"Napa Makes Auto Parts, Sonoma Makes Wine"

I think for this week, I might make this a food blog, showcasing all the wonderful and fattening foods I plan to eat while I’m on vacation. Of course I’ll still tell you what’s going on, but I need to share the pictures.


Wine is everywhere this part of California. Sonoma County (Occidental to be exact) is a beautiful part of Northern California. Everything is green. The roads are lined with vineyards (thousands in the area, I’m told), beech, oak and redwood trees, plants and flowers. The winding roads that take you through the area and neighboring small towns are amazing. If I could live anywhere other than where I do, I would choose this area of California (join me in convincing Hubby).

I’m happy to finally be here again and am glad it will last a week. I’ll fill you in on the journey here.

AM
3:45 – woke up, drank coffee, ate yogurt, took taxi to airport
6:50 – Plane to Seattle
9:00 – Plane to Santa Rosa

PM
12:30 – Arrive at airport and picked up by Auntie (sidebar: Santa Rosa airport is the smallest I’ve ever been in)
1:00 – Stop by In-n-Out Burger, inhale a cheeseburger with grilled onion and fries; get offered a paper hat by a waitress to ease my sorrow of not having an In-n-Out in my home town

1:30 – Stop by Lynmar Estate Winery to do some wine tasting (first time!!). Lynmar was a beautifully manicured/maintained winery with sophistication and class. Awesome (Ate some more food, too, btw). Check it out if you’re in the area.

2:30 – Stop by Iron Horse Vinyard to do more wine tasting. BEAUTIFUL location. Damon told me all I could ever want to know about wine – hil-ar-ious guy. Definitely stop by for some great wine.

3:30 – back to airport to pick up our luggage (it was put on a later flight). Flight delayed to 4:40
3:30 – Stopped at restaurant in the airport to kill an hour. Ate a BLT
4:40 – Went to pick up luggage. Luggage not there. Mom and I freak out. Talked to guy at front desk. Looked for our luggage. “Huh, I have no idea where they are. Here, fill out these missing luggage forms.” This is not a good sign. Right about now, I’m replaying the scene from Meet the Fockers where Ben Stiller’s luggage is lost. Then the guy says, “Let me check in back, just in case.” He comes back with our luggage. Apparently, they came in on our first flight, but they neglected to inform us of that, so we wasted an hour of our day. But at least I have my luggage!
5:30 – More eating of crackers, cheese, and olives
7:00 – Dinner is served. Salad, asparagus, and crab. Fresh, wonderful, Dungeness crab. Followed by amazing cookies from Trader Joe’s.
8:00 – Passed out from food overload (happily, might I add)

FUN THING TO DO: My Uncle has a radio show and asked me if I wanted to join him. Talk about F-U-N!! If you’re looking for something fun to listen to, check it out. Reggae music from 7 – 9 pacific time!! KOWS Community Radio (http://www.kows.fm/). I’m not promising I’ll be a good DJ, but I’ll be a DJ - with limited talking.

I hope to give more details later, but right now I’m tired and all I want to do is go to bed. Especially with the knowledge that I’m going to have to run at least five miles tomorrow morning before I start my day in order to burn a quarter of the calories I ate today.

Ugh.

--Me