Friday morning, we began our trip to Santa Rosa and Blake's wedding around 6:15 a.m. with the hope that the 530+ mile trip could be made in about 9 hours. No luck! In LA, the Mini showed that one tire was underinflated which required a brief stop and a quarter's worth of air (that used to be free!) and then, even on a Friday light traffic day we plunged into our first section of first gear only around LAX.
We took 101 up the coast, enjoying the occasional look at the ocean as we drove through Santa Barbara and SLO and onwards towards the Golden Gate. An accident before Salinas again required a long period of time in first gear (that's when you wish you had the automatic), but prior to that we hit our first winery (we needed a rest stop anyway) and began the first purchase of many for our wine 'cellar'. We also made a quick stop at Sheid's winery that was recommended by a frequent traveler of the 101 from work where we continued to fill the hatchback.
San Francisco was bright and clear and boats filled the bay as we drove over the Golden Gate. But soon after crossing, we hit the traffic from hell as those leaving the City early converged together and a fire along the highway in Petaluma contributed to force an hour or so of start-stop-start.
So, nearly twelve hours after we started we finally arrived at Vintner's Inn in Santa Rosa. The grounds were very pretty and nestled along side a vineyard. We had a great room that overlooked the vineyard and which was bathed in moonlight later that evening. We took a soak in the jacuzzi to relax after our journey and then went next door for a great dinner at John Ash's restaurant. And after the meal with a good bottle of wine the bed was magnificent.
With the wedding planned late Saturday afternoon, we had breakfast at the Inn and then took a road trip towards Guerneville and the Russian River, a family vacation spot of my youth. Great roads wove through canopies of trees while new vineyards and farms appeared at every corner. The Mini stuck to each curve.
Stopping at Alexander Valley, Murphy-Goode, Stryker, and Ferrari-Carano, we sampled reds primarily and continued to fill the 'trunk' in the Mini before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the tram ride to the wedding site. Three, San Francisco trolley style trams picked up the guests and drove us out to another winery/vineyard where, as we exited, we were given glasses of cold water/lemonade in the 90+ degree heat.
You can see numerous pictures from the wedding and our trip to the various wineries at snapfish. But the wedding was beautiful, the dinner delicious, and Carolyn and I tore up the dance floor again, so much so that we were getting comments (goods ones!) for the rest of the night and the next morning at brunch.
Sunday, we finished our winery tours with Seghesio and placed the last of our twenty-two bottles of wine in the car! This time, we drove down the 5, generally at 85 to 90 mph and the car performed flawlessly on its first road trip, and it only took about 8 and 1/2 hours for the return trip including dinner and a few gas/rest stops.
A very full and fun three days!!
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Ash, we've spoken with Sally about sailing some time, but it will need to wait until September as Dennis and Steve pulled the engine manifold yesterday and discovered a burnt valve. They spent about three hours dismantling a good portion of it on Sunday and Steve enlisted some of his friends to get it out of the boat tonight. So, we'll be slip sailing for the next few weeks before our trip to Rome, et al.
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