Went with a couple of friends early this week for a "girl's getaway" to Safari West in Santa Rosa. M and I went to Tanzania last year, so D thought we wouldn't be interested, but heck we always like hanging out with wildlife so off we went. My favorite part was the newborn zebra.
We stayed at the Calistoga Inn and Spa for the most likely the last time as they are closing soon for renovation and probably will become all "chi chi" and too expensive like the rest of the places in Calistoga.We had a fantastic lunch at the Greystone Restaurant, which is part of the California Culinary Academy in Napa. The place looks like some kind of fancy french chateau or castle. We dined on the outdoor terrace with a superb view of the vineyards. The meal was good, not really knock your socks off good, but the atmosphere was really incredible, it felt like we were in an episode of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The young waiters were actually students and amusing in their naivete, I asked one where the Sterling Vineyard was and he didn't know, which really surprised my as 1) Sterling is quite possibly the best known tourist winery for the tram ride and 2) I would have thought one of the benefits of attending a culinary academy in Napa would be a required course in wine appreciation and the local wineries.
We wanted to visit a sparkling winery and made our way to Schramsburg only to learn to our dismay that they wanted $35 for the tour and priviledge of possibly purchasing their precious wine, yowza, NO WAY. So we admired their lovely grounds for about 2 minutes then promptly made our way to the more tourist friendly Mumm Napa winery where we thoroughly enjoyed our hour long FREE tour and then tried some very good champagne, whoops, make the "sparkling wine" as we learned that the term champagne is really reserved for wine originating in the Champagne region of France and made by a very particular method. Now since this agreement among the world's wineries was actually made while America was enjoying Prohibition, we didn't sign it, but out of respect for Mumm's parent winery in France they only use the term sparkling wine to refer to Napa's appellations. No matter what it's called, it's goooood!
We also had a unique opportunity to hear a dinner talk by Dr. Laurie Marker who is the founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. It is quite appalling to hear yet another version of how ALL THESE DAMN PEOPLE are ruining the earth. It is very rarely spoken directly but it seems to me the root cause of all our environmental issues is the sheer number of humans on the earth! I certainly do not have the answers, but we really do need to breed less and find ways to tread lighter on this earth.