Wine Country

After the President's Club trip ended, we caught the airport shuttle from the Ritz, found our way to the rental car area, got our car and hit the road north towards Sonoma. Wine country time!

See, Thomas has really wanted to go to either Napa or Sonoma for a long time. I went to Napa once about 10 years ago through a work trip, but he hadn't ever been out there. When Thomas hit his 10 year anniversary at work last fall, he won a travel voucher and was dead-set on using it for a visit to wine country. But then Clemson made it to the National Championship, and we could not pass up a chance to see our beloved Tigers play in the big game. So we ended up using his travel voucher on our trip to the Natty, instead of going wine tasting. We didn't regret our decision at all, but I know that Thomas was a little disappointed that his wine country trip got indefinitely postponed. When the President's Club trip locale got changed from Puerto Rico to the San Francisco area, we knew that we just had to take the opportunity, while our flights were paid for, to go up to the Napa and Sonoma area. I mean, what else is a tax refund good for, if not for travel?!?! College savings and home improvements can wait...for now. ;)

Since I had already been to Napa, and we'd both heard wonderful things about Sonoma, we decided to go there for a few days after leaving Half Moon Bay. I reached out to a work friend who has a strong connection to the area, so we got some great recommendations and suggestions from a local, which makes all the difference!

Fog on the mountains on the drive

On our way to Sonoma!
He looks so serious, right?

We chose to stay close to Sonoma Square since we had such a limited amount of time in the area. We figured that the Square has several tasting rooms just right there and then there are several more within a short drive, so this was a great way for us to maximize our time. We made it to Sonoma Square just in the nick of time on Sunday to park and make it to our lunch reservations at the girl and the fig. It was a cool little restaurant located right off the Square and we had a great lunch there!

Yummy lunch

After lunch, we went to the hotel to check in and put our bags down and then went straight to our first wine tasting of the trip at Patz and Hall. We had to drive there but it was only about 5 to 10 minutes away from our hotel and Sonoma Square. It has a cool driveway (see below) and it's located in a former house that they converted into a tasting room and some vineyards. It was very cool.

Driveway

Patz and Hall

Cheers!

Enjoying our first tasting

Getting a quick look around the grounds

Ahhh...

So relaxing!

We really enjoyed Patz and Hall, but it was our first tasting, so we didn't want to jump all in at our first stop. It was a great place to start! When we left Patz and Hall, we dropped our car off at the hotel and walked to our next stop, WALT Wines. Funny enough, it's located right around the corner from our lunch spot, the girl & the fig. This little area of Sonoma Square is affectionately called the "quality corner" by several of the locals we talked to.

WALT came very highly recommended to us from our friend of a friend, and we were so excited to see what it was like. Charming doesn't even begin to describe it. The tasting took place in a little outdoor sitting area to the side of the building (which also looks like a converted house). The weather was absolutely perfect, a good bit warmer than chilly Half Moon Bay, and we found a nice spot in some shade where we could people-watch the other tasters and have some great convos with the WALT tasting room employees. We were going to try to squeeze in one more tasting on Sunday afternoon, but it was so relaxing and enjoyable to be there that we didn't want to rush to the next place. We ended up just sitting and enjoying our tasting at WALT and missed the last pour for the other winery nearby. We were OK with it. Sometimes it's best to relax and enjoy your time instead of hurrying from place to place.

WALT Wines

Look at this tall drink of water...err, wine! :)

We loved our experience at WALT

We left WALT and went back to the hotel to change for dinner. We had reservations at a little Italian place a few blocks away called Della Santina's. There's a quaint patio out back with white lights and heaters (because even on 80 degree days, the nights get cold). We had a table right near a heater and a pretty water fountain. I was feeling seriously whooped after our morning drive and then going on back to back wine tastings, because I was still waking up on East Coast hours every morning. Our dinner was lovely, despite being tired! They comped our tiramisu dessert and wished us a happy anniversary. I don't know how they knew that we were celebrating our anniversary - I must have noted it when I made reservations online! It was a very sweet gesture and we loved our meal there!

Della Santina's

HAHAHA!
More wine

So tired, but loving my dinner and my date!

The next day, Monday, was our actual anniversary (5/16). After being beyond tired the night before, I actually slept in until 9 AM (which is noon at home!). I finally felt well rested and refreshed! Thomas was so sweet and wished me happy anniversary first thing that morning. We had breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and then had to run a few errands before we got our official start to the day. We went to Whole Foods and picked up sandwiches to-go that we could eat for lunch later, and a few other places, then went out to Sonoma Square to pick up  souvenirs for our amazing babysitters, Fifi, Jerry and MaSha.

I love these cool street signs that show you
where the tasting rooms, hotels and restaurants
are in Sonoma Square

We missed our last tasting the previous evening, but we didn't want to miss it all together. We were the first people through the door at Hawkes Winery on Monday morning. We didn't have a reservation, but we had talked to the guy on Sunday and told him that we were bummed that we missed last pour and he suggested we just come back in the morning and he would take care of us. We ended up being the only people there, so we got a very personalized experience there and had a great time talking to the tasting room guy, who happened to be from Louisiana.

Hawkes Winery
Don't you love their logo?

It also looks like a converted home and
is located literally right across the street from WALT and
around the corner from the girl & the fig.

Tasting time

Oh yeah, we loved it.

We loved Hawkes, too, and by this point, we felt like wine tasting pros. :) After we left, we walked into Sonoma Square and sat down to eat our sandwiches from Whole Foods as a quick lunch before hitting up our final stops. This was our last afternoon in Sonoma (I know, I felt like we just got there, too!). We had to drive to the next two places we went and although they're technically in Napa, it was only a 15 - 20 minute drive from Sonoma Square, so they were both still really convenient.

Pretty drive!

We had a 1 PM tour booked at Domaine Carneros, which is known for its sparkling wines. We aren't huge sparkling wine drinkers, but this winery is located in a gorgeous chateau and I wanted to go just for the incredible views and the ambiance! We ended up being a few minutes late for our tour, even after scarfing down our sandwiches, but got to hear most of the tour, and most importantly, we didn't miss any of the tastings that are included! It was pretty interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process they follow to make their wines.

Al, our tour guide

Making sparking wine

Thomas tasting it...spoiler alert: he didn't love it

They have this gorgeous terrace with amazing views of vineyard covered hills. That, in itself, was worth with visit to Domaine Carneros.

Thomas taking in the scenery

Me with a giant bottle of champagne

Growing the grapes

We loved the terrace

Our next tasting was only a 5 minute drive from there.

Just driving around is so pretty

Last stop of our Sonoma trip: Artesa Winery. This place was awesome. It's architecturally really interesting and has some beautiful sculptures and fountains at the front. It's literally built into a hill, which is great for keeping the barrel room naturally cool, since it's underground. We loved the tasting room people here, too, and in talking to one of them, I was kind of wishing that we had done a wine and food pairing experience at Artesa.

Time for the tasting

Loving the warm afternoon

My main squeeze

Front doors (inside a hill)

Artesa Winery

Thomas with some vines

Me with some vines

This concludes our visit to Sonoma. It felt like we should have stayed longer, but after having been away for several days before that, we needed to get home and be with the boys. One of the coolest things about our Sonoma experience was just talking to the tasting room people. They were all so laid back, easy to talk to and so nice!

After leaving Artesa, we drove 1.5 hr back to San Francisco and found our way to our final hotel, which was near the airport. Our flight out on Tuesday morning was early so we wanted to be close to the airport and we didn't want to have to deal with our rental car so early in the morning. So when we arrived at the hotel Monday early evening, we dropped off our bags, quickly changed for dinner and drove our rental car back to the airport to turn it in. We got an uber from the airport to take us downtown San Francisco for our last meal of the trip, and our real, official anniversary dinner (we pretty much counted every dinner as an anniversary dinner, but this one was on our actual anniversary ;). We dined at Marlowe and loved it! Our had our concierge at the Ritz make this recommendation and reservation before we checked out there (from Pres Club), and she really hit the nail on the head. We wanted something nice, but not overly stuffy or formal. Marlowe was perfect. I had the polenta and it was to die for!

We ended up getting an uber back to our hotel and tried to get as much sleep as possible, however, that 3:15 AM alarm on Tuesday morning was unwelcome. We dragged ourselves out of bed, showered, got our stuff together and caught a very early shuttle to the airport to catch our flight, which was again, first class. YESSSS. Thank you, President's Club.

It was very bittersweet because I really didn't want this trip and vacation to end, but I was really missing the boys and couldn't wait to get home to see them and hug their necks! We ended up getting delayed a little in Chicago, but kept in touch with MaSha and Fifi and requested that they keep the boys up past their bedtime so we could see them when we got home. When we finally got home around 8 PM eastern, it was a beautiful reunion and Stokes and William were jumping around and so excited to see us! Ryan was smiling and was loving getting hugs and kisses from us.

We're thankful for our awesome babysitters for doing such a great job, for Thomas's company for allowing us to attend the President's Club trip, and for the opportunity and ability to extend our trip to go to Sonoma for a few days. It was such a fun vacation for us. And we're not done with wine country just yet. We'd love to go back in a few years and explore a few other areas that we didn't get to this time. We've already got some ideas for the next trip we take there. Anyway, it was hard to get back to work and the daily grind once we got back after such a fantastic vacation. Which is also why I'm a bit delayed in getting these blog posts written and published! I've got some catch up to do. Check back soon and read more about some of our latest outings and fun with the boys ;)