San Francisco > Sonoma

Julie flew in late Friday night, and after a good night's sleep we got up, grabbed some coffee and the car, and headed up 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge, where we hooked West onto Highway 1 - also known as Shoreline Highway.


We made lots of stops on our way North, and Julie couldn't get over how much more friendly the folks are here than they are in Boston (no offense Rose!!). In our first two scenic overlooks, we had nice conversations with two different families, and in time met at least one other local...


Eventually (after some clever navigation) we made our way back East towards Sonoma, got settled in to the place we're staying, and headed out for our first wine tasting and a nice dinner.


I think we'd both recommend (I'll confirm with Jules once she gets back from her morning run - eek) the Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery, where we picked up a bottle of Eye of the Swan White Pinot Noir (Sonoma Valley - 2007) and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma Valley - 2006). I'm by no means a big expert in wine - Jules is much better - but we liked both and decided they'd be nice for our steak grilling plans tonight.


We met a nice guy at our next stop, the Sunflower Cafe. James owns Sunflower with his wife, and he had a whole list of Vineyards for us to try, and even hooked us up with a private connection to this tiny little vineyard where you apparently do a tasting in the couple's living room/porch depending upon the weather. He also recommended our dinner location, Harvest Moon Cafe.


Harvest Moon was awsome. According to James, a husband and wife own and run the place, the first formerly a chef with some lady who is famous (in foodie circles) for her advocacy of seasonal and local eating, and the wife formerly with some crazy dessert place in San Francisco. In any case, the food was great, especially the appetizer of fresh heirloom tomatoes, green beans, and mozzarella, lightly drizzled in pesto. Seriously awesome. On our way home we contemplated ordering about four plates of just that and making a meal of it...

Instead, we headed home. We sat on the deck with some Wine Country Chocolates we'd picked up that day in town, researched our options for the rest of the week, and looked at our photos from the day: