Napa Country Fairgrounds RV Park | Calistoga

Sunday | 3 June 2007 | Calistoga, California: Today was mostly a driving day - ho-hum - getting from one place to the other. Luckily for us the route today travels through some of the prettiest scenery in our country through the California Redwoods into the Napa Valley. Unfortunately for you, I didn't take even one photo of our drive.

Our home for the next few days will be at the Napa County Expo Fairgrounds in Calistoga, one of the few campgrounds in wine country. (Someone should build a nice RV park in this area!) There are seventy campsites here and probably twenty campers. Three of us have Datastorms on the roof of our coaches and we all had a little chit-chat tonight, so that was fun. About half of the campsites are full hook-ups, the rest are water and electric only. There is a dump station.

After checking in, DT and I went into town and took a long walk through the streets of quaint Calistoga. The homes lining the creek are simply outstanding - old California-style homes, perfectly maintained with gorgeous gardens.

Our home for two days

You may or may not know that I am quite interested in food. Not just the eating part, but more the growing, raising, preparing, cooking and distribution part. I happened to know that in Calistoga there is a grocer with the most amazing local cheese selection, so we stopped in today to the Cal Mart. Why this piece of knowledge is in my head, or what possible use it could be to anyone is ridiculous to ask. We were at the Calistoga Cal Mart cheese department for about forty minutes. Not that we bought a lot (two from Cypress Grove - a Humboldt Fog and a herbed chevre, and a Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam) - and not that we haven't tried these cheeses before, but the selection was so outstanding at the Cal Mart and it was fascinating to read and learn about cheeses they sell. Don't forget - knowledge is power and cheese is... well, cheese is delicious.

Honey bees

On our stroll through town, we stopped into Hurd Beeswax Candles. Hurd has a great selection of gifts and (of course) their own wine. Hurd Beeswax Candle shop also has a working beehive on display. Now that was something different! The shop features bees wax candles, and it was really interesting to watch all the bees (Yugoslavian bees, no less) working so hard. This species of bee is very resistant to a mite that is devastating bee hives all over the US.

We read menus as we walked through Calistoga and decided to have dinner at the Flatiron Grill. The food was pretty good, and the service was very good - but our server just had no personality and it showed. The Flatiron Grill offered garlic fries with a parmesan dipping sauce, so that was a must-do. But, they also sell onion rings with house-made ketchup. Hmmm... we ordered the garlic fries with both sauces! The ketchup tasted more like a BBQ sauce, and was loaded with mustard seeds. Honestly, we each just had a few fries as we didn't want to spoil our dinner.

Garlic fries with parmesan dipping sauce and house-made ketchup

 
Grilled brick chicken, spiced cauliflower, seasonal vegetables and lemon butter sauce (left)
Flatiron Steak with potatoes gratin, sautéed spinach and red wine jus (right)

After dinner we went for another walk along the adjacent golf course at the campground and talked with neighbors until it was time to watch Tony Soprano's boys off a cupala guyz.

Until my next update, I remain your Napa Valley correspondent.

RV Park: Napa County Expo Fairgrounds - though not exactly fancy, this campground is easily the best-located for a wine country RV vacation.