Sonoma Weekend

After my baby shower, I stayed in Salinas and worked at ERMCO for a week. Eric drove up with our friends David and Rachel for a fun weekend. They stopped at ERMCO to meet me. We went to Monterey to eat dinner at Lalla Grill. On the way we stopped in Castroville to get French-fried Artichoke hearts.

David, Rachel and their daughter Story stayed at the ranch for the night.
It was fun showing Story all the animals on the ranch including the new puppy.

The next day we headed up to Petaluma for the weekend since Rachel's parents live there. On our way we stopped at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station for a yummy lunch of bread, cheese and wine (lemonade for me).

It was a beautiful day! When we arrived at Rachel's Parents house, the sun was about to set and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and a great dinner in honor of Story's 1st birthday.


The next day Rachel's parents babysat Story so we could enjoy a day of wine tasting. Jeff lives about about an hour away so he joined us for the day.
We started at the famed Silver Oak, which is known for their Cabernet Sauvignon. It is very expensive, so it was exciting to be able to at least try it. Eric ha dbeen saving up his money to buy a bottle. He got a bottle that he is going to try to hold onto for 10 years so we can enjoy it for his 40th birthday.
Next, we went to Wilson Winery which is known for their Zinfandels. We ate lunch overlooking the beautiful vineyards.
I found this soda that is made from wine grapes and had that with lunch, which was fun since it felt like I was having wine with everyone else.
We went to Rodney Strong and then another winery in Chalk Hill, which wasn't very impressive and then onto a winery recommended by Rachel's parents called Windy Hill.

We were astounded by the great wines and even better prices at this winery. They were practically giving away fantastic wines. Needless to say, we bought lots of wine there, which made our fun day an even bigger success. I thought I wasn't going to have much fun being the designated driver and not being able to taste with everyone else, but it was a fun day with friends and beautiful scenery.
When we came home we had dinner and then got to watch Story destroy her 1st birthday cake. It was really cute and we were glad to be part of it.

That was our last big trip before the baby comes, so we were glad we were able to squeeze it in. Thanks David and Rachel for the fun idea!