Lah de dah day

Got up this morning to lovely blue skies and about 50 degrees. By the time I got back from the store (ice and paper) it was almost 60. After some fruit for breakfast, oranges from the tree, we went to town for a walk. Calistoga is not a big city, like abut four blocks long. Lots of little tourists shops. Was a good walk.

We then drove south. I saw a sign about a national historic place. Bale Grist Mill. Seems that this guy in the 1800 built a grist mill for flower and such. Was a really neat place. The were closed but the miller was there. Apparently they still run the mill as part of the park. Big water wheel outside that use to be powered by the stream/creek running buy.
They use to collect water in some ponds. Now the use a electric motor to recycle the water over the wheel, but the wheel still does the work.



Big stones about 4 feet across do the grinding. The guy there was nice and showed us around. Sue bought some of their flour.

By now it was lunch time. so we went back to the Culinary Institute. A place that train Chefs. They have this restaurant called Graystone. This is where the Lah de dah came from.




Had all the frills. For those who know me, they would be surprised that I even tried the taster dish. Yep, I had a steak, Sue had chicken.










Next came Cakebread. This is a winery that some friend told us about last year. Sue loves their Chardonnay. She is happy now, she has her favorite wine.



Now of to Robert Mondavi winery. Frankie Stephens wanted us to pickup a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Sue called her to check her order. Sue tested and we got her bottle.


Now it was off to the Mumm Winery. We are members of the Mumm Club. This means that we get to sample free. They are very nice. Had a couple classes of Champagne. We also picked up our November shipment. They send two bottles every other month. So we were here and got them our self. They have a fabulous art gallery in another building. Ansel Adams and that sort.


Off again to the Andretti winery. This is the one owned by Mario himself. Little disappointed here this time as we are club members here as well. so got to taste win for free, but the December shipment could not be picked up. They just didn't want to work on it. This means it will cost $19 bucks for shipping. We will be ending our membership with them.



Things were going so well. Driving home up the Silverado Tail on the way back to Snuffy. Got within a mile and the road was closed. Had to go over to the other road and I thought that I was back in Seattle trying to get Bellevue at 9AM.


We finally made it and are back in comfy Snuffy watching the Biggest Loser out of Atlanta so we can watch the final of Dancing With the Stars later. All in all it was a really cool day.