Our very kind and generous friends Bobby and Julie invited us to go to Sonoma over Valentine's weekend so off we went! Not sure whose idea it was to fly on Friday the 13th but we had good luck on our side :)
After landing in Oakland we got our rental car and made it just in the nick of time to hit our first wine tasting!
Yay! We're here!
The first wine tasting though....Julie's face says it all! Not sure how we ended up still buying bottles though!
After a quick stop at the Sonoma market, we checked into the house that Bobby and Julie rented. It was so cute!!!
Julie used to live in San Francisco so she has friends in the area still. One of those friends, Roxanne and her boyfriend came up for the night and we all went to dinner in Sonoma square.
Then we headed back to the house and took advantage of the hot tub!
In the morning after some grub (and Brian decided to join Facebook finally) we headed to meet our bike rental guy. Yep, we contemplated hiring a driver to take us around but we decided it would be more fun to bike from vineyard to vineyard. The weather agreed, it was the most perfect day for biking!
Brian spent hours planning our route!
And off we went. Yes, that is a bike trailer to haul our gear and wine we planned to purchase. Isn't Brian a genius? The bike company is now going to market the trailer this way, not just to bring kids along!
Our longest leg was to get to the first vineyard and it really wasn't so bad! We decided we'd take a group selfie at each vineyard...First up, Gundlach Bundschu!
We were having fun!
The most perfect day!
Until the driveway up to the vineyard became very steep and loooooong and the vineyard wasn't even open yet!
So we took a few pictures and headed out to our next stop.
Biking was such a great idea!
We're so glad we did this!
We took a back route into Buena Vista Winery which was mostly downhill so we made good time.
This was the place that we purchased tour and private tasting tickets ahead of time because they were one of the only cave tours.
This ended up being a great way to kick off our winery tours! Lots of history at this place...including this haunted room. Brian tried to recreate the photo where a ghostly image appeared in the mirror but looks like his photo is ghost-free!
Lots and lots of wine stored in the cave!
Sara double fisting again. LOL
Our tour guide 'V' as we called him was very generous with the giving out of the wine and we got to taste a few wines straight from the barrels! YUM!
Of course we were going to take pics!
Didn't want to cover up the family crest!
And of course we needed one with V!
Fill 'er up!
Then after all that wine on the tour we had our private tasting. Sure glad Brian brought the good camera :) Such great pics!
From there we stopped in Bartholomew Park to enjoy a picnic with the food we picked up at the market. Sonoma is so beautiful!
Great food and company!
The sun shining down, finishing off wine...what else does one need?
Sara thinks she could live here!
As it turns out there is a winery in the middle of the park (again, who wouldn't want to live here!) so we tried it out!
Brian was really using his mad sniffing skills.
The wine wasn't so good in our opinion (ie it wasn't for us LOL) but it was a nice break from the sun and bikes.
Next we rode up to Ravens Wood.
We scored some chairs so we could look out over wine country!
Some people napped here....some people checked Facebook (where is the emoji for eyeballs rolling?)...
...but luckily Sara and Julie had each other for drinking buddies :)
Yay! Someone got off his phone ;-)
While the girls were using the restroom the boys got all fancy on their bikes doing pop-a-wheelies. Weekend warriors went boomers.
From there we rode to another place, Sebastini (how did we forget our selfie!??!) and shared a bottle of wine outside rather than doing a tasting. After lunch that's more what we tended to do. Then it was time to drop off our bikes and we decided to skip walking to this little area for more wine. Instead we went back to the house to grill and relax. Goof balls!
Brian grilled the most wonderful meal for us, we relaxed in the hot tub, played Five Crowns and chatted away! It was a really great night. The next morning we went to a place that was rated high for brunch and everyone agreed the bloody mary's were delicious (well Sara had a mimosa) and so was the food!
We went back and hung out at the house for a bit until check out then headed back to Gundluch Bundschu since it was one of the places Sara and Brian did want to go to and get some wine. They like a specific varietal that they get when they go to Fleming's steakhouse. Lucky for us, they had it so we bought a few bottles to bring home.
Such good wine tasting form!
Ringing the bell to say we had a great time!
After that we headed north to one of Bobby's favorite wines...of course we're going to forget the name now but you can't buy it in stores so either you get it at the vineyard or join their wine club. They had a great bbq set up so we got food and wine!
After that we headed to Raymond's vineyard as people the day before said how risque and unique it was. Selfie!
We made it in the nick of time before they closed. No time for wine tasting, plus let's be honest we didn't need it, but we did get to look around. See the mannequin?
Wine, wine and more wine!
How cool is this set-up? Great last pic in Sonoma!
Brian drove us back to the airport while Bobby and Julie took a little cat-nap :)
They missed out on viewing a beautiful sunset! But before we knew it we were at the airport ready to head home. We had such a wonderful time together. You never know how traveling with friends will go the first time but we all agreed we could do it again! This was a great trip with great friends. One for the record books!
Where were the kids you ask? Hanging out with Nana Jeanne and Papa Steve! Staying busy, that's for sure. As former educators Nana and Papa Steve keep the kids hopping with activities and send us lots of pictures!
They even took Trevor to baseball practice. It's official! He's ready! He picked 25 because it's his day of his birth. All in all, everyone had a great time! Thanks Nana and Papa Steve for taking such good care of our littles and Bobby and Julie for a wonderful trip! Now we need a heart emoji :)
