Do you like wine, gigantic trees, telescopes, and science?
Then we have the perfect vacation for you: Science Getaways is going to California wine country!
Science Getaways is a company run by my wife, Marcella, and me. We take vacations you would want to go on and add science. We’ve done these in Tucson, Arizona (space!), Oregon (volcanoes!), Hawaii (more volcanoes!), and more. For many years we lived in Sonoma County and then moved to Colorado, when it occurred to Marcella that there’s a lot of science in growing grapes, making the wine, and even in bottling and drinking it. So why not?
We’re calling this one Days of Wine and Redwoods. It’ll be from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4. We’ll be visiting several wineries in both Sonoma and Napa counties, talking to oenologists (scientists who study wine), and sampling their wares. Given the date, we’re starting off with a spooky Halloween cave dinner at the Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood (yes, they store their wine in a cave, and it’s delicious).
We’ll also be visiting what is no fooling one of my favorite places on Earth: The giant redwood forest of Armstrong Woods. This is a profoundly moving and beautiful place, with trees towering more than 100 meters high.
We’ll wrap up the trip with a private night at the Robert Ferguson Observatory, where I’ll give a brief talk on some select astronomical objects and then, weather permitting, you’ll see them for yourself through their telescopes, including their brand-new one-meter telescope! I’m really looking forward to that.
By: Phil Plait