A few weeks after the road trip with my parents, we had a slightly shorter (but just as fun!) road trip with SMS’ parents! We decided to meet up in Sonoma for the weekend with wine tastings, tasty meals, and a fun wine party. We met at Chalk Hill Winery on Saturday morning. Although SMS’ sister gave us dire warnings about how terrible the wine was, we had a really good experience. The weather was beautiful, the location gorgeous, and the wines were decent. We also had a very nice server. Anyway, I decided to send a nice text to Stacy…
Afterward, we headed into Healdsburg for lunch. We went to The Wurst Wing, which is pretty informal, speedy, and delicious. I’m not the biggest bratwurst fan, but there are other options on the menu. For most of the meal, I was on the phone for a group meeting with my professor of a Stanford online certificate program I was taking. So, it was nice to be away from the group when we were at a more informal place, rather than being rude in a more formal sit-down restaurant. Don’t get me wrong-a Saturday class session isn’t ideal but I wasn’t in charge of the scheduling!
After lunch, we went to Roth Estate winery where we sat outside on their patio. It was not as picturesque as Chalk Hill, but still a very nice place. The weather was definitely on our side. Afterward, we squeezed in a third tasting at Lancaster Estate where we sat under the trees. The server was a high school teacher who worked once a month for employee benefits. It was fun to talk to him and get a long-time Sonoma local’s perspective.
For dinner, we went to John Ash & Co, which was really good. Rip and Linda had been there before. I felt like the best search engine person ever because when we were planning the trip, I found it simply through looking in the area and typing something like “good restaurant farm to table” or something similar. Can’t give away all my savant tips and tricks!
The next morning, I woke up really early and grabbed a coffee from A’Roma Roasters, which was a cute coffee place with decent-ish coffee. Then I went back to the Hyatt and met up with everyone else who is normal and can sleep until a decent hour on a Sunday morning.
We had breakfast at the Omelette Express. The breakfasts are delicious and served in huge portions. There are also several classic car front bumpers and grills mounted on the walls. It’s a cool look but I wouldn’t want to be there in an earthquake!
Then, it was on to more wine tasting. We went to Ferrari-Carano, which has a beautiful garden. We sat outside on a large balcony for our tasting, which was really scenic. It was a tiny bit on the chilly side to start but we were all strong people, willing to suffer for the wine.
Then it was off to Medlock Ames! I had bought tickets to the Harvest Party, which is held on their beautiful ranch! It was slightly smaller than years past, but we had some delicious wine accompanied by freshly made pizza. We also went up to the garden, which was had a lot of vegetables including delicious cherry tomatoes.
After the party, our weekend together was done. Even though it was short, it was so much fun to hang out on a gorgeous Fall weekend.