While my sister was setting foot on Puerto Rico for the first time, I was dragging myself around my apartment debating if I had the energy to tackle my planned Napa Valley trip. I was pretty irritated with myself for staying out late, more so because it was such a horribly bad night. So this morning with a little help from all the sunshine, I pulled myself out the door.

It was exactly 75-degrees and crystal clear in all directions as I was cruising across Golden Gate. On Kali’s recommendation, I exited off the 101 to take a more scenic journey through the heart of wine country. I missed a few turns, though (CA is stingy with signage), and so, I ended up taking an even more scenic route.

My original route was to take me through all the key valley towns, but I only saw Sonoma. As soon as I came in town, I pulled over to grab photos of all the leaves changing colors in front of cute houses. If it weren’t for the random palms, that street could have been plucked from the Midwest.

I wasn’t 100% sure where I was, but I saw a road named Calistoga Rd and I was trying to get to Calistoga, so it seemed like a safe bet. The further I traveled, the curvier and narrower the road became. It swirled me up through the Sonoma Mountains, offering sweeping peeks at the valley below. I was fortunate to spot one driveway, where I could pull over and snap photos. It didn’t offer the best views, but the trees along that gated drive were incredible. It was a steep 11% drop on the other side, and the temp dropped to 68-degrees as the trees grew denser around me.  I rolled down the windows and the smell of evergreens (and maybe some eucalyptus) filled the car. I happily giggled, ‘It smells like Christmas!’ I drove by the entrance to the petrified forest, which sounded interesting, but I had gotten a late start to my adventure so it’s tabled for another day.

Soon the scenery cleared, and I found myself at a fork in the road. I picked left and within 500 ft, I saw something so beautiful, I had to pull over immediately. The small vineyard across the road looked almost magical. The sun was providing a glowing backlight to the golden yellow leaves. I got more excited at this site than an average person might. I pulled up next to the big red barn across the road, and anxiously waited, camera in-hand, for traffic to clear so I could run over and shoot. I was pleased with some of the shots!

I pulled out my iPhone to try to see where I was. Signal was weak so GPS didn’t give me a whole lot, but I was able to see that I’d managed to get myself near my single planned destination, Old Faithful Geyser of California. I laughed as I pulled in. I’ve found that the larger the entrance, the less you’ll find inside. There are these huge stone slabs on each side, proclaiming ‘geyser.’ I walked in to a small shop, bought my ticket (which was a postcard hah), and meandered out to the geyser area, passing some fainting goats along the way. I joined several foreign-speaking families, who waited with their camcorders for the geyser to show its goods. Well, it started literally the moment I stepped up to it. I so wasn’t ready, so I meandered around, petting some pygmy goats (who looked freakishly like the ones I used to have). It made my day to see kids (baby goats). So cute. They also had a video room, so I saw a little bit about the history. Though the activity is now logged by computers, in the old days, the owners logged the activity by hand in these huge binders. One day it blew water for 2.5 hours straight, which happened to coincide with an earthquake. Six years after this lady claimed there was a correlation, they proved she was right. Kind of interesting. It was sort of anti-climatic watching water explode from the ground, but I learned some things from the experience, so it was worth it.

The sun was already hanging low as I continued my loop eastward toward Silverado Trail. It wasn’t long before I had a view in my site that demanded I pull over, which continued about every mile. There were views straight off of postcards from Tuscany. Sadly, the sun was glaring in to my lens for many of them. However, the low sun offered incredible depth & shadows to the view. It was spectacular to take in. Also, along this part of the trip, I met a red Mini Cooper that flashed its lights at me and gave a friendly wave. I was sure to wave back! The quantity of Mini’s may drop outside of the city, but the percentage of friendly drivers at least doubles. It was a definite highlight. Sadly, I do get genuinely excited when a fellow Mini initiates some frantic waving :)

The trip home revealed some flaws with the Google Map app. 1) I want to be able to download maps so they don’t have to load, 2) I need to be able to customize the routes, 3) I want to be able to quickly switch to a higher up view of where I am (since directions are worthless if they don’t follow the route I want to take). So, needless to say, I forgot I wasn’t following Google’s route, so checking that the road I was taking met up with their route did not mean I was on the right track :) They wanted to take me through Emeryville and over Bay Bridge. I avoid East Bay at all costs, so I improvised. I hopped on 37-W instead of 37-E and was on my way to Golden Gate. Much to my surprise, my little mistake introduced me to a view that rivaled all I’d seen that day.

I saw the silhouette of an arched bridge ahead of me. The sun had completely set by now, so the sky was a mix of pink and blue gray.  As I approached the bridge, there seemed to be almost marsh-like areas on both sides of me, tiny little dots of land in pink & blue water with shapes of birds flying in & out. It was breathtaking. The incline on the bridge was such that I couldn’t see the other side of the bridge. (Only bridge photo I could find) It was like the approach on a roller coaster—the anticipation of the unseen big drop. I felt like I was a rocket about to launch, because sky was all that was ahead of me. The view on the other side managed to get better. The rolling hills in the distance were black against the pink sky, and the San Pablo Bay felt inches away, glowing in different colors. It was serene just like that for the next several miles. Simple unanticipated magic.

I was thankful for those moments of zen as I neared Sausalito and saw the miles of taillights I was joining. On the bright side, I got a lot of chance to look over at the city & bay bridge all lit up. It was my first nighttime crossing of Golden Gate, and to be honest, it was a little eerie. The bridge is so massive that at night especially, it was easy to forget you weren’t on land. The low-lighting on the bridge made the supports look like towering gothic mansions floating above us. Between the creepy lighting and the packed traffic, I was relying heavily on Andrew Bird to keep my mind from racing with bad thoughts about all of us packed together on that bridge.

And here I am again, finding myself up way too late but tonight, for much better and happier reasons. It was a marvelous day that only set me back $15 (geyser admission, ice cream, and bridge toll) and a half tank of gas. The best things in life are free (or close to it ;)

Links:

Trip Route

Trip Photos (that seem desaturated uploaded)