Friday - Winchester Mansion and Jaxon Keys Winery

Early Morning Fog at Jaxon Keys Winery

We were up early Friday and on the road by 8:00 AM looking for a Walmart and McDee’s. We GPS’d and found one on the way - 12 miles ahead. We pulled out on the highway and two or three exits up we spied a Walmart right at the exit but it came up to fast so we passed it. We followed the GPS to the one on the route but as we came off at the exit it was one of the "off one freeway and onto the next freeway" that California is famous for. We missed the proper exit and had to go up a ways to turn back but now we were on the wrong side of the road to take the exit so had to circle around again. We took a back road, through a residential area and got completely lost! We re-GPS’d, using NO Freeways and finally after 45 minutes of driving around lost we pulled into the Walmart parking lot and bonus it had a McDee’s also. Fed, shopping done, and dieseled up - we headed to San Jose for Winchester Mystery Mansion 11 AM Tour - a very interesting stop we have done many times but really enjoy every time. After the tour we headed through the maze of Metropolitan San Francisco Freeways which was no easy feat! We headed up the 101 to our planned Harvest Host stop for the night - Jaxon Keys Winery & Distillery.  We pulled in about 3:30PM - just in time for us to have a wine tasting before “Happy Hour”. We tasted some delicious wines and chose their “Farmhouse White” to take out onto their wrap-around porch to sip with some of our cheese & crackers and watch the sun go down. There was a group of young people already on the porch enjoying their wine and we invited them to join us in our cheese platter.

Fun and laughter with new friends!

Soon we were having a fun time with Rebekkaa, Thomas, Julia and Tom who were visiting from just north of Hopland - Willitts,CA. We had a great time chatting with them and then went back to cozy up in the Navion parked amongst the rows of the vineyard.

Who could ask for a more wonderful place to "Camp"!

The next morning, I woke early about 6:00 and went out into the fog shrouded, nippy morning to take some photo’s - a photographers dream setting! We had breakfast - a sausage and egg scramble, said goodbye to the lovely ladies in the Winery and set off for the last leg of our long journey up the Oregon Coast to home. We cruised up the all but seasonally deserted coastline, staying in a Walmart parking lot Saturday. We continued up the coast Sunday, stopping only at Tillamook Cheese for a quick look, spent that night at a rest stop near Kelso, Wa. and crossed the border about noon on Monday AM.

The Navion in the early morning Fog

The Vineyards among the rolling hills -
after the fog cleared and the Sun came out

Such a picturesque setting!