We went to Napa in June. 
It was busy and other than masks/Covid precautions and limited capacity, it looked like business as usual! Make sure to make your tastings and dinner reservations well ahead of time. Have fun! Congrats!
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Thanks BB!
We did wine tastings at Rombauer and Merryvale in St Helena. The former was by reservation only (like many other wineries now), but the latter let us walk in to taste because we arrived at an “off” time. We poked in there trying to kill some time before our lunch reservations at Charter Oak (highly recommend!) and left with some tasty Merryvale Pinot. 
Fridays and Saturdays seem to be the busiest days, so if you arrive on a weekday, there will be more availability at restaurants and wineries.
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We’re at a lull now so I thought I’d pop in to update.
We switched to Plan D already having seen that there were Business Class seats available on the Coast Starlight between LA and Emeryville, so choosing that over the bus/Bakersfield/Emeryville Coach option.
From the little we’ve experienced, there’s absolutely nothing “improved” about Business Class vs Coach except maybe fewer passengers in the car. Since Amtrak switched us for free, we’re not complaining. We’re still spending most of our time in the Observation Deck/car as seeing the sights is our primary goal. We miss the good free food from having a Room or Roomette though. The choices are identical with Business vs Coach - hot dog, pizza or packaged snacks, all quite overpriced.
There’s a huge difference with masking. The Coast Starlight IS enforcing masks and they’ve already ejected one rider from Business Class and warned everyone else that it could happen to them too, reminding them that it’s law AND they signed up for it when they bought their tickets. The Southwest Chief threatened, but never actually did anything about it so riders who wanted to ditched theirs only putting them on if someone came by, and then it was just until they left. Shoes too actually.
If this train is normal and the other not, Amtrak could, indeed, be a safe way to travel. Needless to say, H and I prefer enforcement.
The view is nice as well, but that’s true of both trains. Amtrak is a great way to see a lot of American geology/scenery without the hassle of driving. We’ll definitely be taking more trips in the future to see more of their scenic lines (choosing rooms when available and overnight). All of the people/employees we’ve dealt with have been terrific and food from the dining car (vs cafe car) suits our palate too.
Our trip home next week is supposed to be on the California Zephyr, but time will tell if that happens or we switch to a Plan E. If we can’t train through CO we’ll try for a different route and pick up the Zephyr on another trip. That part is supposed to be among the most scenic on the line, so why skip it? There will be other trips.
Still a definite Thumbs Up Amtrak experience for us with our wandering loves. It won’t suit everyone though - just like any particular college.
Speaking of colleges… this train goes right past Cal Poly. It made me think of CC when I saw it. 
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Glenwood Canyon, on the Zephyr, is gorgeous. Of course, that’s exactly where the mud and rock slide is. They are trying to reopen it this week.
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You guys have to watch the video!!! ROFL!!
Ahahaha!!!
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Amtrak just sent both H and I separate surveys about our trip. We filled them out and submitted them. Don’t know if it will make a difference or not, but at least it helps us think we’ve done our part to try to get enforcement.
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TSA pre-check and Global Entry are the way to go in this travel climate. Lines are shorter and it was nice not to have to take our baggy of liquids out or take our shoes and jackets off for screening. I have had the misfortune of being the lucky one tagged for an inspection in the past.
We flew from LAX to Seattle and the flight was full. In general, travelers were respectful, wearing masks and all was calm. On the flight back, a flight attendant sternly told a passenger that if he wanted to go to LA, he’d have to put his mask on. Later, I overheard the attendants asking each other if the passenger was masked. They were having none of that!
Next week, I’m flying to the east coast to help D drive home as she is relocating to SoCal for work. Seriously, I’m more concerned about driving through the mask-hostile cities. It was uncomfortable when we drove east last summer. People in gas stations were unmasked and now after a year of this, I can only imagine how it will be.
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Agree with @lilmom about TSA precheck at a minimum. Thanks to an engine that kinda blew 30 minutes into our flight yesterday, we returned to the airport and got to spend an extra day in Hawaii. We are back at the airport as we were lucky enough to get seats on today’s direct flight home. Having TSA precheck was extremely helpful in navigating the airports. especially since the first flight yesterday was on a codeshare flight (different airline) and we had to check in at the airport and go through agricultural screening, etc. I do have to say that we have seen a real mixture of people complying with/ not complying with the mask rule in the airport, at the gates and in the lounges. Its mostly people with their noses hanging out, but there are plenty not wearing their masks who are supposedly eating as there is an empty glass or plate near them. We are currently in a state with 60+ % vaccine compliance so feel better with those not masking outdoors. Thanks to the engine failure, we had vouchers for a hotel and taxis to/from the airport to/from the hotel. The drivers were good about masking, In the restaurant we had breakfast at (in the hotel) the had a covid tracing requirement.Had to scan a barcode. That was a first. All in all, I’ve felt pretty comfortable with the travel even with the plane changes and the unexpected emergency landing/cancelled flight. Every flight has been packed. The engine failure flight was an A300 airbus with 300 passengers to rebook. Yikes. But everyone was very calm and reasonable. All applauded when the pilot landed the plane. Apparently they no longer dump fuel (at least not on this aircraft) and the plane was very heavy, so the brakes got very hot. We had to sit on the runway for a long time for the brakes to cool and the fire dept to authorize for the plane to be towed back to the gate. Was an interesting experience, but led to an extra day in Hawaii. Could be worse.
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Spent a good bit of the morning sailing on the bay in SF today. I’m not a sailor (H is), but this boat was very enjoyable IMO. It’s an America’s Cup boat from 2003 (actually raced, though didn’t win to race in the challenge) and is supposedly the youngest AC boat the public can ride on. It was a treat for H who, like most, never was able to race up to that caliber, so fun to at least get out on a boat since we had the chance. (He recalls watching the races!) I didn’t expect to enjoy myself, but definitely did. We had great views of SF, Alcatraz, went under the Golden Gate, saw sea lions and porpoises, and all at a really fast clip. The crew was terrific whether one was a sailor or not.
If anyone is into sailing and in SF, we both highly recommend it. I took several pics, but had to slim down to just 4 that didn’t have very recognizable people in them. There were 18 + crew on our boat. That seems like a lot, but there were 17 on the boat when it was racing if I recall the stats correctly.
ETA Passengers actually help sail the boat from grinding to taking turns at the helm if they want to. This isn’t just a “ride” unless you want it to be.
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Will mention that to my kids for an activity to do wen we are there next, though assume its an adult only event. When you say recognizable, you mean your family or people we’d know?
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I don’t know if there’s a lower age limit or not. There were no young kids on our sail, but there were some teens.
By recognizable I mean other people. Is it ok to post pics with other “strangers” on the internet, specifically cc? If so, I could post more. 
I don’t know the CC rules, but I’ve found photos of myself on stranger’s YouTube videos, blogs and photos from my various travels. If you are out in public, you cannot expect privacy, so your photo can be posted.
One of the videos was in Yosemite. I said to myself “Someone else has bright turquoise hiking shorts just like mine”. A moment later “Wait, that is me!”
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Here are some more pics of the boat, the Golden Gate (before and under), Alcatraz, and H at the helm.
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And I really gotta admit, I love traveling again. During Covid we had to go cold turkey briefly killing our addiction, but now that there are vaccines I’m far less concerned about getting it and giving it (except we’ll still isolate before going to see FIL just in case his vax doesn’t work). The addiction is back. We skip a lot of things some folks consider “normal” expenses in order to be able to travel more. No regrets.
We are waiting on some world travel until more of the world has their chance to be vaxed. Amtrak has shown us there’s more we can do in the US.
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“Smaller” aircraft like the A320 series typically do not need to or even have the capability to dump fuel because they can land at loaded weight.
In one rare case where a landing gear problem in an A320 required landing light, the aircraft flew around for a few hours to burn off fuel because it had no fuel dump capability.
If you want to do so but be polite about not showing identifiable people, you could blur or pixelate the faces (or anything else that could identify specific people) with a photo editor before posting.
A friend told us this saga. Apparently one of her friends was scheduled to go to Jamaica this morning. She needed a negative Covid test…had it Friday and it came back positive. Trip cancelled. Supposedly this friend has gone no where, and seen no one (but planned a trip to Jamaica?). She was fully vaccinated…no symptoms.
She must have been around someone who was also Covid positive….perhaps also asymptomatic. Claims she always wears a mask.
Apparently the contact tracers really grilled her!
Canada to require all passengers on commercial flights to be fully vaccinated.
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