40 Years An Innkeeper: History, Stories, and Recipes from Napa Valley's Famed WIN E COUNT RY INN Rated One of the Top Small Hotels in the Uni Paperback - 2015

Jim Smith is a Northern California kid, born and raised. Steeped in the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s Jim embraced the easy-going lifestyle and mellow attitudes of many of his peers. Though his father would often refer to him as his "dissolute" son Jim thought of himself more as a free spirit. After a couple years of college and a half-year of tramping around South America Jim resettled in sunny St. Helena, the heart of the Napa Valley. Jim soon found himself intrigued by his father's newest passion, building a Bed & Breakfast inn from scratch. Starting as the furniture refinisher, then graduating to lead ditch-digger and somehow suddenly to stonemason for the project Jim helped his brother (the contractor), his mother (the decorator) or his father (the whip-cracker) wherever he could. When construction was completed in 1975 and his father was opening the doors to The Wine Country Inn Jim put on some slightly nicer clothes and came inside to help his father run the first B&B in the Napa Valley. Flash forward 40 years and Jim is still lurking around The Inn, but with his daughter Kelly taking on some of the load maybe someday Jim can get back to being that dissolute; feet up on the desk sharing stories and recipes with guests, maybe typing out another novel while saving time for a grandchild or two .