Lori prepared a breakfast of eggs and bacon which we had purchased at the Palace Market in town the night before. Our vacation rental home was perfectly situated just outside the main street area, so we were able to walk to the market.

The morning view from the back deck of our rental home in Point Reyes Station, CA

After breakfast we got ready for our trip through Sonoma County, intending to stop at several wineries for tastings and to pick up some bottles of wine to have each night during the rest of our stay.

Our trip started with about an hour drive over scenic country roads, through Novato and towards Viansa Winery, the first stop on our trip. At Viansa, Lori ordered a $5 flight of their standard vintages, and I went for the $10 flight of their reserve wines. I was a big fan of their special reserve Merlot which was only for sale right there at the winery. We ended up purchasing one bottle to have that night with dinner.

Statue in the garden at the Viansa Winery Surrounding landscape at the Viansa Winery

Next, we drove up the road to Gundlach Bundschu winery. Here, we both had the same flight of wines for about $5 each. Lori really liked their Gewurztraminer which was a drier than usual rendition. We ended up purchasing a bottle of that for the next night.

Sadly, we didn’t get to ride in the Pinzgauer at Gundlach Bundschu
One of the caves at Gundlach Bundschu
Classic Gundlach Bundschu bottles prove this is one of the oldest wineries in the region.

We then headed up the road a bit further into Kenwood to visit the Kenwood Vinyards Winery. Since there were over 26 wines to choose from, we decided to each get a $10 flight, but share the tastings so we could taste as many as possible. Again, I really liked a couple of the Merlots and Lori liked their Gewurztraminer. We landed in between with a bubbly rose which we decided would make a good celebratory bottle for our last night here.

The Tasting Room at Kenwood Vineyards

After Kenwood, we decided to take a break from tasting and have some lunch so we headed over to the Chateau St. Jean winery which was just a mile or two up the road. Lori had picked this vineyard because it was described as “just like being in France.” Neither of us have been to France (yet) so we couldn’t really tell if they pulled it off, but we did feel as if we had been transported to a different land. We passed through a beautiful garden area and took many photos before heading to the cafe for some lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich, some cheese and crackers and a bottle of Chardonnay to share. We just relaxed and enjoyed the food and scenery for the next hour or two. We walked around the garden area again before hitting the road back to Point Reyes Station, about an hour and twenty minute drive which wound through Santa Rosa and Petaluma.

Lunch and the administration buildings at Chateau St Jean

Back at home base, we took another short walk to the market to get steaks and a big yam to share for dinner. Lori also got some ingredients to make apple muffins using the apples in the yard of the house. We weren’t really hungry yet, so we lounged around the house for a few hours before starting supper. This turned out to be a bad idea, though, because the yam was so big it took way too long to cook. We ended up having our wine and steaks around 8:30 PM. That translated to 10:30 PM Iowa time, so Lori was very tired by then.

After Lori retired for the night, I stayed up a little longer to research the route for our next day’s trip to Muir Woods National Monument before heading to bed myself. The exact location of Muir Woods seemed to be an Internet mystery, as both Google Maps and the official park Web sites gave two different sets of directions. This spelled out bad news for the next day. . .