MM.Rogers Photographs: Napa Valley

Showing posts with label Napa Valley. Show all posts

July 25, 2013

Napa Valley: Castello di Amorosa

A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you. - Brigitte Bardot

Less than 30-minute drive will take you from Downtown Napa to Calistoga where numerous wineries doors are open for wine tasting and tours. St.Helena is also a favorite when it comes to winery tours. To spend a day going in and out of these wineries is enough to tipsy you out so I suggest choose 2 or 3 popular ones, spend some bucks on each tour (about $25-$75 depending on the winery) and come out sober (remember it is 'tasting' not gulping) with several bottle purchases to take home. This is our second trip to Napa and I suggest buy the Castello di Amorosa wines because they are perfect! Napa County is located north of San Pablo Bay, about an hour away from San Francisco, CA.

During our February trip to Napa. The grape trees have been planted. It was still cold and there wasn't much to see around just as yet but it was awesome to just drive around and see what Napa is all about.

Castello di Amorosa is very interesting, modern-day castle.
Read about how it started.

View from the castle tower

During our recent June trip. It's summer and the grape trees have grown. The weather was warm and it was perfect timing to walk around the castle.

I call them 'baby grapes' - this early June 2013

July 20, 2013

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Festival 2013

A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you. - Brigitte Bardot

To photograph hot air balloons at the break of dawn has been on the top five of my photography list ever since that day I picked up a camera thinking I finally found a lifetime hobby. Now in California, I know hot air fest is just within reach, possibly road trips away because of its ideal climate and geography. And I was right. I googled events happening in this state and I was able to pull up several hot air events happening this year. However, I didn't want to travel miles and photograph 2 or 4 balloons while they silently float away. I wanted dozens at a time and I wanted to get confused by the splash of colors and quantity. It wasn't hard to come across Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Festival 2013. Decided, I google mapped it, bought pre-sale tickets for six bucks (instead of $10) and drove 3 hours two days before the event. To make it a weekend-long fun escape, I also visited the nearby towns of Petaluma and Napa Valley. Waking up at 4am for the festival-it was all worth it!

NEXT: National Geographics Museum (Washington DC)

March 6, 2013

Napa Valley: Downtown Napa

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A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you. - Brigitte Bardot

Napa Valley is the most popular wine country in California. For Presidents' day weekend, we decided to take the San Francisco-Sausalito route to Napa, which was about a 2-hour roadtrip. After some light to moderate traffic, we reached Sonoma county which was just a few miles away from Downtown Napa.

Downtown Napa is where the nightlife is. Many travelers to this tourist-packed place long for a taste of the real Napa wine and being the location of award-winning Culinary Ins titute of America, a taste of succulent cuisines should not (never!) be missed. The 55-mile long Napa River is situated in the very heart of downtown, as well as where the famous centuries-old Napa River Inn is located. A fine and brief walking tour around the area led us to a block full of high end dress shops, wine tasting rooms, fine dining restaurants and bars. We found Morimoto Napa, by my favorite iron chef Masaharu Morimoto, for lunch. I love the decors of this Japanese restaurant - using dry grapevines on walls are very authentic Napa!