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!