Napa Valley Day 1

We were up at 6 a.m. and at the airport by 7 a.m. Thanks to my mom for letting us stay at her house and taking us to the airport!!!!

The first thing you want to hear before you get on an airplane is it is having mechanical problems and the your flight is being delayed. Then about 15 minutes later they tell us that the mechanic is on the phone with another mechanic and is waiting on some instructions to be faxed. Tim doesn't like to fly to begin with so he was even more uneasy. Fortunately we were only about 20 minutes late taking off and the pilot made up the time in the air so we were only about 10 minutes late getting to Denver. During the flight the pilot told us the problem was the cargo door hydralic thingy wasn't working right. So nothing major which made me feel better. However, we hit a patch of really bumpy air. I mean bumpy!!! At one point I thought Tim was coming out of his chair. I know it seemed like a long time but the pilot got us out of it in about 3 minutes. He made up for it by the best landing I have ever experienced. We never even felt the wheels hit the ground. Not even a slight bump. It was incredible.

We ate a quick lunch in the airport and then boarded our plane to California. We flew into Sacramento at 1:20p.m. Pacific Time. It was a really small airport which surprised me. Sacramento is the capitol of California. We got our bags and headed to the rental car place. One side story You know how they charge extra for baggage now. In OKC when we checked in I had some cash in my pocket so when it was $30 I handed the counter guy a $20 and a $10. You would have thought I was giving him mud. He looked at me and said with a questioning look, "Your paying with cash." Yes it is still legal in the country isn't it? He had to completely redo the entire check in because I was using cash. I made him do it. It really makes me mad when you are looked down upon when you use cash. Why should someone be able to trace my every expenditure.

So we ride the little bus around the corner to the rental cars. I told Tim to see if they had a corvette or something sporty and nice. They had a bright yellow corvette with a black stripe down the center. Not quite my style. The agent told him they had a nice BMW with a moon roof. So off we go to find the car. They had all the luxury cars up front and of course there were two Black BMW's sitting there. We didn't know which one was ours so I said pop the trunk. Well BMW trunks don't pop open. So we hit the unlock button and stood between them to see which one unlocked. Thank goodness we didn't take the vette. Not only was it ugly but we barely got our two suitcases in the BMW trunk.

So off we go. Thank goodness we brought "Rita" the GPS system. The agent that gave Tim directions was sending us into downtown Sacramento to then turn around and go back the way we came on a parallel road. I'm sure it was to add mileage. Shame on them. We drove along an interstate for about 45 minutes before we headed off on the less traveled road leading us to Napa Valley. It was beautiful weather. A little overcast but really nice. We pushed the top back and really thought we were Californians.

Tim had been really concerned about the Hotel. It was beautiful. Our room was really nice. It looked like it was recently redone. We found it with no problem and the drive up Napa Valley to Calistoga was awesome! Vineyards on both sides and beautiful mountains on each side. Quaint little towns and lovely homes. Calistoga reminds me of Eureka Springs. The downtown is really quaint with cute shops and restaurants.

After settling in and getting unpacked, we headed to downtown Calistoga for dinner. We walked up and down the street and decided on Brannan's. It was a wonderful restaurant with cloth table cloths. (You won't find that in Enid) Our waiter was from Marseilles, France. We had a wonderful dinner. Tim always makes fun of me because I always order beef. It was delicious! Tim had a pork loin. We both of course ordered some wine.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted! We turned in both anxious for the tour tomorrow.