For Memorial weekend this year, we went to San Francisco and Sonoma (also known as the hometown of Ben Flajnik, our dreamy Nadal look-alike Bachelor who turned out to be a MAJOR disappointment. sigh).
The trip there was pretty brutal, with Jie catching a 6 am flight from Washington DC and getting into SFO at 9 am. Mei had a slightly less punishing schedule, with her flight leaving JFK at 7:30. Thankfully the weather cooperated, and we were reunited at the foodcourt in the SFO airport.
The first day was spent driving from SFO to Sonoma. On the way, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge! SF was simply gorgeous that day.
It took about 1.5 hours to drive to Sonoma and we passed by some beautiful wineries along the way as we entered wine country. The house we rented was a 3-bedroom cottage right next to a stretch of vineyards with a backdrop of lush, rolling hills. I fet like I was living in Tuscany! The apartment was furnished with cozy, Pottery Barn-like furniture. The only odd thing was the abundance of fake plants in the house (they looked nice, though!). Below is the living room:
At night, we had dinner at a Portugese restaurant called LaSalette, which was right in the heart of downtown Sonoma. Jie and I were excited, because we passed by the village theater, which looked like the place Ben took his first date on the last season of the Bachelor!
The next morning, Jie and I took 2 bikes out from the garage of our house and ventured to go on a bike trail that was part of our guide book. The biking trail was supposed to take us 2 hours and go through 4 or 5 different wineries. Unfortunately, we realized there were no brakes on the handles after we started out! We resorted to a make-shift brake system by skidding our shoes on the ground whenever we had to stop. Our poor shoes!
Check out the beautiful vineyards! We could see stretches of these go on and on.
After visiting Homewood winery and going through a complimentary tasting (we bought a pinot noir in the process!), we rode on to Gundlach Bundschu winery, also known as the "Gun Bun". It was breathtaking riding into a long stretch of white path with vineyards on both sides. There was even a little pond next to the tasting room where visitors could picnic and enjoy the grounds.
We decided to head back as it was getting late, but wanted to find a shorter trail back, so Jie asked around and found a different trail going back to downtown Sonoma. Unbeknownst to us, it was a hilly path that required serious braking.. but since we hadn't figured out how to brake with our antique bikes, we ended up walking most of the way with the bikes. Jie tried to ride down part of the hill but essentially flew down the slope and crashed into the bushes. She ended up with a bunch of scratches on her knee =( Thankfully a passerby saw us trying to clean her wound and stepped in to do it for us (we have absolutely no experience with first aid!!). Jie not so happy in this pic =(
At night, we had a barbeque in our backyard and sat around the fire pit chatting. It felt kind of like being in girl scout camp! My favorite was the huge shitake mushrooms:
We also loved the abundance of juicy and cheap fruits at the farmers markets!!
At Viansa winery for the memorial day bbq
Then we went next door to Jacuzzi winery which also had an olive oil tasting room. This is the same owners as the people who invented the jacuzzi!
Jacuzzi was definitely one of the prettiest wineries of them all
Our donkey neighbors, Morgan and Dakota.
On the last day, we drove back to SF and the girls slowly left one by one. Mei stayed on for an extra day to explore SF!
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