Over the past few weeks, we strayed from the spirit of Codiwomple. Most of this was because we were so familiar with each of the areas we were in. We have been consistently visiting Napa, Monterrey and Amador county for years. We keep a detailed record of everywhere Olivia has been since the day we got her, and she has been to each of these places almost a dozen times. Because of our familiarity with these places, our time has primarily been spent revisiting our favorite places and people. Our days were pretty relaxed, but there was not a lot of exploring and spontaneity. Yesterday, we tried to change that.

We tried to rediscover our sense of adventure.

We started off our day at one of our favorite places; Rombeaur. We didn’t go for wine tasting, rather we planned to just drop by because the Napa location was out of our favorite Zinfandel. Of course we didn’t complain when they gave us some glasses of wine, and asked us to drink them. Plus we were the only people in this big winery with 10+ people to dote over us.

From there we dropped by the tiny town – Amador City – where many new shops and cute restaurants had opened. In Sutter Creek, we saw a big gay flag outside of a cute winery – Bella Grace – and figured we would support those who support us. We had a lovely time sipping outside under a beautiful redwood.

After that, we decided to go do a little exploring and headed to the El Dorado wine region. There was a place that we used to visit often called David Gerard Winery. It was a beautiful winery near Placerville and we loved it so much we almost got married there. Sadly, there was an unfortunate accident and the assistant wine maker was killed. Then, things took a strange turn and they decided to lock the gates and make it very exclusive. We had not been back in years. We were not surprised to see it had gone up for sale. The entire beautiful estate and all the facilities were recently put on the market for $5.5 million. We had to go see it.

We were lucky to get an reservation as they offer many. While we were there, we were the only people. This huge beautiful facility still had the gardens, waterfalls and large facilities still immaculately kept, but we were the only people there to enjoy it. And, the wine had not changed. It was heartbreaking to see so much potential to not be shared or utilized. Hopefully, somebody will work some magic with it.

From there we went next door to say “hi” to our friends at Gold Hill Winery. They have one of the most beautiful views in the area. Today while we were talking to other visitors, they said they were going to picnic at the lower pond. We had heard about the pond on the property, but had never been there. So, in the spirit of adventure, we went, and it was beautiful. Down the hill were multiple ponds with connecting waterfalls, along with picnic areas overlooking a little canyon and the mountains. It was a lovely afternoon in one of our favorite areas.

We thought this would be the last day of our journey and it would be time to go home. We had a plan to go to Yosemite, but they have extremely limited the number of passes to the park, and it has become impossible to get one. We tried everything we could think of.

Fortunately, we found our spirit of adventure just in time and she found us too. Then, our good luck found us this morning and our adventures are going to continue. More of that tomorrow.

• Daddy Brock check-in
  • Rose: David Gerard winery
  • Thorn: too much work
• Daddy John check-in
  • Rose: morning at Rombeaur
  • Thorn: realizing we have to find room for four cases of wine in our car.
• Olivia check-in
  • Rose: the ponds
  • Thorn: Toby ate a dead rat (ew!!)
• Toby check-in
  • Rose: I ate a rat.
  • Thorn: There was a pond and I couldn’t get in it.