Wine, scenery and gorgeousness!

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Geo: 37.7792, -122.42

We awoke to another dull, misty San Francisco summer morning. However, having been informed by the concierge that the weather forecast in wine country was set to be more like the California sunshine we had come to expect, we hopped out of bed and readied ourselves for an exciting and fun day ahead! Leftover pizza made a delightfully healthy breakfast and we were soon picked up by our driver and off on our way.
After meeting our travel companions, (a group of former high school cheerleaders in their sixties and a family from New York), we were soon hurtling over the Golden Gate Bridge, as red in the flesh as it appears in the movies. There was no time to stop, and even if we had, the view if San Francisco was shrouded in low lying cloud, and would have made for dull, lifeless pictures anyway.
We wound our way along highway 101 as it curled around the mountains en route to our first destination. Most people go on the road to reach their destination. However, this road, for so many pilgrims of the modern world, is the destination itself. It stretches all along the California coast, right down to the southern states. On this particular stretch of road, steep ravines plunge down to one side, while the mountain rears up in the other. There is no barrier, so we were all watching the drop with a slight unease. However, our driver managed to deposit us safely in one piece to Muir Woods, the location for the tallest and oldest Californian Coastal redwoods.
We decided to take the short hike of around one mile, and expected to have our breath taken away by these giants of nature towering in the canopy above us. However, for all of their majesty, we couldn't help but feel disappointed that this seemed that this was just a woodland walk, ten a penny in England. That being said, the trees themselves were remarkable, we just had to remember to keep looking up in order to appreciate the scale of the place and to recognise the significance of these 500 year old trees being the heritage and history that the US so craves. We also enjoyed the company of some frisky little chipmunks, who really were the stars of the show!
Soon, it was time to leave and to make our way to the highlight of the day - Sonoma and the Napa Valley for our vineyard visits and wine tasting. Well, what can I say? The wines were fairly delicious and dangerously easy on the palate! Now, I'm not a wine buff, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have always been partial to a smooth Marlborough Sauvignon blanc. I have always shunned the Californian White wines as cheap, and dislike Chardonnay. Well, clearly Gallo have been hiding the decent wines behind their rather mediocre facade for years, these whites were crisp, smooth, light, airy, everything you could want in a white wine. And finally I found a red which was smooth and light and, well, like a white! Even the Californian bubbles were dry and airy enough to give the champagne region a run for their money. We informed the sommelier that it was our anniversary trip and were given some of the finest bubbles. A toast followed and the ice was broken, our fellow samplers were all delightful company and we enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know more about the real USA (and having some of our illusions shattered - did you know that they don't all sing and dance down the corridors in American high schools?
Sonoma is a devastatingly beautiful area. Acres of vineyards and fields lie in the foreground, backed by the Sierra Nevada mountains, undulating across the horizon behind. Acres upon acres of meticulously neat rows of vines, create a patchwork quilt across the landscape. Add to this the cornflower blue sky with the sunshine beating down and it's a pretty difficult picture to beat. Especially having come from the dull cloud of the bay, we could not have loved the place any more!
For lunch, we stopped off at the town that gives the area its name - Sonoma square. If I thought that San Francisco was a ready made movie set, then Sonoma square was something else entirely. This square was almost a replica of Marty McFly's Hill Valley, minus the clock tower and flaming tyre tracks. A square of grass, with the town hall standing in one corner, is surrounded by low rise buildings straight out of the past, each building contains wine merchants, rustic art shops and wooden fronted clothes shops, all jostling for space with the restaurants selling traditional American fayre from around the country. You could have Tex Mex in one shop, BBQ in another, easy coast pizza in another. Although each cuisine was clearly rooted in the history and culture of another country, over time these great cuisines have been embraced, adapted and perfected by the Americans, and salmons square was a show case for this tradition. I truly was a apical place to spend an hour, we ordered a beef taco to go and say in the grassy square, taking in the fabulously retro surroundings as we basked in the Californian sun.
After lunch, we visited two more wineries, including an interesting chocolate shot of wine (a chocolate shell cup filled to the brim with sweet red wine). We were instructed to drink a third of the wine, before putting the whole cup into your mouth and letting the dark chocolate flavours mingle with the notes in the red wine and swallowing it all down together. It was an interesting experience, but not one that I would particularly relish having again - it was like a novel liquor chocolate, which I have never been a huge fan if!
The aim of the day was to learn more about the different grapes used in the Californian wines, to be able to pick out the more subtle notes and flavours of the wines and to have a few drinks, try new things and be a little bit merrier by the end of the trip than at the beginning, and I have to say, with around 6 tastings in each venue, we managed to achieve all of our objectives (Mr Ofsted would be pleased!) and after a long, but interesting day, we had one final stop to make.
After the weather we had left behind in the mkrnng, I did not hold out much hood that the final stop would be a success. We were taken high jo into one of the hills surrounding San Francisco, which was immediately to the front of the Golden Gate Bridge. In our absence, it appeared that the fig had finally lifted and San Francisco was free to bathe in the gorgeous sunshine that we had been experiencing, so, from out vantage point, we were able to take in the imposing and statuesque bridge, the red tones coming to life in the sunshine, with the bay and the city stretching out behind it. It was truly a picture postcard view, and one which I shall cherish for a long time. The city, a higgeldy piggeldy jumble of buildings appears to shine and sparkle under the blue sky, dotted with clouds, and this white, blue and red contrast made the image come alive.
On arrival back at the hotel, we asked for a recommendation for dinner and were pointed tin the direction of a Mexican restaurant, which was packed to the brim with locals and tourists sitting side by side and drinking in the buzzing atmosphere. Waiters and waitresses whisked across the floor delivering hot and fiery dishes to each table. Water was filed and instantly topped up when it became even half empty. A plate of nachos and a variety of chilli dips was brought to the table as an appetiser and the main courses themselves were a delicious blend of crunchy, spicy and tangy and packed with flavour.
After our meal, and our slightly fuzzy heads from earlier in the day, we deiced to call it a night knowing that we had an early start for our next days adventure -collecting our hire car and making our way to the incredible natural beauty of Yosemite National Park.

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