Sonoma Valley

Our friends Caitlin and Wes now live in Santa Cruz. We have been meaning to meet up somewhere midway and yesterday we were supposed to meet them in Sonoma Valley. Unfortunately, they weren't feeling well, so Andrew, Stef (from Liverpool and the lab) and I drove to the Valley with very little idea of what to do there. First we stopped at the visitor's center and found out that on Easter Sunday a limited number of vineyards were open to visitors - eight of about a hundred. The visitor's center had a lovely garden in which we spent a few minutes; there was a tree dropping cotton-like seeds all around us, resembling snow.


We then went to the Sonoma town square. Apparently the mission, Mission San Francisco Solano, located in the town square, is the furthest north that the Mexican missions reached. It was founded in 1823. The settlers in this mission monitored the activities of the Russians at their settlement of Fort Ross. "The Fathers at this mission grew grapes and produced sacramental wine from the first vineyard in the Sonoma Valley."

Us at the first vineyard we visited...the Larson Family Vineyard:
Their grape vines were just getting going for the season:


We also visited an olive oil and a chocolate producer:
Finally, we went to the Cohn vineyard. We laughed that this vineyard was open on Easter Sunday, but he last laugh was on us. As we walked in the front door, we faced this (gold records and photos of a band). What band?
Well, Cohn was the band manager for the Doobie Brothers!



In all, we visited 4 vineyards, an olive oil producer, and a chocolates producer. We wandered around the Sonoma town square and drove through the hilly countryside. Quite a nice outing indeed.