If you're still reading I take it you've forgiven me for my lame puns and attempts at humor. And yes, I'll take the blame for the week-long blog hiatus. I did live up to my blog premonition that I would get a little freaked out with the amount of information out on the internet about this trip right about now. When we checked the stats on the number of views last week we were at 1800! We had a "whoa!" moment and then realized we probably account for 1000 of those in our constant reviewing and refreshing during the blogging process. As well as the 500 times we've reread the blog for our own entertainment. So, I'm back.
For as much time as we spend in the car on this trip we don't give the drives much attention so here are a few shots of the drive from the Redwoods to Sonoma.
Katie the sleeping beauty and the cooler beast. We now require an advance warning before someone opens the cooler which smells like a lovely mix of chai tea, grape jelly and bread. Yeah, let me know if you want some of that.
Back to the wine: We left the lush Redwoods and headed south to burn some more Marriott points and drink some wine. The Lodge at Sonoma welcomed us to our sweet bungalow with local wine and a much needed hot shower. Emmie had the magic touch to starting a fire this time with a gas fireplace and simple on/off switch. Needless to say, we praised the fire gods and modern technology after our previous fire-challenged camp experiences.
Welcome to the Lodge at Sonoma!
Emmie's fire skills on display
We headed off bright and early the first day to two historic wineries, Buena Vista and Gunlach Bundschu. Bright and early is relative for us...it was likely closer to noon before we left the hotel. Buena Vista is the oldest premium winery in the area (still not sure what that means) and GB is one of the few remaining family-owned vineyards in Sonoma. We packed a massive picnic and walked right into Elizabeth and Pat, two college friends of Katie & Emmie's at Buena Vista. These guys were on their honeymoon in Sonoma and gave us the heads up on the valley as we caught up. Congrats on your recent wedding and thanks for the tips!
Gunlach Bundschu is a pretty tough name to remember, so a fun shortcut to remember is:
We're now old pros at wine drinking, err tasting, that is - let me know if you have questions about the legs on this one:
Touring GB vineyards with our new buddy Collin
Katie in the cave at GB
After a month of not-so-real dinners with the Mountain (wo)Man meals, we treated ourselves to a fantastic dinner at Girl and the Fig in downtown Sonoma. It as excellent and I'd highly recommend their locally sourced dishes and cocktails to anyone finding yourself in Sonoma. Emmie was even blessed with some extra good luck while sitting on the outdoor deck.
Cheers to Emmie and her special surprise from above
We had originally planned to stay just two nights in Sonoma but we were having such a wonderful time in the valley that we were spontaneous (whoa!) and decided to stay an extra night at the lodge. No worries about us going too crazy as we're still right on schedule. We spent the next day doing a whole lot of this:
A major shout out and thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Calland for treating us to a day at the spa! After living primarily from the car for the past month, we were starting to look a little grunge to say the least and while I won't say too much, Emmie's feet are now allowed to wear sandals again. We had the most wonderful pedicures and spent the day in the sun and pool at the spa attached to our hotel.
We went up north to drive over to Napa along Trinity Road at the recommendation of Mr. McGuckin and ran right into B.R. Cohn winery on the way. Our friend Karly's family owns this winery and this was the perfect opportunity to check it out. A large classic car display accompanied this beautiful vineyard and tasting room in addition to a visiting Nascar exhibit. I personally think I enjoyed B.R. Cohn the best out of the Sonoma wineries we visited as they had a great outdoor seating area, laid-back vibe and excellent olive oils and vinegars from their land as well.
Emmie and I may or may not have watch 2 hours of a Nascar race the night before we left on the roadtrip and were enthralled with the pit crews. Mr. & Mrs. Calland - I think she could have a real future here.
I only wish I could say the same thing for Trinity Road...Katie has a love of winding, scenic drives while I tend to get carsick from all the turns. You can imagine what a great car duo we are. :) As I child I narrowly survived a miserable drive to Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan on Verner's Ginger Ale and the promise of a fun day at the beach. Katie didn't have either to offer me and Emmie and I were ready to spring out of the car as soon as we got off the road. We did find some pretty good Mexican food for lunch on the other side of the mountain so I'll give her that...for now.
View from Trinity Road - I'll let you decide if this is worth getting sick over :)
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