After a long day of driving, we landed in northern California on an organic family homestead, tired and ready for a few weeks of organic farming. I found this place through WWOOF (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and I highly recommend having a looksee if you are interested in growing your own food or learning more about organic farming practices in a hands-on approach sort of way.

Let’s talk about the first night there. First, this farm had chickens, which I knew about beforehand. But. It also had turkeys, which I did not know about beforehand. Now, have I mentioned that Isabel is a pointer mix? Pointer. Bird dog. Chickens and turkeys? Birds. Let me do the math for you:

So once Isabel found the chickens, in the dark, on our first night, not an hour into meeting the lovely family we’d be staying with, all hell broke loose for the next 20 minutes as Isabel darted around the chicken coop and I tried to keep my cool and not make a bad impression, while still getting her to chill the eff out (result: she did not chill out). This was perhaps my least favorite evening of the entire road trip.

Why did I go to a farm with birds? Because I figured we’d just figure it out, like we had done for most of the rest of the trip. And we did. After a few days, Isabel managed to take her obsession from level 500 to about level 4, and that was good enough for me. Luckily, it was good enough for the folks we stayed with as well, and thus I dove into the wonderfulness that is growing one’s own food. More on that in the next post.

There are plenty of wineries to be had in Napa, Calistoga, Sonoma and beyond. And while I could certainly spend the rest of eternity getting to know each and every one, I didn’t want to miss some of the local non-wine attractions. First, we stopped at the Old Faithful geyser. If you’re like me, you’re thinking, I thought Old Faithful was in Yellowstone? You know, Wyoming? So what is this hulabaloo about it being way over here? This must be some kind of joke.

It’s not. Apparently there is another geyser named Old Faithful in Calistoga, and the term “old faithful” is used to refer to geysers that erupt at regular intervals. Behold! The grandeur of the Calistoga geyser:

I am certainly glad we saw the geyser, but it cost $10! Ten bucks! Highway robbery, if you ask me. Also, I must admit I am a little skeptical about this geyser. Signs nearby said it would go off every 40-50 minutes, but it went off much more frequently than that. So either those signs are wrong, this geyser is bunk, or the apocalypse is near and causing environmental abnormalities all over the globe. This geyser is being studied for its relation to earthquakes, as apparently when its eruption interval slows down, that signifies an earthquake will happen within 500 miles.

Isabel once again seemed uninterested in the geyser and more interested in the sheep nearby.

Guess which direction the sheep (or rather, sheep noises) are in in this photo.

Next, we wandered over to the Petrified Forest. My favorite thing here were the tree carvings of bears and other creatures:

The gift shop had a lot of stones and gems and some really great Napa Valley postcards. (And take note, the cards were cheaper here than in other touristy areas around the Valley, so I loaded up.)

All in all, a good non-winery day.

After San Francisco, I drove up to Napa Valley the day before my 30th birthday. On the big day, I went to my first wine tasting ever in the Valley at Domaine Chandon. They have a delicious Chardonnay.

Isabel was nonplussed about my birthday.

My friend Laura’s husband’s parents were gracious enough to invite me over for birthday dinner. Before then, I stopped at a local Italian bakery to get a birthday cake. I picked out this tasty limoncello cake which the owner gave to me for FREE! Free cake on my birthday! You really can’t get any better than that.

We ate a wonderful meal, played cards and had a really nice time. Then I went home and crafted some birthday thoughts here.

We arrived in San Francisco right before Valentine’s Day (and right before my birthday!). I love the feeling of San Francisco. It’s a big enough city that it has very good public transit yet driving is not out of the question. But then, you don’t exactly need to drive when each neighborhood (and neighborhoods within in each neighborhood) has walkable resources (grocery, restaurants, bars, shopping, etc.). It was so delightful! So many interesting places in such a small area. Big city with a very laid back feel, my kind of place.

San Francisco was the first place I had my first ever In-N-Out burger experience.

Which I shared with my friend and In-N-Out aficionado, Ray.

Isabel and I stayed with my friend Lucy, who is fortunate to live a mere two blocks from Golden Gate Park! There are all manner of good times to be had there, and we certainly did not even scratch the surface. More like just buffed a corner of it.

Isabel rode the train with me down to the Embarcadero. I neglected to get a picture of her as a passenger, as I was so anxious with her on board and focused on making sure she didn’t bother anyone. She didn’t even care about other people, just watched out the window and got antsy whenever we went through tunnels underground because she couldn’t see anything. Instead, we posed near the Bay Bridge:

Notice that Isabel cares more about staring at the seagull down the way than posing for a picture.

Before we reached San Francisco, we stopped in Carmel (pronounced car•MEL for all you Indianapolisians who are used to CAR•mel) because dogs are allowed off leash on the beach. Very exciting! Isabel had a great time, though I think it was more novel to me than her (for her, it was just like any other open place for her to run freely).

She kept trying to lick the water, but then finding it to be salty, she became displeased. The waves rolling in over the sand were puzzling as well. Where she normally bounds into any water she can wade into, the movement of the waves caused her to back up to avoid the water altogether.