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California – “High Horses”

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– written by Amy Hammond-Hagberg and photos by me –

Philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.”

A sucker for longevity, I have always taken his advice to heart. Of course, the problem with always playing it safe is that life can become a little predictable. On this vacation I vowed to step outside my comfort zone and make some extra-special memories.  So rather than doing a conventional Sonoma County wine tasting and bouncing from winery to winery tasting different vintages, Kaia and I experienced a vineyard in a very different way.  On horseback!

Day three of our California vacation started in Santa Rosa at the Bad Ass Coffee Company. I mean, really, how could we choose Starbucks over a place called Bad Ass? This Hawaiian franchise produces amazing coffee that is sold at sixty five retail stores. The atmosphere inside the store was totally chillin’, dude…I was like stoked to be there!

After some amazing pastries and espresso we were fueled up to get back into our rockin’ car and head to our next stop. Sterling Winery is perched 300 feet above the town of Calistoga. The winery offers stunning panoramic vistas of the Napa Valley and beautiful architecture that was modeled after that of the Greek island of Myklos. There are grapes as far as the eye can see.

The problem with this whole scenario is that visitors have to take an aerial tram (gondola) up the hill to take the tour and do the wine tasting – the whole point, after all, of going to a winery. I happen to be a little crippled when it comes to heights and I am even more averse to tight spaces. When the attendant helped me plop my fanny down on a seat inside the gondola and then shut the doors, there was a lurch and some serious squeaking and grinding. In my mind’s eye I pictured my beautiful daughter and myself plunging to our deaths before we even got to taste the wine. (That is not the way I want to check out, thank you very much. I was thinking more along the lines of falling asleep in my cozy bed and then stepping into eternity.)

Looking around at the scenery below us didn’t help my phobias, so I just examined my chipped toenail polish. I actually forgot we were on the wicked little tram until the bugger lurched again to let us out. I was pretty proud of myself….I wouldn’t have had the guts to do that five years ago.

 

We  proceeded from station to station to learn about the art of winemaking and sipping varietals along the way.  The most important thing I learned (besides that fact that I’m not as chicken as I thought I was) was that you don’t have to actually swallow the wine to participate in a wine tasting. You can just sip and swirl and spit! I had no idea!  For those of you who aren’t in the know, there are three stages of taste: the Attack phase, the Evolution phase and the Finish. I don’t know, it all seemed way too complex to me, but I do know that if I would have swallowed all that wine I wouldn’t have been able to clear the driveway. But the few sips I did take gave me a little extra confidence for our next pit stop.

Next on the agenda was the Triple Creek Horse Outfit at the Kunde Winery in Kenwood.  We were a very eclectic group; four riders hailed from New York – a young Asian couple and a sixty something year old man and a street-smart 16-year old kid who spent more time texting the holding reins. Then of course there were Kaia and me. Kaia has spent a fair amount of time in the saddle, but I’m like Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers.

It was interesting to watch our guide place us on horses that matched our personalities, and even more interesting witnessing me get up on my horse, Newt. Being vertically challenged, getting my left foot into the stirrup was no walk in the park, let me tell you. Not only could I barely reach it, standing on my tippy toes, but then I had to swing my big fat leg over the horse. Not a graceful moment for a girl with a bad back. But I did it, grabbed the reins, and steeled myself for a fun ride.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of sitting atop a glorious creature walking amidst wooded glens, ponds, and rows of grapevines on a hot summer day. I was the teacher’s pet (or more likely the one he was the most worried about) so I was in the number 2 position. Other than the few times I had to remind my horse NOT to stick his nose up the back end of the horse in front of him, the rest of the time my guide and I talked about growing wine and the beautiful countryside. We even ventured into deeper topics like life and death and overcoming trials; not bad for a one-hour trail ride.

Getting off the horse was nearly as much fun as getting on it, but once my feet were on the ground I was stoked. I’d had two adventures in one day!  After one more quick wine tasting we were back on the road toward Orinda and the comfly bed in my niece’s guest room.

I’m going to walk funny tomorrow.

California – Day 2 (July 20)

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So it must be confusing to be reading these blogs for yesterday a day later and I am feeling a lack of direction for this particular piece, but  here it goes.  And just so we understand each other, it’s hard to post on the day without staying up super late to write on the day that just happen.  So, here we are.

Today (meaning yesterday) mom and I woke up nice and early to start our adventures in Northern California.  I decided to run.  Up a hill.  Because they are unavoidable. By the time I reached my halfway point I realized I could walk as fast as I was running.  And when I reached the top the phrase “breathe-taking view” held some brand new meaning as I sucked for air while gazing out across this drier Rwandan-looking expanse of hills and gorges.

Then we headed to Santa Rosa to complete out missions for the day:  two business meetings for Mom and visits to Guernville and Healdsburg.  For the business meetings I had some work time and lunch and then we were set to trek out on our days real adventures.

Guernville is hippie central.  Right off the bat I stumbled across two incoherent beings, one mumbled something strange that I am now having trouble recollecting and the other was a young boy sitting on a fence mumbling for “spare change.”  Now, by the time I could decipher what the second was saying I was well past him and quickly realized he would probably turn around and use it for weed.

The majority of the stores in this town had something to do with marihuana.  We did not stay long because there was not much of a main street, but it was fun to visit the small stretch of bright stores and enjoy a couple yummy truffles.  Also, we actually got stuck talking to a store owner about best routes to get everywhere, and I mean everywhere, we were going while in California.  Can say I don’t remember a word, but he sure was enthusiastically helpful.

Healdsburg, for those of us Illinoisans, is a glorified downtown Geneva.  Everything is expensive and the food is not great.  We walked down the main street, the whole length of the down town area, without even rubbernecking at any given shop.  At the end of the road, however, we discovered the chamber of commerce and got our hands on a map.  Now, I was completely famished, but then we stepped into this fair trade store called One World Fair Trade.  Through this store I got to travel back to Africa and travel to all sorts of other countries.  New breath was blown into my lungs.  Our next chosen destination from our new handy-dandy map was this Upper Level Art Gallery.  It literally existed at in the upper level of a trendy bookstore and there was everything from oil paining, to photography, to ethnic sculpting, to jewelry making.  It was a brilliant niche of eclectic, local art.

After a few other lesser exciting stores and some super salty dinner we were on our way back to our Japanese-esk hotel for some wine and a chick flick.

P.S.  I do not recommend plum wine or “Just Go With It.”

California – Day 1 (July 19)

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Yesterday I woke up to the wet blanket of humidity.  It made a habit of looming on top of Minnesota for a few days already, but nothing like yesterday.  By the end of the day I heard that the temperature peaked at 95 degrees, but with the humidity it was 120.

And I ran.  With the drip drip of sweat and dreams of a dry California I finished my shorter morning run.  Inside again I was greeted by a cool shower and bacon, toast, and eggs for breakfast with my family and grandparents.

The morning went by without a hitch until we got on the plane.  Our flight was supposed to take off at 11:18 and at 11:20 we were still parked at the terminal and listening to a flight attendant, in the language of broken intercom, tell us that we were instructed to remain grounded until a heavy storm blew by us.  Well, it blew right over us, just big enough to seemingly only dwell over the airport for an hour and a half.

I could literally watch the storm blow in and could even watch the sunny world just beyond our blanket of danger.  The sky looked like a table top of rolling, grey, burnt marshmallows.

Hail.  It came at us sideways, crab apple sized, with rain and lightening.  It all sounded like savage percussion in surround sound as the hail intermittently wailed on us, with the rain sheeting steadily against our metal shelter, and the lightening causing a base-like boom and a light show.

Then it left as quickly as it came and we mad our way into the air with the parade of other delayed planes.

The sky was gorgeous all across the country with visibility to the ground the whole way.  I got to watch as characters formed in the brilliant cotton ball clouds and varying, colorful landscapes passed below.

A smiling otter

A dog… namely Pluto I think 😉

A bunny laying in the clouds!

The Rockies

When we first landed in California I was not blow away, but I was startled by strangely bright colored pools of water.  Anyone know what they are for?

Then, as soon as I stepped outside, I was blown away by the perfect weather.  It was 75 degrees without a cloud in the sky—it feels like fall and looks like summer.

For dinner Dena brought us to a local Thai place.  We shared the most delicious Thai food we ever experienced.

We got back in the car and Dena decided to show us around a little.  We drove through a forest preserve and up to the top of a hill where I was startled by the breath-taking view of Ugandan-looking rounded, rolling hills saturated with the golden glow of a perfect sunset.  Unfortunately, since I was only planning on dinner, I did not bring my camera, so it looks like I’ll have to make a trip up there again ;).