Drystone Wall

The Carneros AVA (American Viticulltural Region) is where the San Francisco Bay meets Napa and Sonoma Counties. It is rocky and hilly with vineyards among the large rocks. The smaller ones, removed from the vineyard land are used to make walls like the one in this picture. Because it is cooled by the fog and breezes from the bay, it is known for cool climate varietals like pinot noir and chardonnay.

We drove through Los Carneros on our way to Berkeley today, on a mission to get a new battery for my camera. The San Francisco approach to the olden Gate Bridge is closed all weekend in order to work on an interminable upgrade project, and we were hoping to avoid the inevitable traffic jams. It worked going one way….

Looking Glass Photo is the only camera store on the West Coast that sells Leica cameras and it is worth the trek to talk with knowledgeable
people who love cameras and photography. I almost bought a new camera, but restrained myself for the time being. I had asked OilMan if he would be willing to undertake this jaunt out of Santa Rosa, because I thought two brains would be better than one, but he got bored and wandered off.

While I was there they also retrieved some pictures of our trip to The Sea Ranch which inexplicably got into the camera's internal memory. I feel somewhat vindicated that even they had trouble figuring out how to find the icon for doing this. I'm putting a shot of the coastline in the extras today.

We had lunch on Fourth Street, an upscale, destination shopping area next to the bay  in West Berkeley. The street and all of the numerous restaurants were heaving with people, so we went into The Pasta Shop and bought sandwiches which we ate sitting on the wall outside, buffeted by the ocean breeze and practically blown off our perch by the passing Amtrak horns.

We were both ready to scurry back to Santa Rosa by the time we finished our ample and delicious sandwiches.