Dry Creek Passport Weekend

Last weekend Brian and I met up with some of his college buddies and their prettier halves for a weekend of wine tasting and catching up at the Wine Growers of Dry Creek Valley Passport Weekend. This wildly popular Sonoma County event is only available through a lottery system. Lucky for us, we had friends who won the lottery! (Thanks Jay and Christine!)

With 45 wineries participating, two days simply wasn't enough time to indulge in all of the creative food pairings with well constructed wines. So, we did our best to make a small dent in our passports (11 wineries in two days - not too shabby...). Sadly, I came down with a nasty cold on Sunday but in hind sight, it was nice knowing we were abiding the rules of designating a driver.

Each winery offered a theme of their choosing: Sbragia mimicked an Italian open-market where you strolled from one stand to the next tasting wines and sampling foods. Mazzocco took us to the Middle East with belly dancers entertaining us as we sipped off the barrels. Delicious lamb, couscous and hummus accompanied their wines. Bella was a circus - literally. Their caves were transformed into a big tent. Face painters, clowns, acrobats, and of course, food and wine were abound. All in all, it was a spectacular weekend.

Our itinerary: Saturday Arrive Geyserville at 2pm - visit Yoakim Bridge, Dutcher Crossing, Ferrari-Carano, and Sbragia 5pm - meet the group at Santi for drinks (which turned into 5 hours of drinks and dinner, oh my!)

Sunday

Visit Armida, De LaMontanya (played a mean game of Bocce ball there!), Ridge, Mazzocco, Bella, Talty, and Rued (great people, great wines!) Dinner was sandwhiches and wine poolside at the hotel. Nice and relaxing. It was there we determined that approximately eight bottles were consumed between three people. Yikes!

Monday Breakfast at the Center Street Cafe in Healdsburg and then headed on home... We're hoping to win the lotto again next year so we can try out new wineries and enjoy more time catching up with old friends.

14 hours of fun

Last weekend we made our bi-annual trek to Sonoma/Napa with our friends Paul and Colette to pick up our beloved wine shipments (about 12 cases - not just for us, we promise!) from Carlisle Winery and Pride Wines. Whilst enjoying the view from the top of Pride's property, a woman suggested we stop by Pineridge for a taste. We savored every sip of their delicious wines before bidding farewell to the wine country.
Our next stop landed us in Sausalito at Cavallo Point. They transformed Fort Baker it into this swanky eco-friendly resort which houses a Michelin star rated restaurant, cooking school, and a spa. I hope to one day return for a long weekend of cooking, yoga, and fantastic dining! But for this particular adventure we stayed on the veranda for a beverage and bite at the Farley Bar, named after the late cartoonist Phil Frank's comic strip, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle for 32 years. The food was delicious (hellllooo, the main restaurant is Michelin rated...). The view of the golden gate bridge and famous city skyline in the background was breath taking. Even after all these years, those two sights still make my heart skip a beat.
As the sun began setting, we continued on to North Beach. Our first stop was at the newly re-opened San Francisco landmark, Washington Square Bar and Grill for second round of cocktails. The Washbag, as the locals affectionately call it, is nostalgic and cozy. It's a place I'd like to revisit and sample their menu.
With tummies growling, we waved goodbye to the salty dogs at the Washbag, and headed onward to Mona Lisa, a trendy restaurant in the heart of North Beach's Columbus Street. This touristy restaurant was random and eclectic; very North Beach-esque. Mmm,mmm the food was good; we managed to lick our plates clean (well, almost) and still find room for dessert - gelato, of course! Full and sleepy, we hopped back in the car and headed home.
Those were some fun 14 hours...
Here are some shots taken from Pride Winery.

Diapers and Gardening. Huh?

Spring has arrived and with that comes our annual gardening plan: deciding how many heirloom tomatoes to plant, finding the most optimal area of sunshine for the strawberries, building a trellis for the sugar snaps, finding plenty of space for precious basil and oregano, and so on.

So what does gardening have to do with diapers? Read on...

I recently read an inspiring article about a Mountain View, CA based company that provides a solution to reducing diapers in landfills by turning them into top soil for gardening.

Check out their website because it's not just diapers but also wipes and other baby-related goodies. And the best part - they deliver and pick up!

Still not convinced you should opt for environmentally friendly diapers? Here's some startling statistics: "In the Bay Area, more than 350 million diapers end up in a landfill each year, according to EarthBaby's calculations. A child who wears diapers until age 3 creates more than 1.15 tons of dirty diapers in his or her lifetime."

Do you know how much top soil that could produce? Happy gardening...

Gwendolyn Strong

My friend Ronda is friends with a couple whose daughter Gwendolyn was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy as an infant. SMA is most severe for infants.
Please take a moment to read through their blog and learn more about SMA. Click here to help cure this genetic killer!

Paso or Bust

Last weekend we gathered for a family outing in Paso Robles. Renting a house for 12 was no easy feat but Darla managed to find us a gorgeous ranch house filled with every amenity one could ever need or want! In fact, we ran out of time to ride the row boat in the lake or play a game of horse shoes so next year, we'll have to build that into the weekend. Wait! If building in time for horse shoes and boats infringes on wine tasting then forget it...we do have priorities!
We visited Linne Calodo, Hunt Cellars, Opolo, Four Vines, Denner, Justin, L'Aventure and Firestone for beers (What? There's no shame in variety!) I'm sure there were a few other wineries but after this weekend, it's hard to remember them all.