Nature, Wine, and Fun...Also, a Hot Australian

We woke up early to meet our van from Extranomical to go on our tour of the redwoods and wine country. The van was one of those 13-passenger deals, which can go either way -- fortunately, everyone on our van was great fun, including our driver, Jerry. Besides us, there were 3 fun girls from Minnesota, a sweet couple from Michigan celebrating their 10-year anniversary (the trip was a surprise from him to her), a mother and her son (who was trying to decide between MD and PhD school -- sounds familiar) from Montreal, and a couple from Adelaide, Australia. Diverse!

We drove up to Muir Woods, which was terrific. There was a gentle rain falling, which gave it a very Forest Primeval feel. We took in the fresh air and got an eyeful of green as we walked around the boardwalk path. Of course, we posed with the trees. It was a wonderful walk -- we had the path to ourselves for almost the whole time. Ashley got a terrific stacking block toy for Alex at the gift shop, and then we were back on the bus and heading to the wine country.

Not surprisingly, everyone on the van was even friendlier after the wine tasting.

Our first stop was Cline Cellars in Sonoma. We tasted a lot of wines and bought a lot of wine...we made the wise decision to buy a padded box for 12 bottles of wine, which (not to spoil it) we filled by the end of the day. Cline has terrific Zinfandel, which is one of my favorite wines. We are not talking about "white zinfandel," but the dark dry red that is the signature of CA wine country. Delicious! Cline was also a favorite because of the free fresh popcorn they gave after the tasting. Mmmm, salty.

Not surprisingly, everyone on the van was even friendlier after the tasting. Banter was witty, and everyone was in good cheer as we drove to downtown Sonoma for lunch. We sampled at least 30 cheeses at Sonoma Cheese Factory, then got turkey burgers with our favorite cheeses for lunch. Dessert was gelato: mocha for Ashley, cookies and cream (shout-out to Lauren) for me. While we ate gelato, we talked with the smoking hot Australian guy on the tour (shout-out to Lauren because we babbled like fools). It was interesting that the Australians, who are from Adelaide, had not visited the places I'd been in Australia. Then again, I've never been to Louisiana. So strike that, reverse it.

After lunch, we headed over to Homewood, which is a tiny tiny winery. The winemaker doesn't distribute the wine at all, so to get it, you have to go to Homewood itself. We really enjoyed the wines here and bought quite a few bottles since it is impossible to get them anywhere else. Homewood's mascot is a tiny tiny Chihuahua named Lily, who was adorable. The only thing not tiny about Homewood is the winemaker, who visited the tasting room. Dave is 6'7" and blond, like a Viking. Outstanding!

Our last scheduled winery stop was Viansa, a huge commercial operation at the top of a hill. The view from Viansa is spectacular. We got a tour of the winery with Todd, a friendly guy who also conducted the tasting. We tried lots of wine at Viansa and bought enough wine to fill our box and then some. Viansa also has an Italian marketplace full of dips, both sweet and savory, that we could sample. Delicious!

When we got back in the van, the girls from Minnesota said that they wished they'd bought more at Cline, so our amiable driver Jerry agreed to take us back across the road to Cline to pick up a few more bottles. I couldn't resist picking up another bottle of Zinfandel. I know, I know! My mom will have something to say about this entry, but oh well! The wine was wonderful.

We headed back to the city by way of Sausalito and a scenic overlook in Marin with a fabulous view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We posed for cheesy photos, and Jerry obliged us by taking photos of the whole group with 8 different cameras. He was the best! He dropped us each off at our hotel, and everyone was sorry to say goodbye. What a wonderful day!

We lugged our 15 (!!!) bottles of wine up to our hotel room, then went back out and hopped in a cab back over to Pacific Heights to meet up with Seth and Carol for dinner again. We'd brought them some special Homewood wine, Flying Wizzbanger, and they introduced us to a brand-new Italian restaurant called SPQR just a few blocks from Seth's apartment. We had to wait and wait and wait, but it was well worth it. We had antipasti: prosciutto and olives, calamari, and brussels sprouts fried with bacon. The entrees were really awesome...the real Italian pasta that's incredibly, impossibly thin but still fills you up. How does it do it? Dinner was fun. Like every other meal we'd shared, we laughed from the beginning to the end. After dinner, we went for our second gelato of the day, and then Seth and Carol drove us back to our hotel again. We all hugged goodbye, but I know we will see them again soon. I have not laughed like that in a long time.

We hit the sheets pretty early because we had to get out to SFO the next morning. What a terrific day! We've really made the most of our time in San Francisco.