Napa Valley, CA

Weather has been interesting as we have traveled from site to site with temperature fluctuations. California has many temperature differences depending on where you are. Case in point, as we drove from Reno to Napa Valley thru the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Donner's Pass is located in this area), the temperatures ranged from 85 to 96 degrees. As we came down from the mountains into Sacramento, the temps got up to 96 degrees. At that point, we were 60 miles from Napa Valley area. Kami kept telling me the current temperature in Napa was 80 degrees. The temperature in the truck didn't start going down until we were 15 miles outside of Napa. I get subtle changes in temperature but in California, 20+ degree change within 15 miles of the coast line is common.

Our RV site was centrally located within Napa Valley with park and natural trails. When we got there it was the weekend so the campsite was full with all hitting the wineries and small towns dispersed thru out.

Let me start by saying we are not wine connoisseurs but have had our share during the trip from the 5 overnight wineries we have stayed (Harvest Host). Each winery has been educational and all offered free tastings and to that end we purchased a bottle at each location and enjoyed Kami's charcuterie board. I preface this because in Napa you need reservations to do a tasting AND they start at $30 up to $125 per person. This started during Covid and the wineries have conveniently continued to practice this concept........much to our chagrin! Thus wineries were sold out for the entire weekend.......oh well. We did drive the famed Silverado Trail that rolls thru the valley countryside with beautiful wineries, grape fields, and stopped in the quaint town of Calistoga where we walked around and had BBQ. The weather was great with low 80's during the day and mid 60's at night. Conducive for productive and tasty grapes. I have never seen so many grape fields in one area and they all look healthy and bountiful. Here's a funny note, we noticed that some of the homeowners opted not to have yards and landscaping and instead grew grapes in their front yard.....I guess there is no HOA's here! 😏 Not sure if that was for personal consumption or they were selling/contracted to the wineries.

The area was packed with tourist, some from adjacent areas and others like us. I have not mentioned this but since Utah, we have noticed quite a few Europeans on vacation (I think they call it holiday). You could hear the different accents every where we went. Many from Germany.

Downtown Napa has a very nice outdoor area for concerts as Saturday night we walked around and listened for a while.