Castles and Knights in Shining Armour
Our anniversary day began hot. Two oscillating fans turned the bedroom into a wind tunnel, but it had still been a sticky final night in Windsor, California. Although it was our actual anniversary day, today we were packing up to head toward home after our week-long stay. We packed suitcases and our half-dozen bottles of estate wines from our adventures across Sonoma county. I also buckled my book and record finds into the back seat: safe and sound.
Then we were off!
While we were in no rush, the first leg of the trip would be a long one. There is no easy way to get from the Santa Rosa area to Interstate 5. You have to cross the mountains on the small, two-lane Highway 29. Well into the mountains, we saw signs for the Petrified Forest and thought we’d take a quick gander. Unfortunately, they wanted an ungodly admission price just to spend a few minutes looking at petrified trees. While California was already officially open from COVID-19, the gift shop still didn’t let anyone inside. This was a hard-stop for Angela. We turned on our heels and kept going.
A short while later, we hit Calistoga, CA. This is a quaint but pretty little town with a lot of beautiful homes and an inviting shopping area downtown. We passed through, but ended up stopping at another attraction called the “Old Faithful Geyser of California.” This small park also wanted a hefty admission fee which wouldn’t work for us. We only wanted a quick look-see and then to get back on the road. Ang took a picture of a photo of the geyser (haha), and then, on the way out, I stopped to look at other attraction brochures for the area.
One of them was for a place called Castello di Amorosa. When we saw it, we knew we had to go.
Castello di Amorosa was the dream-child of a California winemaker of Italian descent. He decided that he wanted his estate to be an authentic 13th century Tuscan castle and that he was going to “do it right.” The result is a stunning hillside castle complete with turret towers, a drawbridge, a functioning chapel, a grand great hall, a central open courtyard, and even a basement dungeon. Along with these features are, of course, areas for making, storing, and serving his wines. We were able to make a reservation for a wine tasting on the spot. This would significantly slow down our return trip, and it was a little early in the day for wine, but the castle setting was just THAT amazing (see pictures).
Our server was also an authentic Italian man. The kind of guy who could pour from a $100 bottle of wine but when asked what wine he liked best would simply shrug his shoulders and say, “depends what I’m eating.” The Castello di Amorosa had given us two fancy wine-tasting tickets and stamped them with June 18th – our anniversary date – so when our server began to rip them, Angela said, “noooo!” He looked at her, dumbfounded, until she explained that it was our anniversary, that the date was stamped on them, that she wanted to keep them, and that she promised not to try to use them again. He slipped them back to her and congratulated us on our anniversary, joking that his marriage hadn’t lasted nearly as long. “I’m lazy,” he said, shrugging his shoulders again. Somehow, it still came off as charming.
Of all the wines we tried in Sonoma County, Castello di Amorosa’s were better—and both the wines and the beauty of the estate beat the hell out of the touristy Coppola winery. We surprised ourselves by buying three different wines there, including two bottles of their Gewurztraminer, a German varietal that may be my favorite white wine now. We added to this purchase with a couple of things from the gift shop and then set out on our way once again, strangely feeling that our wine-tasting experience was now more complete. How odd that our best wine experience of the week was a happenstance find on the way out of the county.
The remainder of the stay went smoothly. Outside was still extremely hot, so we drank quite a few drinks from the cooler. We read several chapters of Grady Hendrix’s hilarious novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. We stopped at a lookout to see Mt. Shasta in northern California, and it is almost completely denuded of snow. There are only the tiniest of glaciers hanging on, but most of the mountain is dirt brown. That is very weird!
We stopped in the town of Mt. Shasta for a quick dinner.
Mt. Shasta boasts the first Black Bear Diner, opened in 1995. While it was the most “hopping” restaurant in the sleepy town, it seems the staff were not accustomed to it. The service was extremely slow, uncaring, and unwilling to accommodate anyone on a Keto diet (which every other restaurant in CA had done without issue). Having worked in food service when I was a student, I am a committed tipper, but this was the first restaurant I refused to tip in nearly 5 years. Not, not, not impressed!
Despite the lame food, we retained enough energy to carve the rest of the way through Oregon and stop for the night at the Embassy Suites in Tigard. This would allow us a bit more sleep in the a.m., a free breakfast, and some time to shop antiques and records in the morning before the final leg of the journey (yea). The bed was super comfy, and the air conditioning even better!
All in all, even though we spent the day in a “return trip” scenario, it was an amazing anniversary with a surprising highlight we couldn’t possibly have imagined. It’s not every day (or anniversary) that you unexpectedly storm a medieval castle, find a new favorite wine, and blaze through two states, reading a great book with your favorite person. This will be a life-long memorable day for certain!
Love you, Ang, and thanks for this special anniversary trip!
- Mark W.
Comments