Finding America

After getting cleaned up and packed we came downstairs and hailed a cab. A short ride brought us to our RV park and we packed the bikes and our suitcase into the Fox and headed back into the city. We fought a little bit of traffic but before we knew it we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge Heading for California’s wine country.

It was really cool to be driving across this San Francisco icon. I had seen it years ago from a cruise ship but being up close and personal to this massive bridge really made me realize what an engineering marvel it truly is.

Sonoma Valley is only an hour’s drive from the city and not long after crossing the bridge the commercial and residential development began fading away and we were driving through beautiful rolling hills.

We pulled into Sonoma with a little time to spare before our tour started to so grabbed a bagel and coffee and read the local paper. At 10:20 we met up with our driver, Larry from California Wine Tours. We were scheduled to visit 5 different wineries with a planned lunch along with other tourists on this trip. However, we were the only ones on board and basically got a private guided tour.

Larry was a hit, this Alabama native put this pair of wine rookies right at ease. We headed north on 12 for about 15 minutes and began our tour at Kunde Vineyard and Winery. We took a tour of their winery and were escorted through their ½ mile length cave where they age their wine in oak barrels. It was a really cool winery. The tasting proved that the looks weren’t deceiving and we ended up buying two bottles of wine.

We continued on to the amazing winery of Ledson. The main building is quite literally a mansion. The tastings here were focused on the red wines and we like that just fine. We got a voucher from our tour guide and bought some truly delicious food from Ledson’s deli. The day was gorgeous and we took our food outside and made a picnic for ourselves.

After Ledson we visited the idyllic winery of St. Francis. With it’s pastoral setting it made for an excellent stop on the tour. The wine here was very good. They had a delicious Cabinet Franc and we decided it would be prudent to pick a bottle up to introduce friends to this fine wine. At 2pm the bell tower toned our time for departure and onward we drove.

Our next stop was Landmark vineyard. We didn’t like the wine much here but they did have nice grounds and we stumbled upon a bocce court. We had fun bowling the bocce balls down the long court in the beautiful weather.

VJB was our last winery and we liked it the best. The young man pouring the wine for us had done a long cross country trip following major sporting events, so we had a lot in common and chatted with him for quite a while. The wine here was exceptional and it was clear this family knew what they were doing. We were glad this was out last stop and that we had saved the best for last.

Larry returned us home and we checked into our room at the Inn at Sonoma. The inn was perfect, not to pricey but with lots of character and charm. We settled in and then went down to the lobby to enjoy the spread of cheese, fruits and wine. The food was a nice way to cap off the day and our friends from VJB were actually the one sponsoring the wine tasting.

After we had our fill we enjoyed the hot tube in the upstairs. What a way to end the day.

Actually it wasn’t over yet. While Kam napped I picked up some dinner from the Red Grape and got some info about the Sonoma Film festival so we could visit it later on.