Very Odd.

Yesterday I noticed what looks like an oil well in American Canyon (a town in Napa County, next to Vallejo). I don't think that anyone is pulling up crude here, but I cannot imagine a house needing to draw up so much well water that they need a heavy duty pump like that. Odd.

American Canyon is an interesting place. It sits on the road between Vallejo and Napa, and is not quite fish nor is it fowl. It was incorporated as a city sometime in the 1990's, and before that was a region more than anything. The canyon itself runs perpendicular to the main body of the town (if you call it that - it is more a conglomeration of light industry that supports the wine and other agricultural concerns, retail, and new housing developments. You really can't pinpoint a downtown per se), which is centered around Highway 29. There are several interesting businesses in American Canyon and an Italian supper club that we really should try one of these days.

I like American Canyon, in the same way that I like Mexicali. Both towns pretty much completely lack charm, but they don't lack life. Of course the life in American Canyon is threatened by the suburban sprawl type developments and their attendent chain stores, but there is enough of the old strangeness that naturally happens in a border region (in this case the border between agriculture and industry, but also the border between wealthy, bucolic Napa County and poorer, more blue collar Solano County, and not to slight the border relationship between an inland valley and the Bay Area...etc.) to allow for unusual ventures to at least survive if not to thrive.

American Canyon boasts an excellent nursery, a large lot selling normal as well as unusual lawn sculptures (need a giant iron T-Rex?), cork wholesalers, etc. However, when you think of the Napa Valley, this sort of setting does not come to mind. It is sort of like saying "Rome" and coming up with EUR. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that EUR is about my favorite part of Rome, so if I were to book a vacation in Rome and found that my hotel was out at EUR, I would be delighted, but I think most people would feel a little bit cheated. And with this in mind, I giggle every time I see the GAIA Napa Valley Spa. It's architecture is complete trendy "look-at-me-I'm-sustainable!" horsepoop. And I would be curious to see their literature. But it is a little bit of upscale Napa Valley plopped in a pretty gritty looking light-industrial-meets-suburban-sprawl area. Perhaps in twenty years (five years ago I would have said "ten years," but economies change) the Napa Valley will be fully in American Canyon (who woulda thunk that the blue collar town of Napa would have had anything like what it does now - other than the wine train, it was difficult to tell that it was even in the Napa Valley just ten years ago), and this place will be the brave pioneer. Meanwhile, however, it seems a little incongruous.

I know that if I were flying from far away and thought that I was going to be in the Napa Valley and, instead, found myself half an hour away in American Canyon, I would probably be a bit annoyed.

The grapes, however, are migrating that direction. There is even a small vineyard in Vallejo (although I think that is just for private use. I don't believe there is a commercial aspect to it at all), so even in American Canyon, you can look at rolling hills covered in vines, and that is always pleasant.

What made me think of this? It is March, which is planting time for summer vegetables. This means a trip to the Mid Cities Nursery in American Canyon (and usually a trip to the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery later to pick up the more hard-to-find items). We made ours yesterday. Two more varieties of lettuce, two varieties of tomatoes, tomatillos, sugar snap peas, summer squash, another blueberry bush, hyssop, basil, bronze fennel,and Italian sweet pepper have joined the existing lettuce, raddicchio, Japanese mustard, Swiss Chard, Portuguese kale, eggplant, artichoke, beets, celery, blueberry, strawberry, Mexican lime, Persian lime, countless herbs, etc. that are already in the garden.