Napa - what?

Life has been uneventful (in a good way) after all my Chicago happenings. You might be happy to know that a) I got all my stolen wallet and credit card issues worked out finally, so now I just have to look forward to opening entirely new foreign accounts once I get to France, and b) I managed to get on that flight home to LA just fine. I realized that if I just wore the excess 20 pounds of luggage, I could actually lighten my load quite significantly and spare myself the embarrassing problem of finding other passengers to carry on my other bags....so yes, all those winter coats and jackets I had shoved into my overloaded suitcases? I wore them.

So for the past 2 weeks, I've been spending time in LA and taking some West Coast road trips. There must be some heat wave going East to West because I left NY on one of the hottest days in the summer (we hit 103 degrees), to land in Chicago which never fails to be hot and miserable no matter what time I show up, and then the day I flew in to LAX we hit triple digit heat that entire week. Ends out working pretty well because no job = ample time at the beach. So I've been practicing my boogie boarding skills in the meantime, eating legitimate Mexican food (which somehow I still couldn't find in NYC), and seeing friends and family.

I decided to spend a few days in San Francisco with friends. Because I always make travel plans last minute, I had to take a combination of flights, buses and trains to get myself up to SF. Taking a train at midnight always seems like a simple process, until I'm sitting in San Jose train station in the middle of nowhere, and wondering if I'll make it onboard since I forgot to print my ticket..


The Embarcadero and Market Street shops in San Francisco
Anyway, we were planning on spending time in downtown SF, hiking around Golden Gate park and doing a Napa vineyard tour. Luckily a friend of ours had a pass for a tour and tasting at Concannon Vineyards and we were all excited about finally getting to Napa country....only, it just so happens that Concannon is nowhere near Napa and is actually in Livermore. Now I've been up and down the coast of California and I've never heard of Livermore before. And who wants to say they went wine tasting in Livermore anyway? Sounds like a poor excuse for a real California wine tour, so we were close to ditching Concannon and heading up to 'legit' wine country.
Thank goodness we didn't change course, because Concannon is an absolutely beautiful place. It was founded in 1883 by an Irish immigrant, James Concannon, and is one of the few vineyards in the state to remain in continuous operation since its beginning (most vineyards ceased operation or completely shut down during the Prohibition era). So not only does Concannon have hundred year old vines, but they also have historical wine-making equipment and 16 of the original 20 oak barrels that James Concannon shipped from France so long ago. The vineyard has a spacious front lawn where the Livermore Historical Society holds summertime Shakespearean plays in the park...there's an old Victorian manor on site which also functions as lodging for vineyard guests and employees (it was bought by Joe Montana's wife, who was big into buying historical buildings and remodeling them)...and a nice restaurant for the touring groups in town. Who needs Napa anyhow? Livemore is the place to be!









Entrance to Concannon Vineyards