Sonoma County

Sunday was our traveling day. It was only a 2 1/2 hour drive from Gilroy to Petaluma where we are parked to take day trips to wineries in Sonoma County and Napa County. Even though it was only a   2 1/2 hour trip it was plenty stressful because of the heavy traffic going through the East Bay, but we made it in one piece. Checking in at the KOA park in Petaluma, the girl gave us the wrong directions to our site so Jim had to do some maneuvering through trees and around corners to get into the site in the correct direction. But got all settled then headed out to find some close by wineries.

Our first afternoon tasting wines was a little bit out of the Twilight Zone, because we put in an address in the GPS and there wasn't anything there. (We were in a very rural area west of Petaluma). Finally gave up with this area and went over by the city of Sonoma, where we finally found some wineries. We came back with only a few bottles of wine.

Once back at the RV, we were having problems with the electricity, where the power kept fluctuating so the surge box kept turning off the power to the coach to protect all our electronics. So ran on battery power overnight. Next morning we got a maintenance person out to check it and all seemed all right. Guess it was just a fluke with the surges because everything seems fine now.

Monday we headed up the Dry Creek area in Sonoma County. This is the area from last year that we enjoyed the wines the most. We visited Pedroncelli, Fritz and here at Sbragia Winery Jim tasted their grapes. They were quite ripe and sweet.

I just love visiting the wineries this time of the year to see such beautiful, ripe grapes hanging from the vines.

A view of the valley looking South.

Then we visited our favorite winery - Ferrari-Carano where we ended up purchasing over 2 cases of wine. This is the whole reason we came back to this area, because they do not ship to AZ so have to go to the winery to purchase the wines we like. So we bought enough to last us awhile (well maybe a few months.)

We visited several more wineries, a couple were quite bad, but didn't purchase any more wine.

After a long hard day on the wine trail, we needed some R&R (it's tough having to taste all those wines.)

Today, it's off to Napa Valley. Jim is researching which wineries we will be visiting.

17 Bottle Day

Another beautiful day in the Sonoma County Wine Country. The day starts in the high 50s and climbs to about 90 degrees, to make for a perfect day. We started things out with a hike on a nature trail here at the park, then took off for the Dry Creek Wine Trail. Our first stop was Fritz Winery that was up on a hill with a pretty view. Their wines were pretty good and purchased a bottle for our collection.

This sure has been a great time of year to visit this area with all the vineyards at their peak. The abundance of grapes on the vines is amazing. It just gets you in the mood to drink wine.

We moved on to Sbragia Family Vineyards where there was another great view from the top of the hill.  This also produced another purchased bottle of wine for our collection.

Then we stopped at the Ferrari-Carano Winery because the grounds were suppose to be spectacular, which they were. But Jim found some wine that really hit the mark, so ended up with walking out with 6 bottles.

Here is a view as you are walking up to the winery.

 A view out from the top.

There was also a separate gardens area with this little waterfall and pond. The whole place was immaculately landscaped and just beautiful

We visited several wineries along the Dry Creek Road and W Dry Creek Road, purchasing some wines along the way. Not every winery we tasted at had wines to our liking.

 Here is the official greeter at the Wilson Winery.

Jim anxious to get inside the Dry Creek Vineyard for a tasting. They had some nice wines and came out with a couple.

By the end of the day, we had purchased a total of 17 bottles of wine. And we still have another day to hit the wine trails.

At the end of the hot and dusty trail we enjoyed an evening around the camp fire.

Wine Tasting Day 2

Monday brought a cloud cover with a little fog, but it would burn off late morning. We headed for the coast, since it was somewhat of a dreary day to start with anyways. Drove down to Santa Rosa and from there headed west through Sebastopol over to Bodega Bay. Drove around the bay then ended up at The Tides for some lunch.

We shared a bowl of clam chowder, then we each had an order of fish-n-chips. This place was quite pricey as the total came to $75 including tip. Can't say that I've had a lunch that cost that much before. But the food was good with big portions.

Fishing vessels were coming back in with the mornings catch.

From Bodega Bay, we headed north along the coast to Jenner, then turned inland through Guerneville then headed south to Forestville where we stopped at the Russian River Winery for tasting. We couldn't find anything there we liked. 

We continued south back towards Sebastapol and after about 4 more wineries of not liking their wines we decided to go back up to the Dry Creek/Alexander Valley region where the grapes grow in a warmer climate and produce the wines more to our liking.

We stopped at Simi Winery but still was not satisfied.

Hit a couple more with no success, then stopped at Clos Du Bois and ended up with 2 bottles. In Geyserville we stopped in this small tasting room for Meeker Vineyards and found another wine we liked so walked out with 2 more bottles. I think we are going to need to purchase another wine refrigerator at home or dig a wine cellar. Our collection of wines keep growing.

Bring on the smores! After a dinner of roasting hot dogs on the fire, we of course had to have the full experience and indulge in smores to end another tough day on the wine trail.

"Got Her Squeezed In"

We enjoyed Friday and Sat. at Barrett-Jackson watching the exciting action of the auction. We didn't see anything that we just couldn't live without driving home, so came away from the car auction without bidding on vehicle. The one that Jim really would have liked, a 1968 Shelby GT500 E Continuation Fastback that went for $150,000 (+ the 10% buyers commission). A little over the price range for us. All in all, we had a very enjoyable, learning experience.

We left early yesterday morning, hopefully to get down the mountain before all the traffic, heading for destination 3, Cloverdale, CA. Why Cloverdale? Wine, wine and more wine. We have been to Napa valley visiting wineries, so here we are to experience Sonoma County wineries. The only RV park we could find in the area was the KOA in Cloverdale. But it is a tight squeeze-getting into the park from the freeway through parking the coach. The road back into the park was a narrow, mostly one lane, curvy, low hanging trees that we brushed through. Then the park itself is quite tight, roads not built for our size of coach, but Jim "squeezed her in."

After we got parked, set up, Jim was ready to hit the trail - the wine trail that is. Our first stop was Silver Oak, it cost $20 for 4 tastings, though nice place was not to our tastes. So onward we went.

The next stop was Geyser Peak, here we found several good wines and walked out with some bottles.

The area that we are at is called Dry Creek. Out next stop was Pedroncelli Winery where we purchased a couple of their wines also.

All the grape vines have lush, dark blue/purple, beautiful grapes hanging. Their harvest time is near.

Then we stopped at Truett-Hurst Winery which was our best experience. They had a guitarist, crackers and cheese along with great wines. We purchased several.

 Truett-Hurst was located right on the creek with a beautiful setting.

There were flowers, peach trees, and these bright sunflowers. 

We finally found our way back to the motorhome after a couple more stops that were not to our liking. We set up the Weber grill in a nice shady area along side the coach, got the pork roast on and sat back enjoying the area. When the sun went down we had an open fire in the fire pit. Enjoyable evening in the country.

This morning we woke up to overcast skies (should burn off) and a little bit of fog. This is the view we have from our coach.

Today we will be out exploring more of the area.