greetings from sonoma

As you know from Instagram or Snapchat, last weekend was spent in the beautiful California Wine Country.  The purpose of our trip was to celebrate the marriage of two close friends in the bride’s hometown of Sonoma, California!  We met Julia and Hunter a year ago at our church small group.  After hitting it off with them immediately, it was a fun year seeing them get engaged, plan the wedding and finally getting to celebrate the two of them last weekend!  The weekend was filled with all things wedding, but when we could, we took advantage of every opportunity to explore Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley.  The past two times we have been in Wine Country, we stayed in Healdsburg, which is further north.  While we missed some of our usual favorites, it was fun to explore new-to-us areas!

See below for  Sonoma Valley Getaway (and some Napa Valley) recommendations:

Stay:

• Rent a house:  Because we were traveling for a friend’s wedding and traveling with six other couples, renting a house was a great way to spend time together and have more space than at a hotel.  There are a lot of houses available for rent and can be found on airbnb and vrbo.
• The Carneros Inn:  If we hadn’t rented a house, this is where we would have stayed.  Located on the Napa Highway, it is directly located inbetween Napa and Sonoma Valley.  We were able to enjoy the property one morning for breakfast and it is beautiful!

Eat:

• Fremont Diner:  A unique diner located just 10 minutes from Sonoma.  It had one of the best breakfasts of the trip.  The chicken and waffles come highly recommended by my husband.  I stuck with ricotta pancakes, which satisfied a pregnancy craving for pancakes!
• Boon Fly Cafe:  Located on site at The Carneros Inn, we stopped here for breakfast on our way to Napa for a wine tasting.  Must haves:  the homemade mini doughnuts, green, eggs and ham, and of course, an iced latte.
• Oakville Grocery:  A quaint grocery store in Napa that makes the best sandwiches you’ll ever have!  It’s fun to pick up lunch here and take it to one of the beautiful wineries that provide a picnic area.  There is also a great selection of unusual soft drinks that you don’t see everywhere else.  Virgil’s root beer was delicious!
• Bouchon:  A favorite place to stop for coffee and a sweet treat from the bakery- my favorite macarons- as good as Paris!

Wineries:

• Scribe: Came highly recommended from Mary-Katherine and didn’t disappoint.  We enjoyed our tasting outside with views of the vineyards.  Unfortunately, the rosé was already sold out, but the other wines were wonderful (so I heard).
• Miner:  Located in Napa, this came highly recommended by my parents.  The tasting was very enjoyable on the patio with more beautiful views out over the valley.
• Cliff Lede:  When looking for accommodations to stay, we looked into the Poetry Inn.  Unfortunately, it is quite a drive from where the wedding was located, so we decided to stay closer.  Poetry Inn is the bed and breakfast associated with Cliff Lede Winery, which is how we discovered Cliff Lede.  This was another tasting that was enjoyed from the patio, but we also had the opportunity to visit the vineyards, pick a few grapes and taste them!

Do:

• Shop Downtown Sonoma: So many adorable shops, which if we had more time, we would have liked to have shopped some more!
• Hike: There are great places to hike all over Sonoma Valley.
• Lagunitas Brewery: Located in Petaluma, our husbands thoroughly enjoyed their beer tastings and we enjoyed a light lunch.

This is just a small peek at what Sonoma Valley has to offer, but it’s all we could fit in with so many fun, wedding activities to attend as well.  Looks like we will have to make a trip back next year after Baby Coffman is here! And until then, patiently awaiting our wine shipments!

 

 

 

Cheers,