A Bright Sunny Sunday

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A Bright Sunny Sunday

Dorothy and I jumped in our rented navy blue Honda Civic (an upgrade according to our rental agent from Bulgaria) on Sunday morning to find "the Plaza". This was where we going to find the action in Sonoma, and breakfast. Even though we had a full kitchen in our rental house we were on vacation and wanted to have someone wait on us. Plus, we got in so late Saturday evening we did not have an ounce of breakfast food in the house. We found the tree filled plaza quickly because it was just three blocks down from "Furnished on First", our rental house. We settled on a quaint restaurant that had outdoor seating right in front of the building and the menu looked good so we sat down. We sat next to each other facing "the Plaza" so we could look out at the sites of the town and watch the many tourists stroll by.

While at the restaurant, I asked the server about the best vineyard to visit while in town. I told her that Dorothy like white wine, "could we find white wine around here"? Crane, our Napa Valley "friend" from the train told us that we would most likely only find bold reds here in Sonoma County. Not true, our server. There is a vineyard just about 20 minutes from Sonoma that has fabulous Chardonnay. That's all we needed to hear. "Chardonnay" That's white, right? (I'm not sure if I've ever tasted that wine before 😊 )

So we set off. According to our servers directions it was just down highway 12 going towards highway 37. Okay, sounds easy enough, even though last night we came into town in complete blackness because it was 1:00 a.m. After a 20 minute drive out of Sonoma, we stopped at a vineyard called Madonna (only one white, mostly reds - not going to do), she gave us directions again. No, it is back in Sonoma, head this way than that way at a stop sign. Okay, sounds easy enough again. We drove through Sonoma all the way to the other end of town without finding the street we needed to turn on.

I'm not sure if it was just me and Dorothy, in our frustrated state, but we have decided that California (at least Northern California) does not mark their highways properly. Often you will see only a street name with no highway number attached, so you spend a lot of time looking at the map and stopping to ask for directions. Regardless, it was not easy to find the vineyard. We did finally find the vineyard.

We saw this very large, beautiful European style building set a top a hill. We saw the sign. It's the right name (Viasa - something like that... ), this must be it. We both looked at each other smiling. Oh, this place is beautiful. We drove up the palatial driveway surrounded by potted flowers and grapevines in full bloom. After one-and-a-half hours of driving in an area about 20 miles in diameter, we had found the coveted vineyard with the "white" wine. The heavens had opened and angels began to sing... thank God, I was tired of asking for directions.

We spent the next couple hours sampling wines (Dorothy only had the whites) and snacking on cheese and crustinis while overlooking a rollercoaster-like hillside. What a relaxing way to spend a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

After a rest back at our rental house, we decided to try an Italian restaurant on the Plaza. More wine and food led to an early evening for turning in. It had been a good day.

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