Deb and Dan's World Tour: Tree Huggin' & the Napa Valley

After Oregon, we journeyed through to California. Our first stop was the Redwood National Park where we entered the "Avenue of the Giants". This is a 30 mile stretch of the park that boasts some of the largest and oldest Redwoods in the world. The size of some of these trees is unbelievable. We made our way to the Shrine Tree which is a drive-thru tree. Toying with the idea of squeezing our rental car through, we stood by as three young ladies drove their pick-up through with no drama whatsoever. Seeing as how our Chevvy was a wee bit smaller, Dan decided to take on the challenge. He made it easily as you'll see below.

After Redwood, we made our way to the Napa Valley. There are some very reputable wineries in Napa such as Berringer among others. We visited Merryvale to do a bit of tasting for the afternoon (like we knew what we were doing) - all good fun. Our host was quite knowledgable and helped us to savour some fine whites and reds. We treated ourselves to a bottle of Chardonnay so he let us have the tasting session for free, nice chap.

During this journey we saw some fine scenery, gigantic trees, vineyards, beautiful sunsets, dramatic mountains and crystal clear lakes. It was good to see this side to America.

Vineyard in Napa Valley, CA

Another vineyard in Napa Valley, CA - the micro environments in the valley provide for the same type of growing conditions found throughout the whole of France