July 22, 2007Vacationing in Mendocino & the Wine countryIt'd been a year and a half since we'd taken a vacation. The kids were safely with their nonos. I wanted to go to Mexico. Chiapas and the Yucatan. But Mike wasn't too excited about it, and I really didn't want to spend the money, so we decided on a short trip to the wine country and Mendocino instead. Wine tasting and waves. We started last Sunday.
Our first stop was Domaine Carneros, we hadn't been there before. It's a beautiful winery, built to look like an old manor, with nice views of the valley below and the highway. We had a relaxing time tasting there. We were starving by then - we hadn't had breakfast and the trip to Napa isn't that short now that we live in San Leandro (we used to live in Richmond) - so it was time to hunt for food. Or rather, go to Giugni's, which has to be the best deli in the whole world. At least they make the best sandwiches, we've been tempted in the past to just go to Napa to have them. Yum, yum. Then it was V. Sattui, what must be the most popular winery in Napa Valley. With its large tasting area, store and picnic grounds it's a perfect place to stop for lunch. With the sandwich you just had bought, for example. But nooooo, you can't bring your own food anymore (even if you buy their wine). It sucks. We hurried to eat our sandwiches in the car. They were yummy but the car was hot so we didn't want to linger over the food. We had a good tasting experience at V. Sattui too, and we ended up buying some Muscat. Mike loves Muscat, I like Muscat, the problem is what to do with a whole big bottle of Muscat. Nobody can drink much of it without going into diabetic coma. We are going to have to invite some of our friends for something and Muscat. What goes with Muscat, anyway? After that we went to Milat and Flora Springs, two nearby tasting rooms which weren't too exciting. Even though it was still early, I was done wine tasting for the day. I'm not sure exactly why but we decided to head to the hotel, the Roman Spa. Don't get any idea this was a fancy place, more like a 70's motel with a couple of outdated pools (yeah, you thought pools couldn't be outdated, but these ones really had a 70's feel). Mike (and this, I'm sure, will surprise you) took a nap while I read a mystery I borrowed from the lobby. I finally convinced him to wake up and join me at the pools. They had three, each one at a different temperature, all hot. In a hot Napa afternoon, this was perhaps not the most refreshing idea. But it was nice and relaxing enough. Still, we couldn't do it for long. We returned to watch the end of Copa America, a soccer contest between South American teams. Argentina had such great hopes when it started, it had all of its best players playing and was sure to take the cup home. Brazil, whom they were playing, had sent their second-string team and had shamefully lost against Mexico in their first game in the tournament. It didn't matter, Brazil massacred us. Argentina played terribly and deserved the three goals (against nothing) that Brazil scored. But what a shame, what a way to put a dumper on my vacation. But soon it was time for our mud baths, and the whole experience (related in the linked article) made us relax and forget the game. Thanks generic-god-of-your-choice! We were by then hungry again and kind of tired, and decided to go to dinner early. We'd made reservations at Solbar, the restaurant of a brand-new spa in Calistoga, for the simple reason that I wanted to review it before anyone did (yeah, yeah, yeah, you shouldn't review a restaurant when it just opens, whatever). It was actually quite good and we had a very nice time. Then we came back, had another swim in the pools, including the jacuzzi inside, and went to sleep. It was a very nice first day of vacation.
We then headed to the Russian River Valley wineries and hit the ones in Olivet Road first (Harvest Moon, Pellegrini and Suncé) and Martinelli, which is nearby. We stopped for lunch as the River Inn Grill, which was good, and went on with to a few more wineries: Davis Bynum, Arista (my favorite!) and Hop Kiln. We (and by that I mean me) basically wine-tasted until the wineries closed. We debated a bit as to where to stay that night, but I figured it made sense to go to Cloverdale, in part because it was closer to the Anderson Valley, where we'd head the next day, but more importantly because the Super 8 motel in Cloverdale was supposed to be both nice and cheap. Indeed, we got a room with a spa tub for $100, and figured we'd use for some added relaxation later on. The Super 8 was located just in front of a Longs, so we got some bubble bath, stuff for facials (it was not until later that I realized that given Mike's beard I couldn't really give him a facial) and foot scrubs. Hey, nobody says you can't have a spa experience on the cheap! We also got some wine (because clearly we hadn't drank enough of it) and a corkscrew :) It's been a while since we've traveled with our useful, multi-purpose Swiss army knife. I spent much of the rest of the afternoon reading The Economist, which Mike got me for my birthday. I really like the magazine, even though I forget what I've read the moment I'm done with it. Since my kids were born, I forget absolutely everything (what were their names, again?). Mike worked or did stuff in the computer. We had an OK dinner at La Hacienda, followed by our spa experience in our room. I'd never had a facial, even a home made one, before, and I really think it helped my skin, at least until I burnt it again. And that was our second day in the Wine Country. Our third day in the wine country can be described as a wine tasting marathon. I really can't believe how many wineries we hit. Poor Mike, he could only drink in a couple of them as he was driving, but I had more wine than ever in my life (well, except when we went to Beaune, but that's another story altogether). For those who are keeping track (AKA "me"), we went to: Yorkville Cellars, Meyer Family Cellars, Breggo, Goldeneye, Scharffenberger Cellars, Navarro, Roederer Estate and Handley, 8 wineries in all. I was pretty tipsy by the end.
We had a very nice lunch in Mendocino, at the Mendocino Hotel, and walked around the town, and then we stopped at a cafe for an hour and a half while Mike had a conference call. It was really lucky to find it, because it would have been very hot to stay in our non-A/C car all that time. I finished The Economist.
All in all a very nice day. There was no internet connection at the place, so Mike couldn't work :) Next morning we decided to avoid breakfast at the hotel (given those prices!) and drive to Jenner for some place cheaper. Remember, we still didn't know just how tiny Jenner was or how far away it was. The road to Jenner is absolutely beautiful but my heart was on my throat half the time, I was afraid we were going to fall off the cliff at any point. Fortunately Mike humored me and we drove pretty slowly. Part of the road was closed due to a landslide, so in parts we had to drive slowly. Half way to Jenner, we realized we'd forgotten our camera at the hotel (OK, I'd left the camera at the hotel) so we had to rush back to get it. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store in Fort Ross and Mike had a sandwich and I some banana cake to quelch our ever growing hunger.
I think we only stopped at one beach that day, I think both Mike and I were beached out and ready to go home. We stopped at Bodega to take a look at that historic (per The Birds) church, and then had lunch at the Station House Cafe at Point Reyes Station. We walked around the town a bit and then headed home, inland. In all, our vacation was really relaxing and very much needed. It's nice to write about it, as I get to relieve it. |
Our second day on vacation started with a trip to the 
