(SacBee) - My family and I moved to the Napa Valley in 2013, in search of a new life and fulfillment of a dream. My wife and I met and married in Washington, D.C. but we were drawn here by the lifestyle, the love of the land and the opportunity it held for me to pursue a long held ambition – living and working in the food and wine industry.

Like so many others, we watched last fall as the smoke rose and eventually overtook our neighborhood in St. Helena. Eventually we packed up our baby boy, our dog and of course, plenty of wine, spending the next several days with friends in Sacramento.