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14th Oct 2005
The Napa Old Faithful
Friday, 14th October, 2005
Spent the initial hour or so computing, finishing off a couple of notes and drawing together some thoughts from yesterday’s foray to CSU.
Took a walk around the property with Tony mid morning and tried to visulaise the plans for the new house extension; an ideal location and an exciting project.
Around the five acres, turkey vultures overhead, several species of woodpecker dodging around the trees … and the most persistent of burrs sticking to legs and wedging themselves painfully inside shoes.
We set off to drive to Napa late morning. An easy enough drive down the interstate.
The ideas was to have a quick look over a couple of vineyards, hopefully try a bit of wine and then seek lodging for the night within reasonable reach of San Francisco for tomorrow’s flight.
We passed numerous signs and vines en route to St Helena, which is quite far up the valley and near to the older vineyards of Beringer and Sterling. We stopped at what was signed as a tourist information point which turned out to be a Chamber of Commerce. Back home we’ve been hearing much lately of the publicly supported trips made by the main movers and shakers in Aviemore who have visited America to learn from the slick and efficient procedures of Uncle Sam. Well, in St Helena, and in fact in Napa in general, we felt far more at home and were left wondering what ‘service’ for tourists the Chamber of Commerce was actually offering.
They didn’t have any suggested dwellings … they certainly weren’t going to offer any advice and when they did dig out a fax sent in by a local hotel noting its vacancies …. No, they didn’t make telephone enquiries on behalf of customers. They did however sit in the Chamber, looking VERY important indeed.
The theme was continued as we sought lunch at a café except importance was substituted with plain indifference and inattention. Its good to see it doesn’t always run like clockwork out here.
Time was only going to permit one vineyard tour and Anne opted for Sterling Vineyards which has a gondola access system up to the vines and also a view back down the valley. An interesting enough tour and then a taste of a variety of wines from pinot gris to cabernet to syrah, none of which, unfortunately quite hit the mark.
The vineyard closed at half five and we left about then. Just along the road was a sign advertising ‘California’s Old Faithful Geyser’ which had every possibility of being a bit of a flop but was it said it had featured in National Geographic and well, a geyser must be a geyser, right? (I’ve changed to ‘right?’ from ‘eh?’ as we’re not in Canada any more) and so we thought why not!
I asked the guy on the desk whether there was anything likely to happen in the next half hour (in terms of an ‘eruption’) and he said ‘oh, yeah, sure … every 15 to 25 minutes at the moment … and do feel free to wait around until half six or so if you’d like’.
I duly duly parted with the required $8 and passed through the gift shop.
Behind the shop and surrounded with bamboo thicket was a pond with a few rocks in it, reminiscent of the sort of thing that frequents the car parks of busy garden centres back in Britain … and indeed the surrounding ground did look like a car park as it had been extensively gravelled – presumably to cover the mud.
There were a number of benches, some with tables and also several deck-chair style loungers. To the left, what turned out to be a French couple were in a fairly intimate embrace, all squished into one chair and from the clinch, Monsieur’s head poked out with a camera clapped to his eye, intently watching the pond. To the right, there was another couple doing the same thing; Sitting there in chairs cameras at the ready.
Close scrutiny of the pond did reveal that there was a certain amount of steam issuing from the vicinity of the rocks piled in the middle and judging by the way the steam was blowing I headed round towards Madame and Monsieur and wandered about in an unobtrusive way. About fifteen minutes later, the cameras had been relaxed and a certain camaraderie was developing between the various expectant observers.
Then there was a hiss, the sound of an underwater fart and a fountain of water rose about three feet in the air and then subsided. There was tangible disbelief and laughter at this pathetic performance. Monsieur was anxiously scrolling his camera, to see whether he’d caught the event on film … and had, while the couple on the other side were almost paralysed with laughter because they’d missed it … but had a picture of the pond … Anne and I joined in with the general buzz but neither had bothered to try for a picture.
After another minute or so, ‘Old Faithful’ suddenly went off … like a fire hose (suspiciously like a fire hose); straight up in the air, quite possibly reaching the 60ft advertised on the hoardings outside.
I snapped away, Anne took a bit of video of the event and the others similarly made their recordings. In the trees above the gift shop there was a flock of starlings getting ready to roost and as the geyser subsided and the sun clipped the horizon, they flew around over head and then chucked themselves in to the bamboo to roost, crashing into the stems and then noisily rattling their way down into the foliage.
Almost as quickly as the geyser started, it stopped. I think we were the last to pull out of the car park, waving cheerily to our Auld Allies as they drew away.
We headed south. The usual battle about timing of arrival at the airport was brewing Anne likes to be there about three weeks in advance just in case … I don’t mind running along the tarmac and climbinga board an aircraft via the undercarraiage ... in fact I've always fancied doing that !!!.
The Bay Bridge was threatening closure for some repair work and the Golden Gates can be busy so for peace and contentment, the closer we got the better. We tried a couple of motels in Santa Somewhere or other; both were decidedly dodgy and the second one had never heard of internet and so it was that we ended up in the Best Western Corte Madera which is about 45 minutes from the airport (on a good day, with a following wind).
We crossed the Street to the ‘Pacific Catch bar; Anne tackled the Teriyaki and I had the mixed catch basket - cod, oysters and shrimp with chips and a side salad ... once again we joined a thriving hub at 9, but by 9.30 it was deserted.
Back at the hotel we made full use of the DSL hook-up.
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Diary Photos
| 14th Oct 2005 |
| Bogart |
| A great looking dog ... in characteristic growling mode |
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| 14th Oct 2005 |
| 'Old Faithful' |
| Looking suspiciously like a fire hose, here is OF avec les Francais in the foreground |
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