Napa, CA
KAPC is the Skyport to Wine Country, 5 miles south of downtown Napa. Sadly, the on-field restaurant lineage — Jonesy's Famous Steak House (1946-2010, where John Wayne, Bette Midler, Robert Redford, Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn would slip in for privacy) and then The Runway by Patrick (2014-2026) — has finally closed out. But the destination is the valley itself. Uber to Napa's First Street, Yountville (Bouchon, French Laundry), or the wineries (Domaine Carneros for sparkling is closest at 3 mi). Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway is also nearby. Napa Jet Center (formerly Bridgeford Flying Service, 1946) is the longtime FBO.
Wine country GA airport in the heart of Napa Valley. Approach takes you over the patchwork of vineyards that produce some of the world's most acclaimed wines. The airport sees significant corporate jet traffic — Silicon Valley executives flying in for weekend tasting trips. From the pattern, the geometric vineyard rows are stunning. Yountville (with the French Laundry, Bouchon, and other Michelin-stars) is 10 minutes north. The Napa Valley Wine Train runs through the valley, visible from low altitude.
The world's most famous wine region from the air — 30 miles of valley between two mountain ranges, neat geometric vineyards stretching to the horizon. The Robert Mondavi mission-style winery, Castello di Amorosa (a full-scale 13th-century Italian castle replica, 2007), the Napa Valley Wine Train. Yountville (with three of California's 14 Michelin three-star restaurants — including The French Laundry) is the gourmet capital. The Mayacamas to the west and Vaca Mountains to the east frame the valley. Especially gorgeous at harvest (September-October) when leaves turn red and gold.
The world's largest concrete "drain" — a 72-foot-diameter funnel that pulls water down 200 feet into a tunnel cut through the canyon wall. It is the spillway for Monticello Dam, built in 1957 to flood the agricultural town of Monticello and create Lake Berryessa, which still supplies water to Solano County. The dam sits at Devil's Gate, a narrow gorge with no room for a conventional channel spillway, so engineers built a bellmouth — a morning glory spillway, named for the flower. Locals call it the Glory Hole. It only activates when the lake reaches 440 feet elevation — full pool. From 2006 through 2024 it ran exactly twice (2017 and 2019). Then back-to-back wet winters in 2024 and 2025 brought it roaring back. When dry, the rim sticks out of the water like a concrete crown. When the lake is full and the spillway is going, water pours over the rim in a smooth laminar sheet and disappears straight down — a circular waterfall in the middle of the lake.
You won't land on Alcatraz; you'll see it from the air, a 22-acre lump of sandstone sitting alone in the middle of San Francisco Bay about a mile off Fisherman's Wharf. It's been three things in three centuries. The Spanish named it for its pelicans in 1775; the Army built a coastal fort on it in the 1850s and turned that into a military prison after the Civil War; then came the federal penitentiary, 1934 to 1963, holding Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. They closed it because the salt air was eating the steel faster than crews could repair it. Of thirty-six men who tried to escape, three from a June 1962 attempt were never found; the government still lists them as missing, presumed drowned. From 1969 to 1971, Native American activists occupied the island for nineteen months, a protest that helped launch the modern Native rights movement.
In Santa Rosa, where Charles Schulz lived and drew Peanuts from 1958 until his death in 2000. The museum has original strips, his recreated studio with the actual drawing board, the wood-paneled office where he worked alone every day for over 50 years. Schulz was an aviation enthusiast — he drew Snoopy's Sopwith Camel WWI Flying Ace fantasies. The KSTS terminal has a giant bronze Snoopy on his Sopwith. Visit the museum, then cross the road to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena — Schulz's "Warm Puppy Cafe" still serves the same chocolate-chip cookies he ate every morning.