california, day four: one last winery, coastal towns, pacific highway views

Sunday already. Our last full day of vacation. After breakfast again at the hotel, we checked out of Vintner's and drove over to Gary Farell Winery in Sonoma in the Russian River Valley. One of the people at the Robert Sinskey tasting recommended this place for the pinot, and we had read somewhere that they boasted beautiful views, so off we went.

But first, I had to bid adieu to the beautiful fountain at Vintner's Inn

Regrettably, we didn't enjoy the wines very much at Gary Farrell, although the accompanying cheeses were excellent and the view was pretty, so it was not all for naught. She did bring us one wine that wasn't on the menu that was really great. We were disappointed in the pinots and, like nice Minnesotans didn't say anything, although I think she got the impression that we weren't blown away. She even said herself that she thought a couple of the wines could have spent some more time aging to get a better flavor. In addition to the off-plan wine she let us sample, we thought the Zinfandel on the tasting menu was good.

Noseing a chardonnay

After a couple hours at this place, we had overheard her giving another table a lunch recommendation at a nearby town, so we decided to check it out ourselves. In a rather small wine town, we ate a wonderful lunch at a place called Willow Wood Cafe. We sat in their backyard patio and the weather and food were lovely.

Happy with his carnitas (I had a smoked trout watercress salad)

I really wanted to drive out to the coast and see the ocean and so we moved on west after lunch. In Bodega Bay, we stopped at a little coffeeshop which straddled the line of dilapidated and just shy of charming. Brett even read a sign for a meeting of concerned local people who decried the influence of "Big Wine" in their community.

There seemed to be gorgeous succulents everywhere we went!

The day was exceptionally windy (in San Francisco, too, and we later found out that they had shut down some or all except one of the runways at the airport due to 45 mph winds), that when we finally got out to a beach, the wind was whipping the sand so hard in our faces, that we only had time to explore the dunes and take a few pictures before the amount of sand in our eyes and hair was too much to bear.

local whimsical shop: Candy and Kites (a kid's dream store?)

Now we needed to make our way down to Palo Alto, which is even further south than San Francisco. We either stayed on the scenic route or get on a more direct road, and I voted for scenic which would give us all those amazing views on famous highway 1. It was interesting to pass through tiny coastal town after town after town which gave us little glimpses into a part of California I had never experienced before. At one point, we stopped at Stinson Beach to get out, but once again, the wind was insane, so we didn't stay out long. We did stop two other times while making steep and windy turns up the coast. By the time we got near to San Francisco and more lanes opened up, and we were back on "solid ground" so to speak, my queasiness and carsickness finally disappeared. I had forgotten how just a year ago we had driven on that highway (at a different point than where we started in Bodega Bay this time, and how sick I had felt). The views are so worth the carsickness, though!

Please indulge me as I posted rather a lot of pictures!

By the time we finally reached Palo Alto (where Brett had a meeting the next morning with a local company), we were really tired and hungry. After parking at a nearby parking garage, we braved the intense winds (seriously, it was so crazy how windy it was), dropped off our luggage in our room, and then we ate at nearby Pizzeria Delfina where we shared a pizza, a salad and, to cap it all off, strawberry creme fraiche and vanilla bean gelato.

Our hotel, Epiphany, was decorated in the mid-century modern style, and it was a fun place to stay.


This photo of The Epiphany, a Joie de Vivre Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Monday morning Brett dropped me off at a nearby Starbucks in Redwood City while he went to his meeting. Before we knew it, we were back at the behemoth that is the San Francisco airport, and on a jet headed home to our sweet girls.

Sipping coffee and working on a BSF lesson next to these beauties is really quite lovely.

A huge thanks to my parents for taking such good care of Stella and Grace. My mom actually broke her toe while we were gone! At bedtime, she was holding Grace and slammed her toe into the side of Stella's bed (my childhood bed at their house) and managed not to drop Grace in the process. The next morning she went to urgent care and an x-ray confirmed that she had indeed broken it! Poor Mom!

Since returning, Stella was up half the night with ear infection pain the night we got back, and Brett was up until midnight working on work stuff that night. Last night he worked late at home until after 11, and then tonight he stayed at work until 10:15 or so. We've said to each other a few times since our return, "Did we really just go on a trip?" We've come to realize that these trips are more about enjoying experiences and making memories rather than truly relaxing, but we feel so thankful for the opportunity to travel and for loving caretakers for Stella and Grace!

We truly enjoyed a magical time, and I told Brett that I had loved exploring yet another corner of the world with him. Although it takes so much work and preparation leading up to these trips, I know that they are worth it. Brett has such a busy and intense career, and I can get so worn down with the physical aspect of caring for children and running a household that merely getting a change of scenery is just what we needed.