We looked at the weather before leaving San Luis Obispo and it did not look good for our next stop in Monterey. This is the year for California to experience an El Nino. The storm coming had a strong band of bad weather moving quickly and approaching the west coast. The weather warning said that the west coast will get hammered with high winds, torrential down pours and flooding. We decided to move away from the coast and save Monterey when we come back down. There is so much to see and do in Monterey that we didn’t want the weather stopping us from doing it. So, we moved to Napa. It is much future north, in-land and we can visit wineries in the rain.
Napa area is loaded with vineyard and wineries. This is a favorite destination even in the rain in the middle of the week. We encountered heavy traffic everywhere we went. People were just happy to be out in the rain. California has been in a five year drought. They need this rain. When we were in Santa Barbara, I talked to a local guy and he told me that the city water reservoir was at 14% level, very critical. It’s so bad that the local paper took a picture of a rain cloud the week before and it a made the front page. He also commented that it’s sad that there are five year old kids that have never seen it rain.
We enjoyed visiting Napa Valley. It has changed a lot since we were here fifteen years ago. A lot of new vineyards and wineries. The two lane roads are now packed with traffic. The cost of tasting has really gone up and some places now require that you make reservations in advance.
We are staying at:
Napa Elks Lodge (members only). This is one of the best lodges we have stayed at. The site has 50amp electrical, water, sewer and free wifi. The free wifi did not work. We donated $25/night. We would stay there again.
