As we drove into Napa Valley, we saw the sign so we stopped for our traditional pic. It was interesting because running between the turnout and the sign were railroad tracks. We actually saw a service truck driving down the tracks. Tess thought it was cool that it had the gear to stay on the tracks, as well as wheels to drive on the road. Even though it was still early in the day, we knew that the warm weather had returned as it was already in the 80’s.

Our first stop was Mondavi Winery. The wineries open around 10a, and even though it wasn’t opened yet, we stopped and looked around a bit. The next stop was the visitor center in Helena. They had recommended the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) so we added that to the list of stops. In Helena, we visited the Beringer brothers winery. It too was not open yet, but was beautiful. We then stopped at the CIA to grab an early bite. It was a quite impressive site although we were too early there as well…bummer. We didn’t realize everything got going so late in the morning.

Our next stop was Castillo de Amorosa (the castle). It was up on a hillside with a long driveway entry. It was quite impressive too. We took numerous pictures around the area, but decided we didn’t have the time for a full tour. Next was Sterling Vineyards. It was across the road way up on the hill. It is modeled after architecture in Greece. We purchased wine from here but did not take the tour which required a ride on a tram to get to the complex.

We then set off for the Redwoods. Our first stop on the way was the Chandelier “drive-thru tree”. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. We arrived there in the early afternoon and due to the holiday, we waited about an hour after we paid our $5 admission fee to the park. We got some really cool pictures there. We continued on to the Avenue of the Giants and saw the tallest tree – Hyperion.  It is over 380 ft tall. The whole park was beautiful with huge redwoods lining the road of route 101. We happended to randomly stop at at turnout where another car was parked and it was amazing. We couldn’t have planned a better stop. There was a giant redwood that had uprooted and we could walk the length of which was probably almost the length of a football field. The root end stood about 2 stories tall. The kids had a great time climbing and exploring that tree Trevor once again scurried up to the top of the fallen tree before we even realized it was there. We hated to leave but had a long way yet to go today.

We stopped in the city of Ukiah for lunch. It was the worst food and service at any Applebees we had ever been to.or lunch. Yuk. Route 101 is an interstate that at times goes down to a small winding 2 lane road with hairpin turns. Unfortunately it was a rough day for Trevor with the motion sickness. We continued north to redwood national and state park. Beautiful massive redwoods lined the road at times and covered the whole mountainside. The views of the northwest were absolutely spectacular.

This is where a decision we made prior to the trip almost killed us. Initially we were going to stay in northern California’s city of Klamath. We arrived there around 8p, which would have been perfect. The 2nd thought was to drive to Grant Pass, Oregon tonight. However that would still leave a 7 hour drive the next day to Seattle. Before the trip, we decided we would stay in PORTLAND, OREGON, which is another 300 miles from Klamath. Yes, you guessed it, we drove the additional 300 miles to Portland and arrived around 2:30a! This decision will let us spend more time at Mt Rainier, and then head into our final city of Seattle. I hope Mt. Rainier is as spectacular as I recall from my visit over 30 years ago when I was in Seattle for the 14 and under AAU Nationals.