We landed late-ish in the day on Wednesday into the Sonoma County airport. Correction, the Charles M. Schultz Sonoma County airport. With Snoopy to welcome us back to the area, we looked forward to two days of searching for properties to "acquire" (as our broker kept saying). Day one would focus on two inns in the Napa area—one in Napa itself, and the other in Calistoga. Since our first day didn't begin until 1pm, we spent the morning exploring the Oxbow market. This was a very very small version of what you see in Seattle's Public Market and even the Ferry Building in San Francisco. We bought some gifts of olive oil from The Olive Press, and set out to the first inn. This luxury inn, located in the heart of Napa, is rated one of the very best in the area. We loved the thought that clearly went into the operation, and were charmed by the charismatic owner. Unfortunately, we felt that although the inn needed work, it didn't need the TLC we were hoping to give. This lead us to the second property, located further up the valley in Calistoga—a historic inn clearly in need of all the TLC it could get. However, we felt that if there ever was a true life Money Pit, this was it. With zoning and water issues surrounding the town of Calistoga, to the structures sorely in need of rebuilding, this project was not for us. We hoped for better on day two.
No comments:
Post a Comment