Yes – the storm was pretty heavy today. My advice about planning for indoor activities still stands. 
Well, today was a non-event. As we flew into SFO, the sky was partly cloudy. We landed about 40 minutes early and made it up to Napa by 2:15. Took a hike up some hill in a Napa city park that provided a nice overlook of the valley and city on two different sides. Then went to Oxbow which was fun, and while we were in there, it did start to rain, but by the time we were ready to leave, it stopped, so we walked around town a bit more before heading into Yountville to have dinner at Bottega. I just cannot see us getting so lucky tomorrow.
Can anyone tell me what the yellow wildflowers are all around here? We see them in large batches, about 1’-2’ high. We drive by it all too fast to see any detail, but I’m wondering if it’s some sort of mustard weed.
There are a lot of yellow mustard flowers in CA. I think it’s quite attractive.
Do they look like this?
http://www.sonomacounty.com/articles/magic-mustard-vineyards
They’re not that high yet, but it could be because they might have just started coming up in the last week or so, and we did tend to see them around the vineyards, so yea, it could be mustard. I’m just so thrilled to be coming from the Midwest and seeing any color that isn’t white (snow) - not that we have any on the ground right now) or brown (dead grass).
It is rapeseed, generally called mustard seed. Very pretty. It is the earliest wildflower of the season. The fact that they are in bloom now bodes well for your daughter’s wedding (I realize it is much further south); after the bright yellow mustard comes the beautiful orange poppies and purple lupine, which bloom together.
(There is also wild fennel that has bright yellow blossoms but they dont bloom til later).
(interestingly, Canola oil is from a rapeseed cultivar quite wisely [url=<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola#Etymology%5Drenamed%5B/url”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola#Etymology]renamed[/url] by the Rapeseed Association of Canada…)
You see canola/rapeseed all over France near the vineyards as well. very pretty.
hope you enjoyed Bottega–one of my faves!
Oh rape seed! We had a field next to us in Germany that was planted with the stuff periodically. It was unbelievably yellow. Gorgeous. I’d love to go to Napa some other time of year - we go when dh reviews grants in San Francisco which is always early June.
Holy smokes… we totally lucked out again today. Made it out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse Station and I probably had my sunglasses on, more than off; we could see clouds, but they all seemed to be passing mostly to our south. Man I got in my steps there, though! Then we went to the beach where the sea elephants were and saw tons! Took another hike out to Chimney Rock, and a back way back so that we walked down to the lifeboat house and saw some sea elephants, within 15’ of us, on the other side of a fence (never saw any whales, though). Lots of fun! Got back in the car and took a turn off to the South Beach parking lot so we could get a close up of the waves. They were just absolutely gigantic today - the news was saying 30’. We were really surprised to see how many dairy farms were out that way! And we saw a ton of deer. Everything was so green.
Then we went to Samuel Taylor State Park because we’d read you can see the salmon jumping, but when we got there, it had just started to rain, and people in the parking lot said the creek was running too high and too fast to see any fish, so we got back in the car and headed to our hotel in Corte Madera; it has rained since leaving Samuel Taylor State Park and is still raining now. I am absolutely exhausted (over 5.5 miles, and 90+ flights of steps) so are going to eat local (Pacific Catch - someone at the hotel recommended it, and we didn’t want to go far - all I want is a good salad) and make our plans for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll get to see at least a little of Muir Woods. It would be quite outstanding if we got as lucky tomorrow as we did today with the weather, but I don’t expect it.
As we were driving to Point Reyes, there were a number of places on the road where water was across it, and we had to slow down. Also saw a couple of mud slides that had been cleared. Also saw a half dozen or so downed trees, but nothing that was interfering with the road.
I really liked Point Reyes, we got treated to a baby whale when we were there. Glad the rain hasn’t been too bad for you.
Yay! @teriwtt -/ It makes me irrationally happy when people who come to visit my state have a great time. Did you see any of the male elephant seals fighting? That’s quite a spectacle!
You mentioned bring surprised by the dairy farms in the Point Reyes / Western Marin area. Don’t you remember the “California Happy Cows” ads from the 1990s? Those Marin County cows are the happy cows! Did they have those ads in your area? (My friend actually conceived that ad campaign, so maybe I remember it more clearly than most people would)
^^i remember it well, @nottelling!!