Day 7 - From Firepits to Fireplaces

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After 2 straight days of camping and a close encounter with a slug, we were very ready to get to Sonoma and more importantly, the Inn at Sonoma. We woke up early, packed up the tent and supplies, and headed out. We made one stop to drive through The Chandelier Tree (pretty cool and worth the $5) and then went straight on to Sonoma. The ride seemed to take forever but was well worth it once we got to our hotel. We stayed at the Inn at Sonoma, a great little place right off the plaza. Our room had it’s own gas fireplace, balcony, and best of all, a hot shower. The innkeeper must have been holding her breath as she showed us around the place because we both reeked of smoke and who knows what else.
We settled in, got cleaned up, and headed to a couple of vineyards. We first went to Ravenwood Vineyard but the line was too long and we only had an hour before the wineries closed, so we went to Bartholemew Park. Both places had a cat lounging around so I spent a minute petting them but I still miss Simba and Nala. Bartholemew Park was pretty empty and the woman who served us was very nice and informative. The winery focused mainly on reds, and they were pretty good but nothing to write home about (too late for that, huh?) We then went to Buena Vista. Our inn gave us coupons for either complimentary or two for one tastings, so it was a cheap afternoon. Buena Vista was ok, again nothing special but we both had our fair share of wine, and went back to the plaza for dinner. We ate at the Red Grape- very yummy pizza. We had a couple more glasses of wine and then for some reason thought it would be a good idea to get margaritas. After that we headed back to the inn, hit the rooftop hot tub, and then fell asleep watching Moulin Rouge. We were both very excited to have pillows to sleep on!

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Photos

Photo 1
driving through the chandelier tree

Photo 2
posing inside the tree.

Photo 3
closeup of grapes at a vineyard

Photo 4
mmm wine

Photo 5
Sonoma Plaza

Photo 9
Sonoma Plaza again

Photo 6
Inn at Sonoma

Photo 7
Afternoon wine and hors d'oeveres at the Inn

Photo 8
for some reason we thought margaritas were a good idea. Alas, they were not.