Napa & Sonoma

Happy 4th to all of you!  Starting the day slow over here, and with the not-so-great weather today (typical NJ!) figured it would be a good morning to do some photo editing and posting before getting all of the festivities started :)

In my last post, I think I mentioned that we started our CA trip up north in the Sonoma / Napa area for a best friend's wedding...My college roommate of 4 years (Kate) married her college boyfriend (Martin) at her family's vineyard.  Needless to say, it was a gorgeous setting and with the simplicity of a country wedding, the day ended up feeling like one big, happy picnic!  We had a blast celebrating their love and it's always great to have all of the college friends who we rarely get to see in one place!



Goofing off in Healdsburg, Kate's hometown...

My favorite candy store in Healdsburg, Powell's...

View from the hill at Hafner Vineyard...

Inching closer to fall harvest time...

Grapes hadn't turned red yet...

Walking the vineyard...

Day after the wedding, site of the reception...

Hafner Winery tour, entrance to the caves...

Barrel's for miles...

Happy wine camper...

Newest addition to Kate's family, Annie!

K+K...

After the wedding, we hung out in Sonoma the next day and visited Jordan Winery.  We drink Jordan on occasion (holidays, special times... definitely not an everyday thing!) and love their wine so figured it was worth stopping in.  Driving the windy roads into their 2,200 acre winery made us realize it was definitely worth it, and the ladies in the tasting room were nice enough to squeeze us right into their 3pm tasting.  We sampled 8 wines in their vintage 'french chateau' style winery and had amazing food / cheese pairings with each tasting from their house chef.  Definitely felt pretty swanky walking out of that experience and we enjoyed every bit of it!



Entrance to Jordan...

Excited about the 'French Chateau'...

Exploring the grounds...

Came across the Jordan farm...

Too beautiful of a setting...

Happy explorer...

Catching some wind...

One of my favorite flowers...

Went a little crazy on the sunflower pictures...

Oh hello!

Movin' West...

Rose garden...

California Oak...

Ready to bloom...

Back at the winery...

Ready for our tasting...

After Sonoma, we headed to Napa to spend the night at 'Bello Vino' resort to celebrate our 2 year anniversary (a bit late, but hey, there was no better setting to celebrate in!)  We had a very 'us' night and took full advantage of our condo, watching a great movie, cooking together and making chocolate chip cookies (you can never keep us away from those!)  The next day we headed to Trefethen Winery, a recommendation from friends of ours.  Another beautiful setting and much simpler than what we had experienced in Sonoma the day before.  We tried 8 more wines there and settled on bringing a nice bottle of Cabernet along with us as a souvenir (I'll give you one guess at how long THAT lasted!)



Trefethen Building, all made of Redwood...

Delicious vino...

Trefethen Communal Table...

Cellar...

A bit of rain to end the day...

But still happy :)

After Napa it was off to Carmel to visit B's twin sister Tessa, but stopping there for today... hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed the experiences in wine country!