Hi All,

Napa County is world renown for its production of vintage wines and of course it's the soil and the weather conditions which create the perfect match for award winning table wines. Sitting between the Napa Valley Fault and the Soda Creek Fault is this valley where a little more than wine production and tasting occur. It's also the home to the Napa Valley Wine Train and today was my first experience in taking a ride on the rails and enjoying vintage wine and nouvelle cuisine.

It's not often I'm sure that the "company picnic" is taken aboard the Wine Train, but I would highly recommend it for that use. The interior of each of the train cars is absolutely beautiful. Each is enhanced with fine, highly polished wood, velvet draperies and very comfortable rocking chairs, which are placed individually in front of a window for one's best viewing. The dining cars are very elegant as well and the entire atmosphere takes you back to thoughts of old places and past times.

Being the ever adventurous person I am, I walked the length of the train and took advantage of the ability to watch the chef's prepare the meals. You see, on the trips up and down the rail one group has wine and cocktails served with little appetizers, while the other dines. Then the order is reversed on the return trip. The second group dines as the first group enjoys coffee and fabulous desserts in the coffee car. I over indulged myself today, which is something I rarely do and the food was to die for. I had the filet mignons as my main course and ate two desserts. I couldn't decide which one I liked best. The cheesecake with fresh berries or the chocolate mousse cake with carmel sauce.

Walking from car to car gets a little dicey when you move between them as they are not in unison in movement. So you have to hop, from one section onto the next. There are little small corridors to travel through and it reminds you of what it's like to be a child. Everything is suddenly interesting.

However, what most of the folks on the train did not notice was the view of the two aforementioned earthquake faults. While the Napa Fault is lush with trees and its peaks are a very distinct red color, the Soda Creek Fault is more sandy, is grey in color and only has low growing vegetation.

I would hope that our Bay Area residents won't forget to take a day or evening out and enjoy The Napa Valley Wine Train and for the rest of you, when you make your plans to visit Northern, California, don't forget to put this experience on your list of things to do.

Riding the rails and loving it,

Petra

• The Napa Valley Wine Train