Spencer and I do enjoy red wine. We started talking about 'Wine Country' early on in our relationship. For my birthday this year, we finally made our winery dreams come true.
The best car service ever picked us up in San Francisco and away we went.
Sonoma was about a million times better than I thought it would be.
Perambulation
The Doc and I are not runners, but man we love to walk everywhere. We enjoyed the scenic views from The Sonoma Overlook Trail (3 miles) and we found a bike path that only boasted walkers that took us through town. We are not really 'hikers' but we love to hold of the hands and see everything.
Relaxation
Going to a new town means that hotels can be a crap shoot. We lucked out big time staying at the Lodge at Sonoma. The rooms were little cottages with a fireplace. Each room had two bikes (with baskets!) attached. It had been a minute since my last bike ride, I sort of forgot how much fun it is. It was serene, romantic, and completely lovely.
Rumination
If you have met me for five seconds, you know I love the food. After much research, I chose to have my birthday dinner at the girl & the fig. The main reason for the decision? They have a menu item called "The Tower of Cheese". It ended up being one of those really good decisions in life. My sweet husband also had a cake delivered to the table.
Wine? Cheese? Cake? The World's Best Husband? It was a magical birthday, indeed.
Also...it was so nice we ate there twice. Highly recommended.
*An honorable mention goes to El Molino Central, a hole in the wall place with weird service (order, leave the building, walk outside, enter other side) and unique foods. We got absolutely nothing that we ordered, but everything they brought us was so tasty, we'd go back again.
Irrigation
We had only been on one wine tour before, in Niagara Falls. We are by no means experts. Through Viator we found a company called Grapeline. On the day of the tour, Spencer and I were the only two who showed up. Our tour guide, Mark, was fantastic. He was full of so much information, was super chill, and we had him all to ourselves. We ended up going to four wineries (there are over 1100 in the area!!) and joining one club. The vineyards were breathtaking.
We followed some expert advice (thank you Stacy!) and shared some tastings and dumped what we didn't love, thereby avoiding an early crash and wasting half of the day. We also drank a ton of water.
It was beyond cool to eat lunch in a cave (surrounded by Star Wars art!), see a million wine barrels, and learn a little bit about the mighty grape.
After three days in Sonoma we spent three days in San Francisco with my brother Casey. It was an epic birthday week, spent with my favorite guy and my other favorite guy.
Did you ever have great expectations of a place that were exceeded?
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