A Trip to Napa Valley

Last week we met my mother and some visiting English friends at Copia in the town of Napa. Copia is part culinary institute, part restaurant, part museum, part garden. Mostly it is making the only affordable place to live in Napa Valley out of reach of working folks. We balked at paying $12.50 as an entry fee-we were going to be buying LUNCH, after all-and though the herb gardens were interesting and inventive, and though the lunch was excellent, the museum was totally sterile.

It’s really quite a feat to make food dull (even if you aren’t a foodie) but PowerPoint can do that do anything! Julia Child’s copper pots from the 60s were kind of fun, though.

We opted to drive back over the ridge instead of on I-80, filling up with Tahoe-bound traffic, and stopped to see the Glory Hole still spilling over on Lake Berryessa. I’m sure after seven days of heat and wind that’s over—possibly till the next El Nio.