is off to a wonderful beginning. :)

I wanted to share a little of the fun we had on our recent vacation to Napa Valley. I Hope you Enjoy it too! :)


I LOVE Napa Valley and of course with every vacation area I fall in love with, I really hope one day I get the opportunity to live there, even for a little while :) (Good luck with that one, says the little crazy guy sitting on my shoulder)  :(

The short flight from Portland to Sacramento is so easy; even the airports were no problem and it was a Friday afternoon. I was so excited. YAY!

I really LOVE taking photos out of the airplane windows with my zoom lens (Hello silly, you know there are double paned windows on this plane and the outside is covered in who knows what, I don't care, it is ZOOM or nothing (He! He!)

Click on photos to see larger images

Our plane coming into land at sunny Sacramento airport :)

Floor to ceiling towers of old cases in the baggage claim area of SAC airport, really cool :)

We rented a car for the next stage of our trip, an hour and a half drive. Once we left the fairly flat terrain surrounding Sacramento we wound our way thru Mountains roads, where we passed lots of cows, beautiful hanging moss, and a couple of gorgeous lakes (Lake Berryessa and Lake Hennessey).

Lovely Hanging Moss

Beautiful Lake Hennessey as the sun is setting :)

Another shot of Lake Hennessey.

With experience we know that as we arrive at Lake Hennessey we are not far from Rutherford and the Silverado Trail that will take us to our favourite place to stay in Napa Valley.

If you ever plan a trip to Napa Valley be sure to stay at The Wine Country Inn

I can't reccommend it highly enough. These people know their stuff and really know how to make you feel like you are on vacation straight away. The Inn is set in a beautiful quiet spot surrounded by lovely gardens, vines (of course, this is Napa :) and gorgeous vistas.

View from our balcony. Where we eat breakfast every morning (provided by the Inn :)

Another view from our balcony.

Courtyard

Patio where we sat most evenings eating the amazing appetizers the Inn provided and sampling the wines from the wineries that are invited in for the guests to enjoy! (a different one every evening) 

And the pool, what can I say about this?!?! It was relaxing, amazing, peaceful and I spent a lot of time here, PERFECT!!!

This guy came to the pool everyday for a chat, very friendly those Californian birds :)

Flowers beneath our balcony.

Ornamental Grass in one of the many garden settings around the Inn

The beautiful Agapanthus plant or Lily of the Nile :)

More lovely flowers from the Wine Country Inn's gardens :)

I was so excited when I saw this blossom :)

We decide to drive around the mountains a little more than we have before, of course Mt. St. Helena

 where the Author Robert Louis Stevenson lived for a while high up in an old mining camp. I am fascinated by the story of his life :)


As we drove around we came across this "Air Mail" box, I just had to share it with you, isn't it a crack up :)

"Air Mail" box :)

Then as we looked back at Mt. St. Helena we saw the beautiful outline of the ridge line against the evening sky, the light was ever changing and I took the next few photos from a couple of locations.

It was absolutely perfect :)

I really hope you enjoyed a little taste of Napa Valley, stay tuned for Part Two (What more????) Yep, wine and some fun restaurants :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.