Girls' Trip to Wine Country...Day 2...

 I woke up the next morning still completely stuffed from our dinner the night prior.  It was also the day that our house went live on the market.  There was definitely some anxiety, but Ken was at home managing all of the house stuff.  I went for a run around the house that we rented.  It was beautiful and full of vineyards.  

It was a foggy, crisp morning

Our VRBO was next to a lot of private vineyards that were not open to the public

We had breakfast and then the girls had a surprise for me.  They had hired a private driver to take us around to wineries all day!  It ended up being such a fun day with so much laughter!

MacRostie was our first stop of the day.  It was still pretty chilly out and I love how the fog is still in the vines.

Such a great start to our day tasting Chardonnays and Pinots.

After wine tasting, we drove into Healdsburg for a little lunch out on a patio.  We had reservations at Bravas, a tapas restaurant, complete with Sangria.

Bravas was quite delicious and the patio was very cozy, yet COVID friendly.

After enjoying Sangria, our driver took us to VML/Truett Hurst Vineyard, which Ken and I visited back in July.  The outdoor area by the creek is beautiful, which is why we included this location.  

Ready for some creekside wine!

Sparkling wine for four, please!

Creekside selfie!

We had Adirondack chairs next to the creek.  We sat there and laughed and laughed.  We enjoyed it so much that we considered canceling our next reservation and spending the rest of the afternoon by the creek, but we ultimately decided to stick to our original plan.  VML was so nice.  

Clearly, we were having fun and it is a good thing we had a driver!

We left VML and drove to Trattore Farms.  With it being a Thursday, we were the only people at the winery and had the place to ourselves.  

On the way to Trattore Farms, there was a lot of talk about me driving our massive SUV across the Golden Gate Bridge.  So when we stopped at Trattore Farms, our driver whipped the car around so that I could pose with the car to celebrate my proud moment.  

I may titrate lifesaving drips all day on patients that are critically ill, but my proudest moment in October was driving this car across the Golden Gate.

Our fun continued at Trattore Farms.  We had charcuterie and rose, two of my favorite things.  

Trattore Farms

Trattore Farms

My favorite picture from our trip.  We were having so much fun.  I am sure it had nothing to do with all of the wine!

Besties cruising back to the VRBO.

The girls got some props for us to use during the day.  Sadly, we did not bust them out until we were on our way to some dive spot for dinner.

I will spare you the video I have that goes with the picture.

There might be a video that goes along with this one as well.

I will spare you the videos of Michelle and me singing Mariah Carey's Hero while we were in the car.  They are quite funny but just too much for the internet.  We ended the night with a lot of laughs and Mexican food.  It was such an amazing day.

Girls' Trip to Wine Country...Day 1...

 Back in October my friends and I ventured off to California's Wine Country for a girls' trip.  It was also an early celebration birthday trip for me.  

COVID-19 flying.  I wore one of my N95's for extra safety.  The plane was definitely busier than when Ken and I flew back in July.

It had been about 18 years since Jill had gotten to see the Golden Gate Bridge, so our first order of business was to get the rental car and head straight to the bridge.  Yours truly was driving the rental car from the airport to our VRBO.  Lord help us all.

Once again, it was a beautiful blue sky day in San Francisco.  

Ready for some shenanigans!  

So, driving around San Francisco is really not that fun.  Especially when you are driving around in a ginormous SUV.  I always stay in the center lane in unfamiliar areas, so imagine my surprise when the lane ended due to construction and I was in the "fast" lane in a construction zone with barricaded walls and no wiggle room.  There was definitely a moment where I was panicking and basically told the girls that it was in God's hands at this point.  Luckily, the guy driving next to us realized that we had no idea what we were doing and slowed down, let us over, and stayed far away from us.  Thank goodness our rental had Louisiana plates so people could easily see we were out of towners!

We made it to Sonoma County where Jill treated us all to a delicious lunch at Taco Bell.  We were pressed for time to get to our first wine tasting and enjoyed Taco Bell in the car.  We all joked that we love it when our mom buys us Taco Bell.  

Our first stop was Iron Horse Vineyards.  Since I am a wine member, I was able to treat the girls to a complimentary tasting.  I was so excited to share my favorite winery with fellow sparkling wine lovers.

Enjoying one of my favorites, Harvest Moon

The girls were loving the tasting!

Iron Horse Vineyards

These grapes will soon become yummy wine!

We loved our stop at Iron Horse!  We were so fortunate that the wild fires were contained so we could enjoy our time outside.

We left with everyone ordering wine to ship home and some wine for our upcoming dinner at our VRBO.  As a birthday gift, Ken hired a private chef to cook us a multiple course dinner.  It was one of the sweetest gifts I have ever received.  The girls and I loved it.

Once we arrived at our VRBO in Hopland, the chef and her server immediately started pouring us wine to join on our deck.  The sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful.

The view from our VRBO.  The sunset was beautiful.

Watching the beautiful sunset and so excited about our dinner!

The chef arrived at the house prior to us and started getting everything prepped.  Ken and I selected the menu with Chef Bree.  I was so excited about tasting her different creations.

The menu that was selected especially for us.  Happy Birthday to me!

Everything about the dinner was perfect.  The table was decorated for Fall and we had delicious homemade bread to start.

The first course was duck rillette with fig jam and sourdough crackers.  This ended up being my favorite.  I had to make myself stop eating it so that I could save room for other courses!

Up next was salt cod gnocchi.  It was absolutely delicious.

The main course was sea bass.  I sent this picture to Ken and he was instantly jealous of this delicious fish.  The sauce and the chestnuts were so good!

For dessert, we had chocolate fondant with salted carmel cream sauce.  It was rich and delicious.  I ate every single bite!

Because I had such a hard time deciding between a chocolate and pumpkin dessert, Bree surprised me and added a pumpkin parfait to the menu.  It was so light and amazing.  

This one was skeptical about all of the different food but ended up loving it.

Having a private chef was definitely a highlight of the trip.  I am so grateful that Ken was so thoughtful and did this for us girls.  We all went to bed extremely full.  It was a great way to start our girls' trip!

Thanksgiving 2020...

 We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving again this year with our dear friends, Rob and Michelle.  The plan is always to order food from Hy-Vee and lots of time with doggies playing.  This year there we had four dogs running around!

Lotti and Kya, our little turkeys.  I am not sure that they realize how much they have to be thankful for.

Kya was less than amused to hear that Rob and Michelle also have a puppy.  This was also Kya's first time at Aunt Michelle's without her bestie Charlee.  Sadly, Charlee crossed the Rainbow Bridge in the Fall.

Dottie and Louie ready for some action.

Dottie and Lotti will be besties for sure.  These two flat out wore each other out on Thanksgiving!

Another set of besties that cause trouble when together.

The sign of a great Thanksgiving:  Passed out before 7:00 pm!

Thank you Rob and Michelle for hosting us again this year!