Well, the first thing we did was get out that swell post detailing our travels on Saturday from San Francisco to Sonoma, and as soon as we're done with this post we'll be reversing that journey.
Sunday, though, we started off by heading out to Jack London Historic State Park. We did what ended up being somewhere between a 2.5 and 3-hour hike through Mr. London's former estate. There are many buildings on the site that you can tour, a small vineyard that is still producing grapes, and many of the trails - at least towards the entrance and main attractions - are marked with historical placards talking about how the place was run between 1905-1916.We skipped most of that.
Instead we headed up into the hills and trekked the trails. It was pretty hot out, and we didn't exactly realize just how hot it was until we were all through with our journey. In the meantime, we saw one of the biggest trees either of us had ever seen in our lives - the aptly named "Ancient Redwood." For its protection, we weren't able to go near it, hug it, etc, so we don't really have any photos that truly show its glory, so you'll just have to take our word for it.After JLHSP (catchy, huh?), we headed back to clean up and whatnot. We made plans to visit a local vineyard and winery for later in the afternoon, and in the meantime we were STARVING, I mean seriously hungry, so we headed to Bluegrass Bar & Grill in Jack London Village. It was pretty good - huge burgers - and according to Julie, sodium helps with dehydration, so we loaded up on some sweet potato fries.
Then... drumroll please... we headed up to GlenLyon Vineyards & Winery. As some of you may have heard, this is the current workplace and home of the man who (among other distinguished roles) played Ronald McDonald all through the 1980's. Big stuff.
Aside from providing access to an amazing number of mementos from Squire's career in acting (and his wife's career in dance), the vineyard is seriously beautiful. He gave us a tour of the place and then we had a tasting on his table overlooking a lush valley of vineyards and forest.By the time we got out of there, we were pooped.
Monday. Sonoma.
Monday we weren't quite so athletic. Well, I take that back. Julie still went for a run (like she did BEFORE our hike on Sunday!), but Harmony wasn't quite so athletic!
In any case, we started out our day by heading back to the Sunflower Cafe, this time for breakfast. Very nice. Then after some meandering, we decided to head to Gundlach Bundschu, a winery that's been operating for 150 years. The wine was great, the site was beautiful and castle-like, and the pourers working there were very friendly. (Harmony got a mini-crush on Tito, our pourer, but alas, he was wearing a wedding ring, so her heart is still free to wander!)
Next, we headed to Robledo Family Winery, by far Harmony's favorite, though Julie is more reserved in her judgement, "Yeah... but I liked all of them, just for different reasons!" I don't think we can do justice to their story, so you should check out their website, but as we understand it, it was founded by Reynaldo Robledo, Sr. who worked his way from field-hand to manager to founder of his own vineyard. The area they are in isn't quite as pretty and rolling as others we went to, but their tasting room was gorgeous with heavy carved-wood tables, chairs, and bar, and we loved their wines!
We saw some more of the inner-secrets of wine-making at Schug Carneros Estate Winery. Ed gave us the grand tour, including their caves where the wine casks sit to age. He also introduced us to a couple of options for wine-checking and wine-shipping which came in quite useful. As we were about to leave, we had the pleasure of meeting Walter Schug himself. He said hello and signed a couple of our bottles.
Finally, on our way to the grocery store we made one final stop at the Roshambo Winery. Roshambo was completely quirky and fun, but we were starting to lose our zest for tasting (at least for the day!) so it was a quick stop. Then we headed back to the house with groceries to cook dinner for Anne, our hostess. Grilled chicken with mango salsa, avocado salad, and pine nut cous-cous. Yum!And now we're off again. The sun's finally burning through the clouds, so hopefully it's going to be another beautiful day. Stay tuned...
