Sonoma

We picked up a rental car at San Fran Airport.

What an experience, the rental car companies are housed in a 4 storey multi-level carpark. Our check in counter was in a line with all other companies taking the whole top floor. Nearly as far as the eye could see, were car company counters.

Tina and John waited while Mark and I went up to handle the paperwork as we had done the pre-booking. We then realised that if John wanted to drive he would also have to present his drivers license. A quick call down to them and he was at the counter. The guy behind the counter took one look at John's license and said "no, we can't let him drive, he looks like a racing car driver". This put John out of place for a few seconds then the guy looked as us and winked... he was lovely and it all went smoothly.

It is a GMC Acadia for those who care! Mark & John certainly do!!!

After getting the final paperwork for the car we had to head down to the 2nd floor to pick up the car. It is a much larger car than expected but we got packed and on the way. Mark was first driver as he had the most recent experience driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.

Being a Sunday the traffic heading on the road to Napa Valley was very heavy. Though we had heard Sonoma County (the next valley to Napa) was equally great for wines we thought we visit a couple in Napa before heading to Sonoma. See the heavy traffic we decided to skip Napa's main tourist areas all together and head to Sonoma. We ere very glad we did and had a lovely day.

The first vineyard we visited was 'Sebastiani Vineyard & Winery' and what we thought would be a 20-30 min visit turned out to be about 2 hrs. They were setting up for a musical trio in the garden so we stayed to enjoy it. A bottle of wine, cheese, proscuitto, olive tepanade and crackers from their fridge and we settled in.

On recommendation we headed to another winery Gundlach Bundschu as it apparently had a great tasting room in a cave. Alas it was only for pre-bookings and not running that day. Non the less, we enjoyed their other tastings room anyway.

After that we checked into our hotel. On check in we were told they were holding their annual Ox Roast and artist market. We thought the ox roast sounded worth seeing but by the time we wandered down they were cleaning up.

Never hindered we strolled their very lovely town plaza and streets. A wine tasting here, a coffee there, then beers and dinner at an Irish Pub. Lots of fun... Its a really great town and had a very relaxing and laid back vibe.

No pictures Im sorry, they just wont upload properly!