Sonoma

Elizabeth and I were gifted a trip to the wine country in California for Christmas - just us!  This past weekend was our trip and it was amazing.  We opted to stay in the more low-key town of Sonoma rather than the touristy Napa Valley and I'm glad we did.  Really fun, relaxed atmosphere and only amazing wine in sight.

My flight getting there was delayed, then canceled, then delayed for an undetermined amount of time all due to a broken plastic sign on the airplane door...  Ugh.  Luckily Todd was able to help me switch to a different flight and I was super happy to finally be there!!  Elizabeth had taken her extra time to get the rental car and go grocery shopping for us, so it all worked out in the end.  On our way from San Fran to Sonoma, we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge!  I have seen the bridge before, but I'm not sure I've ever driven over it - so it was super fun.

View of San Fran after crossing the bridge

The first night we settled in to our cute little Airbnb house, made dinner at the house and just hung out by the fire.  The next day we set out early to grab breakfast and mimosas in town.  We were super disappointed to find out that most places didn't open until 10am - which is noon Texas time!!  We luckily found this little bakery and were able to hang there for a bit.

After filling our bellies and walking around town, we headed out to our first winery, Gunlach Bunschu (gun lock bun shoe).  This one ended up being our favorite.

In California, many wineries opt to keep their barreled wine in caves - super fun to see!

View from the winery

We had some snacks and a glass of wine here before calling an Uber and heading to round 2!

This guy was a character and was moody as all get out when we arrived.  No sales pitch about each wine or description like usual - just a pour and he was gone again.  So strange.  We named him "Hans" b/c of his outfit and he reminded us of the yucky guy in the movie Frozen.

This older man was the redeeming quality of this winery - we nicknamed him Maurice b/c he reminded us of the dad in Beauty and the Beast (we clearly need to watch more than just Disney movies...).  He was so sweet and kind and was telling us this super interesting story about when he was working with NASA with astronauts in Hawaii when the landed in the ocean after being in space.  SUPER cool and interesting. 

Well in the middle of this sweet man's story, Mr Hans comes over and hands him a big stack of dishes and tells him abruptly to take it to the back to get washed.  Poor Maurice looks at him, looks at us and then bids his farewall.  We were so annoyed!!  How rude!!!  So we waited until he came back and asked him to continue his story.  He smiles walks over to us and asks where we are from.  We said (again) Texas and he proceeds to repeat the entire story about working with NASA.  Awww....  poor dude didn't remember talking to us before.  Then it all clicked.  I still felt bad for him. And I still want to know the rest of his story (we didn't get that far the second time...)

The wineries were only open until 5pm (silly in my opinion) so we only had time to go to one more.  Our Uber driver recommended Benziger and so we headed there.  It was good and fine, but nothing like the other two.  Hence me only taking two pictures of the thing - one of which was a sign on the wall. 

The next day we were up early and headed out to the coast.  It was about an hour way to Bodega Bay and worth every second.  Beautiful!!

Good 'ol crab fisherman there.  

 We drove up to the trail head and were surprised by the views!!  There were many people there with chairs and binoculars hoping to spot some whales.  We didn't see any whales, but the views were amazing!

We headed into town and grabbed some lunch at a little cafe.  This was our view from their deck.

We shopped around a bit and then headed back to Sonoma.

View from the back door of the house

 We went out to dinner, drank too much wine and I ended up in bed early that night...  :)  The next day was leaving day - boo!  We headed back to San Fran early and had breakfast at this super old diner right on the coast.  Amazing.

The diner was right next to the Golden Gate Park and so we had some time to walk around and explore.  So pretty!!!

From there we headed to the airport and said our goodbyes!  Luckily my flight left without any issue and I was home in time for a date with Todd!  It was a great trip!