Napa part II…

For our first full day, we woke early (OK, I woke up early and got ready loud enough to ‘accidentally’ wake Chris – thank you hairdryer) and drove to Bodega Bay where they filmed Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, The Birds. This eerie little town had ghostly moss growing over all the trees that hung down in perfect sheets that moved slowly as you drove past.

I was willing to hang out for as long as Chris wanted… in daylight hours. Nighttime with that kind of creepy gives me the chills!

We walked along the cliffs overlooking the ocean and Chris noticed a tiny trail off the edge that led down to a desolate cove and beach. He thought it would be a good idea to climb down the cliff. I started to follow him then freaked out about silly things like rocks at the bottom of the horrendous fall I’d make if I took a wrong step. Deciding I liked my brains on the inside of my skull rather than out, I hightailed it back up to safety.

We drove to the Armstrong Redwood Forest and were amazed by the beauty of the towering redwoods. We hiked the ‘easy trail’ according to the map and found ourselves quickly out of breath.

It was the altitude… (OK, so maybe we were only 1500 feet above sea level)

But it was the grade! (OK, so that may have been .02 but it FELT a lot steeper!!)

In our defense, I did take a wrong turn… or two (or 6) so our .7 mile ‘easy walk’ ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 very hilly miles.

Mental note, next time, make Chris be the navigator.

We made a quick stop at the Francis Ford Coppola winery and took a tour. Yummy!! He had his awards there from the Godfather... can we say, 'Closest I'll ever get to an Oscar?!?'

We then drove to Sonoma Lake to see the famed ‘Overlook Bridge’ that I’d read a lot about in my tour books. You can imagine my disappointment when we arrived at the Sonoma Lake Visitors center and walked out to the bridge behind it suspended over a…

pond.

Literally. I could probably jump into the middle and still be knee deep. I’m not even sure why they had a bridge!

Disappointed, we decided to drive up a hill and see if there was a view of Napa at the top. We made a few random turns and discovered a parking lot at the top with a… wait, is that a bridge?!?!

Walking out on a suspended deck past the trees, we suddenly noticed … the most amazing view of a HUGE lake.

Apparently I had guided us in the wrong direction yet again and this was the real bridge.

OK, so my navigation skills leave a lot to be desired.