Wednesday April 26
With a 6 am flight out of Logan, I am up before 3 am. Shower, dress, meditate, coffee and a clif bar, and off we go. No issues getting on our United flight. There are a fair number of empty seats, which makes us wonder if the recent fiasco with the man being dragged off a plane because he refused to give up his seat really has had an effect.
It's a 6 hour flight, long, but not impossible. We are in SFO by 9:30 am with the time change. We grab our rental car, and off we go to Sonoma for a few days. We've been to Napa a bunch of times, but never Sonoma.
Our b&b checkin time is 3 pm, so we have lots of time to kill. We have lunch at an amazing Mexican place, El Molino Central. Then we park the car on the square, check out the visitors center. We view the old stockade, the mission, and the "country" house of General Valejo, one of the founders of Sonoma. We stroll around the square, choosing our dinner destination, and stopping for coffee at a "basque" pastry shop which is anything but. It's finally okay to check into our b&b, An Inn2Remember.
We eat an early dinner at The Girl and The Fig, just a block from the b&b. Excellent food. I get the 3 course prix fix meal, Lee gets a bunch of apps. We're in bed by 7:45, and sleep soundly until 5:30 am. It's been a long day!
Thursday, April 27
We have a wine tour scheduled for today with Platypus Wine Tours. We've used them in Napa and they've always been good, taking us to small family wineries and interesting and unusual places. But first it's time for a run. There's a nice bike trail to follow, and plenty of other runners out and about. The flowers are beautiful, lots of roses, just past full bloom, little goats, and of course vineyards everywhere.
The tour is fine, but not as wonderful as previous tours. I'm not sure why. The people on the tour with us are really nice, it wasn't that. I think maybe we have had our fill of California wine tours. This is the fourth time we have gone to either Napa or Sonoma and its just time for a change. We start researching bike trips in California and we're intrigued. Maybe that will be our extra activity the next time we visit Daniel.
The first winery, Petronius, is extremely beautiful, very elegant. We taste the wine in their extensive wine cave, which is chilly after the bright warm sunshine outside. They make olive oil too and we taste it as well. It is spicy and peppery, with a bit of a bite.
Lee leaves the wine purchases mainly to me. Right now he is more of a craft beer drinker. I surprise myself this year. At almost every winery I'm attracted to their Sauvignon Blanc. I end up buying a bottle at all four wineries. They will be nice to drink this summer.
After Petronius we go to a small family winery. The owner, Chris, shows us around. He's a former physics professor from an Australian winemaking family. He specializes in Shirahs, natch, and I buy a bottle. He's funny and charming. It's my favorite stop on the tour.
The third stop is a wine tasting venue. The woman that serves us is a bit over the top, very flamboyant. She does a cool thing where she has us taste a wine, then gives us various crushed herbs to smell and has us taste it again. It alters the taste of the wine, depending on what herbs we smell before tasting.
The last winery is high on a hill with a beautiful view, but it's large, busy, crowded, and I’m really not that impressed with their wines. Plus our little guide seems half drunk, or asleep. I buy a bottle anyway, I might as well, since then they waive the tasting fee.
We eat dinner at a Portuguese tapas bar, Tasca Tasca. It's delicious, and we're exhausted. In bed again by 8:30 and we sleep a good nine hours.
Friday April 28
In the morning we head over to Petaluma. We wander around the town, check out the river, a small park, some guitars in a local music store. We eat at a little diner, Sax's , for lunch, and then start heading toward San Francisco and Daniel's apartment.
We pick Dan up at work and take him home. Kelsey comes over and we walk to the sushi place around the corner for dinner.
Saturday April 29
This morning I run 4 miles from Dan's apartment. The weather is sunny, in the 60's; it the first time I can wear shorts and a tshirt on a run since Florida. I run down 17th street to Valencia and then up Valencia to Duboce. When I hit two miles I turn around and reverse my course.
We decide to try dim sum in Alameda for lunch, instead of our usual pilgrimage to Hong Kong Lounge on Geary. It's okay, but not amazing. Their dumplings are flavorful, but the dough is thicker than it should be. Oh well! We've been hearing for years that dim sum in the Oakland area is really good, so now we know.
In the afternoon, we hop in Dan's car and try to go to Baker beach. It's a beautiful day so half of San Francisco has the same idea. There is absolutely nowhere to park so we give up and park on California around Fillmore in Pacific Heights and walk around there instead. Even the ice cream stores have lines around the block so we settle for some excellent coffee from Jane's. Probably just as well!
For dinner we go to a hot new ramen shop, Mensho. They are small and their line is long as well, but it moves pretty fast. Inside it's crowded and noisy. The waitress can barely hear us, and vice versa. First she brings two beers and one water, instead of the three beers and waters we ordered. Then she gets the ramen order wrong too. She gets Dan's right but brings Lee and me some appetizer instead of the noodle bowls we ordered. After some confusion the apps are removed and we watch Dan eat his ramen while waiting for ours. I'm annoyed, because they really don't apologize, or make any special effort to bring us the correct order promptly. The ramen itself IS very good, and unusual, with a creamy broth, and some pickled bamboo shoots that taste downright strange, especially if you bite into one all by itself instead of mixed with other flavors.
Sunday April 30
Today we decide to do something I've wanted to do ever since Daniel moved to San Francisco. We are going to a baseball game! It's the Giants vs the Padres and we don't really care about either team, but we'll root for the home team, why not? As long as the Cards aren't playing I'll root for anyone except the Yankees.
We can walk from Daniel’s apartment to the stadium, another plus. We stop along the way to pick up Kelsey. It's a beautiful sunny day, and warm for San Francisco, almost 80, which for this town is downright hot. Our tickets are in the bleachers. The Giant's stadium seems gigantic, but I think its because the only games we have gone to recently have all been in spring training stadiums.
I waste no time getting stadium food, I'm hungry! I get a margarita, and a philly cheese steak sandwich. I'm a fan ever since the one I had after the Philadelphia marathon, but I've never had one that tasted quite as good as the one I ate after running 26.2 miles....
It's pretty hot in the bleachers. Although I have on a short sleeved shirt, I'm wearing black pants. I sure wish I had had the sense to pack shorts! My legs get really hot. I finally drape my green jacket over my legs, and that helps provide some insulation from the sun.
There are some cute little kids in front of us that are fun to watch. When my margarita is gone (it wasn't very strong) I have a beer as well. At the 7th inning stretch we sing God Bless America, City by the Bay, and Take me Out to the Ballgame, of course. No Sweet Caroline, that's just the Red Sox I guess, although they played it at the end of the Philly spring training game in February.
The score is 0-0 until around the 4th, when the Giants score twice. That's where it stays until the 9th, when the Padres tie it up. Extra innings! We last through the 11th inning and then call it a day. As we're walking home a fan tells us that the Padres won, 5-2, or something like that. Oh well!
For dinner we go to North Beach for some really good pizza. Our waitress is adorable, and very Italian. We are excited about seeing Afrogatto on the menu (ice cream with coffee poured over it, one of the delights we had in Puglia). They have a Primativo so we order a bottle, and two pizzas, one with broccoli and sausage, one with arugula, provolone and proscutto. They are delicious and we eat every single bite!
Monday, May 1
We are up at 3 am again, for another 6 am flight. Driving to the airport, returning the rental car, checking our box of wine, it all goes smoothly if you don't count missing our exit for the rental car return. We buy breakfast burritos and coffee. The flight is full and they are asking for volunteers to check their bags. Since we will have to wait for the box of wine anyway, we check our bags for free!
Unfortunately they make us wait on the runway for an hour before we can take off, and we get a grand tour of Boston on the other end as well before we can land. Diane kindly allows us to pick up the dogs, even though we are past the time we said we would arrive. The dogs look lovely from their baths and grooming, and we are so happy to see them! I love getting to visit Daniel, but I wish he wasn't so far away.
No comments:
Post a Comment