Staff retreat II and Napa Valley

The last week at the Ranch was kind of boring to me. We mostly worked on cleanup and end of summer projects because the group was not rafting this week. It seems like forever since the last rafting trip. Our second staff retreat was on the way to drop off the last of the staff in sacramento. We drove to the coast to Patrick's point state park http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=417 . It was a long, long drive through windy mtn roads (about 5 hrs). The park was beautiful with huge trees. I haven't seen anything like it. From there we hiked to the coast (not far). The coast was very rugged and beautiful. Much different from the beaches on the gulf coast. We also hike to Fern Canyon (4 miles) where scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed. It looked like a place dinosaurs would live. We camped that night and left for the sacramento airport at 5am the next day. It was a cool trip but a little rushed. I don't like to be in places like this.

After we dropped everyone off at the airport Ian, Matt, and I headed over to Napa Valley (about 1 hr) http://www.napavalley.com/ . I figured since we were so close it would be interesting to tour one of the wineries. Chef Bob is somewhat of an expert on Napa so he gave us some good tips on what to do. It was late in the day and the wineries were closed so we drove a little past Napa to the town of Calistoga (known for their bottled water) and looked around http://www.calistogafun.com/engine?action=main . The town had great restaurants and coffee shops and felt like an old west town from the 1800's.

The next morning we drove back to Napa (15 miles) and toured the Robert Mondavi Winery http://www.robertmondavi.com/AboutCompany/thewines.asp . It was a beautiful place. Our guide was great and I learned alot about wine and how it is made. After the tour we had to rescue the other van since we had locked the keys in it earlier. Ian and Matt took the window apart and Lassoed the door hand with a belt attached to a stick. Quite impressive.

Then it was back to the Ranch. It took about 4 hours to drive back. This was our first night to be back in the Green bean (where we lived this winter). It feels like we are home. It is weird the other 4 guys are gone. Pictures will be coming soon.