First off, to those that asked how the kids did being away from us for nine days (Friday afternoon through the next Sunday)…they did fine.  I guess occassionally they said they missed us, but they were getting attention and lots of cartoons.  They were happy to see us, of course, but it sounded like they had lots of fun.  This was the first time they had really been away from us for more than a day.  One thing with our kids is that they are pretty independent little urchins.   I think that if they weren’t with each other it would have been harder on them, but having each other to pick on kept at least part of their daily schedule.

Secondly, the lens worked great!  I really liked it for an overall lens and it took some great shots.  Sometimes the focus wasn’t very quick, though.  My biggest problem was the lens cap kept falling off and I think the lens is scratched now.  Good thing I bought the insurance on it, I guess.

Alrighty, on to wine country!

We went to Napa after leaving my cousin’s house on Monday morning.  We got the top down and took advantage of the convertible.  Very nice!  We stopped at V. Sattui winery, bought some wine and some food from their deli.  It was all very good.  Their property is just beautiful, too…so beautiful that this shot is SOOC.  I love this one. 🙂

 Then we headed over to Sonoma on this very, very windy road over a mountain in between the valleys. 

Then we made it to Sonoma, and checked into our B&B.  The one we stayed in for the first few days was less than impressive.  They only served a continental breakfast and the house was cold.   The location was the only really good thing about it, since you could walk to the plaza for the restaurants.  The plaza was very pretty.  They had ducks and geese there that we gave some of our day old bread…they seemed to be used to that.  These guys saw us and paddled right over us fully expecting to be fed.

Over the next few days we visited lots of wineries and bought lots of cases of wine (OUCH!):  Ledson, Chateau St. Jean, Papapietro, Rochioli, Bella, Hop Kiln, Korbel, and Gary Farrel.   Our favorite was the old vine zinfandels from Ledson.  If you have never been to wine country before, most of the wineries have tasting fees of $5 to $15 depending on the quality and amount of wines available for tasting.  We got a lot of the wine tastings for free or at least extra wines poured for tasting…we must have looked like buyers. 😉  Or they just figured if they got us tipsy we would buy…how right they were!

In case you want to visit the area, we really like The Gables bed and breakfast.  The road by it was a little noisy, so go for the rooms in the back of the house.  Great breakfast, hospitality and very pretty historic house.  We had dinners at Lococo’s and Willi’s Wine Bar in downtown Santa Rosa, which were very good.  We had dinner at Saddles in Sonoma, and the steak was very good there, too.

Tomorrow, the big redwoods…very, very cool.  🙂