Sonoma (Day 1)

We spent the day at four wineries. First stop...a tour at Ravens Wood! We pulled in thinking that we were the only ones, but luckily for Paul, we weren't. The man that we first met was a joke-ster and even gave us a "complimentary" taste before the tour started. They took us out into the vineyards and gave us a sampling from 5 unfiltered wines right out of the barrels.

Next stop was Gundlach Bundschu and one of my favorites. We were told that they are the last remaining winery in Sonoma that is still owned by the original family. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures there.

We then headed off to Cline Cellars. They had beautiful gardens and cheap wines, but a rather uncomfortably warm tasting room.

Paul really wanted us to have a picture with the vines in the background.
The last stop for today was Gloria Ferrar, who is known for their sparkling wine. We decided to stop along their drive and take pictures of the grapes.

They had really pretty flowers on all the tables. Our sparkling wine came with Spanish almonds which had a great spicy kick to them!

Napa (for an afternoon)

Saturday morning, Paul and I decided to take a Winetasting 101 class at the COPIA instituite in Napa. Unfortunately, we arrived at 10:17 and were not allowed to join the 10:15 class. Instead, we went to use the restroom and afterwards picked up a map of the wineries in the area. The nice gentleman at the information booth said we could try the Modavi winery and take a tour. So we did! Turns out that we learned quite a bit of information on the tour. It was meant to be!

We stopped for lunch at a place that my in-laws recommended.

San Fran

Paul and I just returned from our One Year Anniversary trip to San Fran and Sonoma. Here are some pictures of the S.F. portion of the trip...

At the Boudin sourdough bakery they make bread in different animal shapes that are amazing!

Looking down Lombard St.

Alcatraz

This was something Paul wanted to see, which I hadn't known about. There were HUNDREDS of sea lions near one of the piers.

More fun with Layne

Yes, I know, it's sad. I spend all my time lately posting silly videos of our "fur" baby, Layne. But for now he's all we have. Right now he's having fun with my father-in-law's German Shepard, Lucy. Hopefully both of them survive until Tuesday!

Here's a video of poor Layne trying to bury his bone. Unfortunately, our home doesn't have a place for him to bury it inside, so he has to use his puppy bed.



This following one is of Layne being a "good boy" for a bone.



Lastly, Layne is whimpering in desperation while searching for a place to bury his bone! Oh the humanity!!

The fun we have...

Paul has the exciting job of trimming Layne's claws. I've attached a video to show how well it usually goes.

My first visit with Nora

I went to visit my dear friend, Kerri, and her family today. I brought along two other friends, Liza and Becky. Nora was born 2 weeks ago and this is our first visit with her. She's a beautiful little girl and she is lucky to be born into a wonderful family!

Her is Liza, along with her daughter Natalie, holding Nora.

Becky was next to hold her.

A close up of the little one.

I finally got to hold her too...after a feeding.

I couldn't resist the chance of taking a shot of her face.

(Valerie and) I heart DMB

Every year the Dave Matthews Band comes to town right around my birthday. Every year my best friend, Valerie, takes me to the Dave concert. This year we got lucky. Our seats were at about the 10th row and we had a blast!! Here are some photos!

He's playing two saxophones at the same time!!