vacation: wine time! Day 2 and 3

Day Two: Before having a little breakfast and heading out winery hunting again we took a little walk around the town of Santa Rosa where we were staying. Santa Rosa is a great location to stay. It provides easy access to both Sonoma (15 minutes to the East) and the Russian River Valley area (15 minutes to the North) and it is about $80 cheaper per night than staying right in either of those areas. So if you're planning on visiting wine country and want to maximize winery options, Santa Rosa is a nice place to rest your head.

We started the day heading to the town of Healdsburg which is a neat little town (Cedarburg-esque for those Milwaukee area people reading). We began at Lake Sonoma Winery which is the winery whose club I (currently) belong to. I'll be canceling after my next shipment because of the new club I had joined this trip. We tried a few, purchased a few and then headed across the street to Toad Hollow which is home to one of my favorite wines out there, their Private Reserve Pinot Noir. Delicious, but at $46 per bottle, I had to just taste, and move on. I could maximize my money elsewhere, which I did throughout the weekend. I think we brought back a little over a case which has become the standard for our trips out there. Of course, my lovely wife will have to wait before enjoying any until the little one is done marinating in her belly. :)

Another place I'd like to mention is Ferrari-Cerano winery. I think it is by far the most extravagant one we visited (doesn't mean it has the best wine though!). You can see from the front page of their website that it's gorgeous. Although you can see from the picture on the right that it depends on the weather. :) Inside, the place is just ridiculous. Marble and wood (I'm sure from only the finest trees that rain forests have to offer) everywhere. It really is beautiful. Their wine was pretty good. Apparently it's been served at Presidential dinners which means either A) it's really good or B) the made a large donation to that particular President. I'm going with B.

Day Three: We spent the third day in San Francisco which was a lot of fun also. We did a lot of the touristy things like staying down by Fisherman's Warf, going to Ghirardelli Square and riding the cable cars. Not to intentionally skip out on writing about it, but it was just a nice friends day. Sightseeing and talking. I'll let the pics below do the talking.

vacation: wine time!

A few weeks ago, we took a trip out to California to wine country with our good friends Emmett and Julie, who were taking their first real vacation without their little one, and our goddaughter, Harper. It was their first trip to that area whereas it was our third. I think it's safe to say that it's become a top destination of ours!

Day One: We spent the first full day of the trip in Sonoma visiting wineries, many of which we've been to before but just can't seem to get enough of. We started the day at Ledson (pictured) which is a smaller winery who, like many out there, only sell their wine at the winery. The grounds there are awesome as you can see and the people working the tasting room are great. Their really knowledgeable and friendly. It's a very impressive place which to me covers the fact that their wine is only average. They just try to do so much. No winery can be great at making almost ALL the different variatels, I don't care who you are.

The lowlight of the day became the highlight. Kirsten, who given our news that we're going to be parents became our designated driver on the trip, belongs to the wine club of SL Cellars, a great little winery known primarily for their sparkling wines, her favorite. We noticed when we got there that the front sign had changed and, to make a long story short, found out that they joined up with a group of other smaller wineries to become Family Wineries, a co-op designed to help promote the small wineries that are too small to operate their own tasting rooms. While it appeared to take a little bit of the "coolness" away of being a part of a little winery, we were introduced to Michelle, the lady running the tasting room. Michelle was great and whereas most wineries let you taste anywhere between 5-7 wines, we left there having tried 12(!) which was awesome. I ended up joining one of their clubs which will send me 2 bottles from 3 wineries, twice a year. Should be great.

We finished up the day having dinner at a great little restaurant called "The Girl and the Fig" right on the square in Sonoma. It's a fancier restaurant who takes their food and wine pretty seriously. It was delicious again (we had eaten there during our first visit to Sonoma) and our server was really interesting. She was probably about our age, cute, but very...intense. She ran an efficient area. I think that's the best way to put it.

Next, day two....

spring has sprung

I'm declaring it.

After a brutal, brutal winter Spring is here after a great weekend weather-wise and Brewers victory-wise. (As I write this though, the Crew is in the tenth inning as Gagne has blown another save. Nice work $10 million man! Jeez.

ANYWAY, if you happened to read the comments on the last post my buddy Derek J. let the cat out of the bag to you, the reading public, that I have been "working" on becoming a father. Well unlike most things I work on, this project has thus far been a success. Kirsten and I are 13 weeks along and very excited after spending a little over a year honing our baby-making skills. We have doctor appointment #2 coming up this Friday. A fairly uneventful appointment but more progress nonetheless. I believe it's about 8 more weeks until we can find out what it is, which we're going to do. We're pretty bad at waiting for things. :) Definitely more to come on that...

This past Friday we went to Brewers Opening Day which was awesome. It was so nice to not have to wear a winter coat. A big group of us tailgated which was a lot of fun. Some of us went into the game to witness the stomping of the San Francisco Giants but I bet the others that stayed out in the parking lot had just as much fun. How could you not? Apparently the Journal Sentinel was there taking random pictures of fans and caught a nice pic of a friend, and frequent reader, Derrick and his son Dawson. Check it out here. Nice pic big D!

Oh, and the Brewers just beat the Reds in the bottom of the tenth inning to move to 6-1...sweet.