Napa/Sonoma, Day 1

Our first day on vacation was, what Danny and I consider, a "travel day".  We hopped on a plane super early (5:33 am to be exact) on Thursday morning for the hour ride to Philadelphia and another plane for the five and half hour ride to San Francisco (delayed twice, I might add).  We were lucky enough to fly first class from Philly to San Fran...that's one perk to Danny travelling all the time, frequent flyer mile upgrades!!!  The San Fran airport was packed and we waited almost 45 minutes to get a rental car.  After finally getting the car, we hit the road toward Sonoma and made it a goal to go over the infamous Golden Gate Bridge.  

The Golden Gate Bridge

Candlestick Park, Skyline and a very funny car

 we saw in the city....

After our hour and a half trip north to Sonoma, we were ready to taste some wine.  Danny and I decided we would try to get two of our favorite wineries in that day, especially since we were running short on time.  It also, just-so-happened, that the two wineries actually shared a driveway, so that made it very convenient.  We started at J Vineyards and Winery, they produce one of my favorite sparkling wines.  Yummy!!  After our visit to J and a membership to their wine club, we headed to one of Danny's favorite wineries Rodney Strong Vineyards.  Danny loves their Cabernet but actually ended up buying their Meritage. This was exactly what Danny and I needed after a long day of travelling.  

J Vineyards and Winery

Rodney Strong Winery

Luckily we only had tastes of the wine because we had an hour drive back to our hotel.  We decided to take a detour and head straight through Sonoma to scope out our stops for the next day.  We also decided to try a restaurant that one of Danny's salesmen recommended.  We stopped at Cafe Citti for a casual dinner.  BEST. GNOCCHI. I'VE. EVER. HAD.  Seriously, this was one of the best meals I have ever tasted.  Everything was FRESH....the pasta, the gnocchi, the sauce, the heirloom tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella.....oh, and the balsamic vinegar tasted like pure heaven.  It must have been aged for a really long time.  YUM- O!!!  Danny had the lasagna and we could say the same thing about his meal....it was fantastic.  With our very full bellies, we headed to the hotel and I, being that it was 12:30 am eastern time, passed out!!!  I had to get my rest for the next very full day of wine tasting!!!