California - Day 1

Our flight to California left at 6:30AM, so we were up and on our way at o dark thirty.....It's amazing how empty the check in area was in ATL at 5:30AM...so needless to say we had a little time to grab something to eat before our flight.  Or at least we should have, but most of the food locations are not open until 6:00AM....fortunately we found an au bon pain open and were able to grab bagels and coffee (for me) and orange juice (for James).  We flew into Oakland, but had a layover in Salt Lake City.  While waiting for our flight (and again for food - we wanted lunch that wasn't served until 10:30AM) James took pictures of the view from the airport.  Not too bad if you ask me.

Once we claimed our bags in Oakland (around 1:00 PM pacific) we headed to the rental car.  We had reserved the car online through Costco (GREAT savings) and decided to just get a compact car.  Well, the last compact car on the lot had been taken through the ringer...I filled the entire page when identifying dents, etc.  We also noticed the hubcap was going to fall off, so we requested a different car.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) there were no other compact cars on the lot.   The employee pointed to a Dodge Charger and said take that.  Ok, but will there be a price difference?  Nope....sweet, we'll take it.  We loaded our stuff in the car and headed on our way up to the Russian River Valley as we had a tasting at J Winery, our favorite place and the only wine club we belonged to (at the time).  A shot of our drive north.

We arrived at J Winery a little before 3:00.  Just in time for a full tasting (FREE for club members).  We enjoyed bubbly, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, some more than others.  We met a local couple who also gave us suggestions for places to go in our next 2 days.  We followed up on a couple, good and bad...A couple shots from our tasting and outside the Winery.  (we look well rested, right?!?)

After leaving J, we were on our way to check in at the Applewood Inn.  We were only staying one night (because the place we wanted to stay was only available for 2 nights), but we had found a decent deal.  This deal included lodging for the night, $100 credit for dinner, champagne upon arrival and breakfast.  Driving to the Inn was pretty and reminded us of driving through the south of France. (Sorry that some of the pictures are blurry....we were driving and had someone behind us....)

 

My chauffeur for the weekend

 

A funny story....On our drive to Applewood Inn, we passed the sign for Corbel.  I jokingly mentioned that I hoped our chilled Champagne on arrival better not be Corbel or I might be inclined to pour it down the drain (we had been drinking J Bubbly, which I think is pretty damn good).  Well funny enough, we get to our room and there is a bottle of Corbel chillin'....needless to say we didn't drink it that night. 

 

Another funny story....I started reading through the information in our room and stumbled upon this page....note the No Smoking policy.  

After resting for about 30 minutes, we showered and went to dinner.  We had a lovely dinner.  Food was good, not overly impressive, but good.  James had a great appetizer and our meals were okay.  Our server though left a bit to be desired.  He was not informative or attentive.  I was salivating listening to another server describe the entrees to the table next to us and wished he had been our server because I would have changed my order.  With our check came 4 chocolate truffles....James said they were way better than his dessert and taunted me with their deliciousness (is that a word).  (Remember I had given up chocolate for lent already).  After dinner it was off to dreamland...we'd been up for almost 24 hours.

Day 2 post to come.....