Wine Country!

One of my most favorite places of all time..the Napa/Sonoma Valley. We headed up to wine country for a wedding for one of Jim's college buddies over the 4th of July week. We decided to make a little vacation out of it and man..I think we'll be filing that decision away in our box of better life decisions.   Wine country never disappoints. Sprawling vineyards, green rolling hills and sunny skies. Oh and yes, the wine. How could I not mention the wine?? It's certainly Disneyland for wine lovers. You may not find Mickey or Minnie or overly made up Princesses. Oh no, here you will find spunky little Chardonnay with her oaky yet fruity flavor and Peppy little Pinot Grigio with her light and way too easy to drink ways and Mr. Pinot Noir who is sauve and smooth and oh so flavorful.

And as lovely as the wine is, I believe the food in this region is just as lovely. Lots of farm to table restaurants with meals that are extremely fresh and flavorful. Oh, how I could gush endlessly about this place.

We met up with our friends Lindsey and Jake and attended a wine tour one day. It was definitely a blast and a highlight of the trip. We were taken to mainly family owned wineries which was really neat. So great to support the local wine makers and purchase wine that isn't widely available.

We were given a tour of one of the wineries which was very interesting. The bottling plant was really neat!

The following pic was at our third stop on the wine tour. We were feeling pretty good at this point as you may be able to tell.

After the last stop on our wine tour we rode our little "party bus" back to our hotel where our fabulous tour guide asked for some music requests. Something that I'm sure she'll never do again on her future wine tours...because Jim swiftly requested Tupac and sure enough our tour guide obliged. The four of us were loving it but I'll never forget the horrified looks on some of the other couples on the tour..one of them  had her hands over her ears. Clearly their taste in music is lacking. You count on us to keep it classy in Napa.

Another highlight was a drive down to Bodega Bay...where we were much better behaved.

It's interesting how some salty air and ocean waves will instantly relax and ground you. We sat together in the sand for a while and had a meaningful conversation about life and our hopes and dreams. Life gets busy and we often forget to have those deeper conversations like where we're headed and what we both want out of our life together. I think it's oh so important to do this from time to time.... Hit the pause button on life for a moment and sit back and reflect. It was a meaningful moment, one that I will cherish. I am beyond thankful for what we have together.

Hope you have a great weekend!
XO