Napa Valley, Sept.3 & 4

Hi everyone,  Get ready, this may take awhile.  Yesterday, our friend and Ft. Jefferson buddy, who is the Law Enforcement Ranger at the Golden Gate, met us and we had a wonderful time with her.  (See picture)  We drove to Sausalito and met her there.  We bought lunch at Miss Mollies and took it up to the North tower overlook.  The view was of the Golden Gate and San Francisco.  Beautiful!  We then drove to Fort Mason and Sarah met up with some of her co-workers who were investigating a case of a body that was found on shore.  Sometimes bad things happen in this beautiful place. We had a  wonderful view of the Golden Gate, but very foggy.  We drove to the Nike Missile Site in the Marin Headlands.  That was awesome!  The ranger there took us on a complete tour of the Site.  We never, ever thought we could go down to the magazine where they kept the missiles.  When the Site was closed down, some energetic volunteers started re-furbishing the Site.  And now it is open to visitors to view.  Thank God we never had to fire the missiles.  They had 40 kiloton nuclear warhead in one missile which was more than we dropped on Japan in World War 2. 
We then drove to the Mammal Hospital which was founded in 1975.  The Marine Mammal Center rescues and treats more than 500 ill and injured marine mammals along 600 miles of California coastline each year.  This is a nonprofit veterinary hospital, research and educational center.  We saw 6 sweet sea lions that were recuperating so they could go back to the sea.  When we left Sarah, we drove around Sausalito and found a neat pizza place for dinner.
Today, we drove to Napa Valley and drove the 31 miles of beautiful grape vineyards.  Amazing, that a valley between 2 mountains could be that productive.  Did you know that one barrel of wine makes 20 cases, or 1200 glasses of wine?  A ton of grapes equals 720 bottles of wine or 60 cases.  One vine annually produces between 4 and 6 bottles of wine.  Each bottle contains about 2.8 lbs. of grapes, each 5 oz. glass of wine a little over 1/2 a lb.  Some wine trivia for you wine lovers.  We did visit 2 wineries.  We noticed that roses were planted in front of the orchards and we thought maybe they were for the bees to pollinate, but we were wrong.  They plant them to attract aphids so the bugs don't eat the grapes.  Interesting, huh?  I thought so.

A message to my beautiful daughters who will get together tomorrow for Britt's birthday.  I just want you to know how much I love you and how proud I am of you all.  You are the light of my life and this trip is my legacy to you.  Stay just like you are because you are perfect!  Love Mom