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....