I'll raise my glass to that

I think it was a higher power that made it happen: 5 girls on 2 planes, arriving in San Francisco within 1 hour of each other, bypassing 80 people in the rental car line, driving over 1 hour on 3 different highways to Sonoma, arriving at 1 condo on the first try and having an amazing 4 days (courtesy of the 5 husbands and 7 kids who let us go).

One of my TCU girlfriends was on bed rest with her 2nd child about 8 months ago when she suggested we take a trip to wine country in October. With husband? I wasn't sure I could make it. Solo? YES.

We rented a great condo through VRBO in downtown Sonoma, just off the main square, for walk-ability (key in wine country). After our easier-than-imaginable arrival, we wandered to the square and stopped in the first tasting room we could find. We were thirsty. Turns out, it was Westwood and the wine was some of the best of our trip. The guy who was pouring couldn't have been nicer to us - we monopolized their cute little courtyard and he poured some great wine for us (and let us finish the bottle) that was leftover from a VIP tasting earlier.

He recommended Taste of the Himalayas for our first dinner and it was really great.

Friday was our Sonoma day. We arranged for a driver and, despite some poor breakfast management on our part, we started the day off well. (Wine has enough calories to tide you over till lunch, right?). Andrea wanted to visit Bella Vineyards and we repeatedly heard that it was one of her favorite places on earth. I would have to agree.

Sonoma is deceptively small on a map, when in reality we traveled from our condo in the southern-most part to Bella in the northern-most part. We were starving and scrapped our plans to visit Ferrari-Carano and Preston Vineyards and went straight to lunch.

There is a branch of Oakville Grocery in both Sonoma and Napa and a couple of us had been before. They have all kinds of delicious things, including some Black Truffle White Cheddar popcorn that we practically fought over. Enjoy a glass of wine on the terrace? Thanks, I think we will.

Then, it was a comedy of errors as we tried to find our way to an open vineyard that didn't require a reservation on the way home. We found ourselves at Russian Hill and the view made up for the wine.
We had our last tasting at Harvest Moon, which was a great, quaint, family-owned winery with very nice wines.

We had dinner Friday night at La Salette, which was a very tasty Mediterranean-Portuguese restaurant walking distance from our condo. I'm glad we all like to eat so much.

Saturday morning we corrected the error in our ways and had breakfast at Basque Boulangerie in the square. They have this crazy (and by crazy I mean crazy-delicious) dutch crunch roll that I've never seen anywhere else. We started earlier in Napa and we revised our schedule to minimize car time and maximize wine time. We started at Trefethen ... my friend, Shannon, and I have eerily similar taste and I knew she loved it, so we went! It did not disappoint.

All of us liked all of the wines and the staff was so friendly. Really, isn't this the life? Why aren't we moving here?

The lady at Trefethen got us a quick reserved tasting just down the street at Biale. They have great zins, one of which is the Black Chicken.

After two tastings, we rushed to our lunch reservation at Bouchon Bistro in Yountville. We had a fabulous (seriously, fabulous) lunch and had to practically roll out the door. The highlight for me was the Salmon Rillette that Tyler Florence said was one of the best things he ever ate. I'm with you, Tyler.

Too full for more wine, though? Never. We headed to Regusci Winery and again, the patio made up for the wine. And, we may or may not have charmed our way into free tastings.

After Regusci, we went just a hop skip and a jump to Clos du Val. We arrived with a rowdy tour bus and almost left until a nice lady took pity on us and couldn't stop pouring free wine. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (The Sonoma vs. Napa dynamics are very interesting, btw).

We ended our day at Domaine Carneros for some bubbly. Ill advised? Perhaps, but none the less supremely enjoyable in the moment. We hit almost everything on our "must-do" list except for a winery tour. Don't worry, we'll be back.

For some reason, after we got home we found ourselves drawn to Roche for their free tastings in the square in Sonoma. Their name might as well be You'll Regret This Later.

We followed this with dinner at Harvest Moon Cafe which was delicious, if not altogether memorable (geographical hazard). I seem to recall that we might have been the "noisy" table, but I hope it was the adorable kind of noisy and not the oh-my-god-look-at-them kind of noisy.

I survived driving in San Francisco and we even took the scenic route back over the Golden Gate Bridge, but found ourselves almost swallowed up in fog. It was a wonderful, passed-too-quickly, when-can-we-do-it-again, kind of trip. I think it was the first solo girls trip we have had since college that wasn't tied to a wedding or baby. Sadly, I doubt it will happen again much before 2013, but I'll be counting down the days ...