Days 94-98 (Wed-Sun): Sonoma Valley Vacation & Recovery

There are no new recipes in this post since I haven't cooked anything for the past 5 days!  But, I got some ideas and learned a lot about wine!  (To read more about this trip, see my page on What Inspires Me.)

The first thing I tried that I knew I had to write about was the pizza.  Traditional West Coast pizza is very different from our style of pizza.  Sure, you can order a plain cheese, pepperoni, or many other similar types of pies, but they won't taste as good, I imagine.  We did have a more "traditional" East Coast pizza one night, and it was sub-standard.  The dough was flat and not flavorful at all, the cheese was barely melted, and the marinara sauce tasted pretty awful.  So, my theory is, if you're on the West Coast and you want pizza, eat a traditional West Coast pizza!  This pizza had loads of toppings, that actually worked with the more "flatbread" style crust.  It was loaded with a ranch dressing-type sauce, pepperoni, bacon, chicken, mushroom, tomatoes, basil, red onions, mozzarella cheese, and I believe Jack cheese, and drizzled with barbeque sauce.  It was delicious!!!

This was Wednesday, Day 94, and a recipe I will be re-creating in my own kitchen sometime soon!  (We arrived in Sonoma Wednesday evening.  Most wineries and fine dining places there close between 5-6 pm.  We opted for a more casual dining experience, The Round Table, open until 11.  We had wine in our room that night!)

The Merlot was Randy's favorite selection from Chateau St. Jean.

Day 95 was filled with wine-tasting, driving, site-seeing and simply enjoying being husband and wife.  We had a very relaxing trip, and though I wrestled with the "ethics" of it--missing my children, wondering if I was being selfish, etc, I know how worth it it really was!  You need that time to just be husband and wife.  And sometimes the occasional "date night" isn't enough.  It's no secret that Randy and I have very busy lives at the moment.  How fortunate we are to have family close willing and able to help out in various ways.  More specifically, to have my parents live close enough to see our kids regularly and be willing to "keep" them for 4 days and 3 nights while we were on the other side of the country.

Rest is not only necessary, it's Biblical.  And it comes in many forms.  It's very hard for parents ("working" AND non) to come by rest.  I have such an energetic personality, have traveled a lot, and have many places I still want to see and things I want to do.  So it was difficult for me to keep this trip casual and restful.  While planning it, I had to work hard not to over-plan.  And while experiencing, yes, we gave up doing a few things that I would've liked to do because they may have been too much trouble to be worth it.  This trip was about rest.  Rest that comes from knowing your children are well taken care of (even though Abby refused to talk to me the 2 times I called her--she's 2.  Whatever.)  Rest that comes from knowing you are with your best friend in the whole world, you have forgotten all responsibilities, and can just do what you please when you please.  Even rest that comes from knowing that when the vacation is over, you are still with your best friend, have beautiful, well-behaved children, and almost everyday can feel like a vacation if you look at it the right way.  That is what we got--rest.  And it was wonderful.

Part of Chateau St. Jean

In a way, I was able to relate the idea of rest to a fine wine.  We learned a lot about wine while in Wine Country.  Our first stop was the Chateau St. Jean.  I know I've bought their wine here, before.  And it's good.  We had a nice tasting in their estate room and explored the grounds a little bit.
Our next stop was the Benziger Family Winery.  Here's where we learned the most.  We had a guided tour of their vineyards and farm and learned about the different types of grapes, what they need as far as sun, temperature, rain, etc, and how they are fermented (i.e. rested).  It is essential for the grape "juice" to just sit in barrels and just rest.  Anywhere from 3 months to 2 years before heading to bottle.  (By they way, these huge barrels we saw hundreds of--produce about 288 bottles each!  And selling for no less than $20 a bottle at a winery, that's a pretty hefty pay-day!  We also tried a taste of a $100 bottle of wine.  Yeah, it was that good.)  Without the resting period, the wine does not have that amazing effect (no, not drunkenness)--the one where it tickles your taste buds with only a whiff.  A wine-bound
grape needs rest in order to ferment and become what it's meant to become.  Just like we need rest in

order to be our best in the day-to-day.  Yeah, this may be cheesy, but c'mon, you know it's true!
After the Benziger Family Winery (where we also picnicked with wine and sandwiches and snacks from Whole Foods), we were given free vauchers to taste at their "sister" winery, the Imagery Family Estate.  How can you pass up free wine-tasting???  These wines can only be bought there, at the winery.  They were very good, also.  Our dinner that night was at Saddles Steakhouse, and it was excellent.  And that would be Day 95.

Day 96 consisted of a bit more tasting (Schug Winery and Robledo Family Winery) and then it was back to San Francisco.  The plan was to do a lot of site-seeing, but we only did some.  It was raining and cold and rather miserable.  Here's where that tough decision to not site-see came into play.  Randy is not a city-boy.  I feel like a city-girl at heart.  This trip was his gift, though, and I was fine just relaxing as much as he didn't want to be in the city one more minute, dripping wet.  We headed straight for our "airport" hotel and what?  That's right, rested.  Sure, we got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but what we didn't do is all the more reason to go back, right? :)  By the way, our dinner that night, was not good.  Yep, this was the pizza I was talking about earlier.  Oh well.  It happens.

Saturday we headed home.  Day 97 was filled with airport food, good stuff at the Atlanta airport!  Day 98, today, was recovery.  Grocery shopping before church, pastries for breakfast, mac & cheese for lunch, and Chinese food for Randy & my dinner.  Let the vacation continue, just one more night!  Tomorrow it's back to the grind, but we will be sure to remember to keep resting when we need it!  And yes, I can't wait to make dinners worthy enough to be paired with some of the wine we took home, and I'll be re-creating that pizza sooner rather than later, I think!  :)