While out walking a dog I was housesitting for, I came across a box of magazines with a note. Free. After retrieving a selection later in the car, I started to peruse the articles. I was intrigued since I was not familiar with Sunset Magazine.

Started in 1898 to promote California, Sunset Magazine continues to this day. Back then the magazine was placed at Southern Pacific Railroad stations and aboard the Sunset Limited which travelled between New Orleans and San Francisco. As part of Amtrack now, Sunset Limited is still operational, going to Los Angeles instead of San Francisco. In those days the magazine was a promotional and propaganda tool to get people to come out to the “Wild West”.

In 1912 it became Sunset : The Pacific Monthly. It began to publish original writing in the following years, still about the West.

Lawrence W Lane, an executive with Better Homes and Gardens (founded in 1922), purchased the flailing magazine in 1929. Until 1990, the Lane family and Lane Publishing owned Sunset which expanded its topics to lifestyle, like BHG.

Sunset now publishes six times a year and I am happy to have a small collection to read, research, inspire, and prompt my travel writing. And material for my collage and other art adventures.

A Napa Valley Road Trip

Napa Valley is a California and America highlight for locals and visitors. I fondly remember visiting with my mom and brother. That was right before I moved overseas.

So this story, Road Trip, Recharged, from Sunset Magazine peaked my interest. It’s centred around where to charge a rented electrical car, a Nissan LEAF. The writer, Chris Colin, and his wife, Amy, “had the sense that they [electric cars] are on the cusp of ubiquity, but also we professed some basic ignorance about how they work.”

Looking at a map of available chargers, they noted “an impressively heavy concentration in Napa Valley”. This led them to plot a trip with stops based on the charge range, about 80 miles.

And that’s how Chris and Amy ended up in Napa Valley, driving from one charging station to another. Since not all stations are at businesses, this is how they met Dan Brooks, a resident of Napa and owner of a private charger.

In the 2016 edition of Sunset Magazine, Chris suggested the following six Napa spots to visit. I checked out these stops online and updated the information for 2025. His article is full of humour and backdrop information about driving and traveling in an EV and Napa Valley itself. Rather than vineyards, Napa State Hospital was what people knew the area for.

It would be interesting to read a 10th anniversary article on this trip from Chris and his family.

• Napa River Inn is a historic landmark and a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2004. Opened in 2000, the Napa River Inn was a project to transform the original historic building by Harry Price, who purchased it in 1992. The original building, the “Hatt Building”, became the Napa Mill. It was built by Captain Hatt and famously had an ice-skating rink on its upper floor when it opened in 1884.
• Skyline Wilderness Park is located at 2201 Imola Avenue. Open to hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders, this park has trails throughout. Mt. St. Helena, North San Francisco Bay, and the Napa Valley are some of the scenic vistas. It has an arena that hosts horse shows and other events. A campground for tents and an RV area are also available. It is also home to California Native Plant Society, which constructed the Martha Walker Gardens. For more information on Skyline Wilderness Park, here’s a video. At the time of the article in 2016, the fee was $5/vehicle. Nearly a decade later, it’s $6. This covers the car and everyone inside. For individuals, it’s $3.
• St. Helena’s Velo Vino tasting room at Clif Family Winery. Same people who bring you Clif Bar. They opened the Velo Vino tasting room in 2011. Tasting from $10-25 at opening and from $25 in 2016. Tastings from $50 in 2025. Located at 709 Main Street, the tasting room is now the Clif Family Tasting Room. Highlights: wine from organic grapes and sustainable farming practices, farm-to-food truck from the Clif Family Bruschetteria (voted best food truck in Napa).
• Raymond Vineyards, another stop in St. Helena. With its first harvest in 1974, Raymond Vineyards just celebrated its 50th anniversary. The family started in 1970 with 90 acres, the Rutherford Estate Vineyard. In the following year, they planted their first vines. In 2010, the winery began its biodynamic farming practices and was certified organic and biodynamic in 2014. It became 100% solar-powered. Also it’s dog-friendly. French Winery is located in the Theatre of Nature, French-Winery is named after the dog that Jean-Charles Boisset gifted his wife. Tasting in 2016 was from $25. In 2025, the Red Room Lounge’s exclusive by-appointment tasting is $120 per person. You can also experience Raymond vintage in the Crystal Cellar, which is a working cellar decorated with baccarat chandeliers. $65 per person.
• Chateau Montelena Winery. Located in Calistoga, this winery is almost an hour away from downtown Napa. Tasting in 2016 was from $25. In 2025, there are a variety of experiences to choose from – The Montelena Estate Collection ($125), Explore Ageability ($95), A Taste of Montelena ($60), and a private tasting for a group of four ($600). It was a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won in the 1976 blind-tasting, Judgement of Paris. This story is told in the movie, Bottle Shock. The top red was Stag’s Leap 1973 Cabernet.
• Calistoga Ranch – a 157–acre ranch resort with ale bath spa treatment from $795 now closed due to damage from the 2020 Glass Fire. According to Oakwell, a beer spa in South Denver, Colorado, “beer bath benefits include better skin and hair health, relaxation, improved circulation, pain relief, and better sleep.” Their beer bath is water infused with herbs, hops, and barley. Like their website notes, it’s more like beer tea. Amy swam in the “shimmering pool” and Chris soaked in the ale bath, “smelling faintly of hop” driving back to San Francisco.

Central Coast to Southern California

We’ve taken several trips with Wade’s parents who have a Tesla. With outrageous gas prices in California, it’s not surprising how popular electric cars are. That scene from Leave the World Behind though…

Not having to drop bundles of cash on gas to get places, however, is appealing. There are other considerations of course.

After our camping trip last May, we went down to San Marcos, outside of San Diego, for a family reunion. Wade’s parents drove and we got to see how it is with an EV. First they charge the car before the trip. It doesn’t take long and it’s easy to leave it and go for shopping or a coffee. You can’t just leave the Tesla, however, and use a charging station as free parking.

Along the way, which is about five to six hours, we stopped to charge. They can easily find these locations on their dashboard. Via the mobile app, they can monitor the charge status in real time and be notified when it’s done. Unlike at gas stations, Tesla drivers don’t need to pay at the time. Everything goes to their account that’s linked to a credit card and it’s debited end of the month. Or like Wade’s parents, some owners have unlimited charging included in the purchase price. That was a promotional deal when they got their new Tesla.

According to Chris’ article, the West Coast Electric Highway is a network with chargers every 25 to 50 miles along the I5. This goes from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California. “From BC to BC”.

Tesla has built its own network, with 60,000+ Superchargers worldwide. If you look at their map, they are all along I5 with a mass of locator dots in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. (see screenshots of the Tesla website below).

From Tesla’s map we can see the high concentration of charging stations in California. According to EIA based on information from U.S. Energy Information Administration, California has been leading in the number of electrified vehicles and charging stations. 48% in 2016 and 37% in 2022. Registrations of fully electrified vehicles went from 93,066 in 2020 to 387,368 in 2024 (source).

In 2020, California Governor issued an executive order that by 2035, 80% of the sale of new passenger vehicles to be electrified and up to 20% to be plug-in hybrids. In a February article in California Globe, writer Evan Symon cites a report from California New Car Dealers Association that shows the sale of EVs only increased by 1% in 2024. (Update May 2025 : While hybrid numbers are increasing, EVs and specifically Teslas dropped in 2025 Q1. A May Reuters article shared that the Senate also voted down the California executive order.) It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.