Wine Country Vacation

We are back from vacation and back from La Crosse (to pick up Sadie)! Whew! It's always nice to take a vacation but when you get back I find it is hard to get back in the groove of things! Anyways....I will try my best to sum up our vacation so I don't create a novel. I will include a few pics but go here: http://theliesters.shutterfly.com/ to see the entire album. We took almost 150 pics so I figured it was probably a good idea to not have them all on here! So yes, our vacation was Sept 12 through the 16th. I would say the perfect amount of time to enjoy vacation but just long enough because I was starting to miss Owen (I think Tom was too) Oh, and one quick sidenote, THANK YOU SO MUCH to my mom and the Kubats for taking such good care of Owen. We OWE YOU BIG TIME!!
Here is a quick summary of what we did:
Day 1: We arrived in San Francisco. We basically picked up our rental car here and then took off north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito for lunch. This is a really cute little city along the bay with cute shops etc. We enjoyed lunch at a cafe here. The picture is a view of Sausalito.
We then took off to Muir Woods which has all of the huge Redwood trees. Quite amazing! We then drove to Petaluma which is north about 40 miles where we stayed for 2 nights.
Day 2: In the morning, we decided to take a little drive along the national seashore to Point Reyes Lighthouse. It took almost an hour but it was a pretty drive. The lighthouse feels like it is in the middle of nowhere. Did I also mention you have to walk on 308 stairs to get to it?? Going down was MUCH easier than going up! Nonetheless, the ocean was beautiful.

Later on we toured a few wineries. We had lunch at Viansa Winery and Italian Marketplace. This was probably one of the most gorgeous ones. It had a great view and was just really pretty. The food was delicious too! We had wood fired pizza that they make right outside on the patio.



The rest of the day was just spent relaxing and eating Sonoma County cuisine at the restaurant attached to our hotel.
Day 3: Another day of touring vineyards and even a little wine tasting! This time we headed north to Santa Rosa (18 miles north of Petaluma) and checked out some wineries in that area. They were all quite gorgeous and unique in their own way. The first was called Ledson Winery & Vineyard and looked like a large castle:


The second was Chateau St. Jean and this one had a gorgeous courtyard garden.


The 3rd winery was Matanzas Creek Winery. This one was unique because it also grows lavender. The lavender smell was amazing! The picture below is of the lavender fields.

That late afternoon we checked in to our hotel and then relaxed some more before we headed to the Vineyard Creek Spa that is part of the hotel we stayed at. We got a couples massage and Tom loved it. It was his first massage and I have a feeling it won't be his last now!
Day 4: We headed back to San Fran and did a little touring there. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and checked out Pier 39 where all of the seals hang out.

They were quite entertaining to watch while they fought for spots to sun bathe. We also checked out the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. This was very pretty! Oh and last but not least, we checked out Alamo Square. It's a nice little park but more importantly, it has the houses that you see in the beginning credits of Full House..ha ha.

Day 5 was spent waiting to fly back home!
Overall, it was a great, relaxing vacation. Something we really needed! I think we will go back again. Now, go check out all of the pictures!