Sonoma

Sunday. Sonoma.

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...

Sonoma

Suffice it to say we don't have the energy to write a big post tonight. We'll try in the morning...

If you want to see why we're so tired, check out a few of our photos:

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:

Just Arrived in San Francisco...

This trip is only temporary, and I will end up back in Minnesota for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer. But even being here just 24 hours has made me remember why I've always loved it!

Friday Photos:

Some body of water...

Between Schenectady and Buffalo

View from the Green Monster

...and no storm!

Green Day!

...at the Boston Garden. Pretty good show, and I won the tickets (amazing seats) from the Boston Phoenix!!

The Bravery

I'm Published ;-)

I wrote a letter to the editors of the Boston Phoenix a week or two back, and it was published in last weekend's edition! Here's the link and below is the clipping :)

Golden Gate Bridge from the Beach

Beachy

Wish it was still summer...

New Kitty in Boston?

Maybe next Saturday!

Machu Picchu was AMAZING!!

We had a long but wonderful day at Machu Picchu, and I have to say that although I truly enjoyed walking among the ruins, I think my favorite part was the view from them. It makes sense, though, since it´s why they chose the site in the first place. I have something in common with the Incas... who knew? In similar news, according to our guide, there was apparently an Inca goddess with my same name!

Once we arrived back in Cusco, we headed out to wander a bit. Most of the shops were closed already, and we weren´t really up for a BIG night out, but we found a little bar down the way that had a live afro-jazz band. The bass player was ridiculously amazing.... we´ve definitely enjoyed the San Blas neighborhood.

Unfortuanately I have just spent the last ten minutes or so trying to upload some Machu Picchu photos, but the internet here is not being cooperative. Will post more tomorrow!!

¨Harmony

Aguas Calientes

Hello out there! We´ve just eaten a wonderful candle/fire-lit dinner at the cutest Pizzaria in Aguas Calientes (doesn´t Deborah look smashing in this photo??). The best part? The bread, appetizer, pizza, and (oops) gallon of Sangria only cost $40 for both of us!! Don´t worry, we didn´t finish the pitcher ;-)

Of course, we fully deserved this luxurious feast, as we explored the surrounding mountains during a three and a half-hour hike this afternoon! Mom was amazed to see many of the carefully-tended plants from her garden growing wild and free along the trails, traintracks, etc. Apparently impatients are key... :)

Now... as much as I´d love to hang in this internet cube and write to all of you, we´re heading off to bed - rest is much needed for our full day in Machu Picchu tomorrow!!! Horray!!!

We´ll post more fabulous photos once we have faster internet. The ring of mountains surrounding us seems to have an adverse effect on uploads. Night!

¡Finally in Cusco!

¡Hola! We made it to Cusco, after a long, long day of traveling by train. It was a beautiful trip - well, about 3/4 of it was beautiful. The rest was a LITTLE arid and less exciting, but it was still very pretty, so that´s okay! We both had pretty bad altitude headaches on the way up, but after downing some Excedrin Migraine and a bunch of Mate de Coca tea, it subsided.

I have a bunch of amazing photos, both of our train trip and Cusco, but for some reason this computer isn´t playing well with my photo USB-thinggie, so I´ll have to post them later...

Our train to Aguas Calientes leaves tomorrow morning at 6:50am, though, so I should get to sleep here. Night!

Peru 2008 · Day 3 · Off to Puno!

Well, we´re done with Lima until Sunday... off to the airport for our flight to Lake Titicaca! We will miss Miss Llama head, but maybe we will see her again!

(This statue of the patron saint of Lima was commissioned to an artist in Spain, I think, with the expectation of a crown of flames on her head... the double meaning of llamas was not doublechecked, however, and she ended up with a Llama · the animal · on her crown! Awkward... click on the photo to see the Llama closer)

Okay, we´re off!

Peru 2008·Day 2·Lima·Miraflores

Today was a fine day in Peru! After enjoying sleeping in, and making contact with a Peruvian Tour Director for my business, we wandered off into the city where we found a late breakfast stop in Peru, Don Qutos, and planned the rest of our day.

With having a wonderful day, yesterday, Harmony and I decided to enjoy a day at the ocean, in Miraflores, which is about 30 minutes out of central Lima. The taxi driver dropped us off at this cliff side mall, Lacomar, which had about 8 levels, all facing the ocean, with cliffs below to the water. Not wanting to spend time in the mall we went in search of the ocean...

We kept seeing all these paths, and finally, after walking distance along the cliff, we discovered the way down to the beach. We also discovered this amazing restaurant on the pier, where we decided to enjoy a fresh seafood lunch, which was outstanding!

The taxi ride back was interesting, as all drivers in the city enjoy making their own lanes, and merging at their own peril....

And now we are back at our hotel, relaxing and getting ready to depart for Juliaca, in SE Peru, in the morning.

Our next blog will be from Puno, if we can find an internet cafe. Good night!!!

Peru 2008 · Day 1 · Lima!!

605am · Arrive in Lima, Peru!!!

Pre·arranged driver picked us up right outside of customs and wisked us to the Kamana Hotel where we got all checked in. Slick!

After the scheduled travel, we had breakfast, and went off to explore the beautiful (though a bit polluted) city of Lima!

Our favorite things so far have been associated with the San Francisco Monestary and Museum... there was an amazing procession as we first walked up. The actual cathedral was beautiful (along with all the other ones we saw today), but in addition to the normal churchy·type things, they have a Rome or Paris·style catacomb beneath, which was part of our tour!

The food has been amazing (much better than that of Brazil so far, in Harmony´s opinion), and we are taking advantage of our pre high·intensity time up in the mountains to eat, drink, walk, sight·see, eat, drink, walk, sight·see, repeat.

Oh, and did we mention that we´ve already sampled the famous local cocktail, the Pisco Sour. Tomorrow we may shift down to Inca·Kola, just to be safe! ;-) See photo below for further evidence... uhoh...