September in San Francisco - Part 2

So after our big first day in San Francisco, we needed some rest.  We slept in and got breakfast from the cutest little coffee shop around the corner from L.Rae's apartment, The Nook.  I wish I'd time to return ... everything on their menu looked amazing!  

After a delicious brunch, L.Rae's new boyfriend, Bruno, graciously drove us up to Sonoma for an afternoon of wine tasting.  It was just R. and I ... S.B.'s boyfriend returned from deployment Friday and flew down to see her in San Francisco! They stayed behind to see the city and spend some time together!  

We started our afternoon at Matanzas Creek Winery in Santa Rosa.  It was a gorgeous setting, with lots of lavender fields in front of the tasting room.  It smelled amazing and provided a good backdrop for photos! Their wine was really good but, our service was not.  It was very obvious from the beginning that the woman who did our tasting did not like us and she did absolutely nothing to make our wine tasting experience enjoyable.  I think one of the best parts of the tasting is interacting with the person doing the tasting ... they are so full of knowledge about the wines, winery, etc. and I always love learning about what I'm tasting.  We also didn't make any purchases because of her rudeness.  However, when we got home, we were happy to see that Trader Joe's carries Matanzas Creek wines!  

Bruno and L.Rae perusing the wine tasting book

L.Rae, R. and Me :)

The group outside of Matanzas!

Close-up!

Bruno and L.Rae in the lavender fields

And this is the after shot .... after the rock wall went tumbling and so did L.Rae :)

After our lavender field incident, we decided it would be best to leave ASAP.  So we headed to stop number two, Ledson Winery and Vineyards.  Talk about an even more gorgeous setting!  Ledson is a gorgeous castle with several different tasting bars and tasting rooms.

The vineyards

Grapes!

me and r.

At the tasting bar

L.Rae, me, R.

Loved this place!

And then we were on our way to winery #3 ... Gundlach Bundschu.  Of the three wineries we visited that afternoon, this was my favorite!  And, in case you are unsure how to pronounce their name ... try now:

Gun Lock Bun Shoe!

(Photo courtesy of their website)

I love it!  And felt much more confident talking about the winery once I knew how to pronounce their name!  We had such a great experience here ... the person doing our tasting was super friendly and knowledgeable, we got a free tasting because Bruno and R. have Visa Signature cards, and my favorite band had played their the summer before!  And they were setting up for a wedding and it was GORGEOUS.  Makes me want to get married at a winery!

L. Rae, me, R.

Ra Ra Riot

A little post-wine tasting, pre-dinner picnic!

And then we headed into Sonoma for dinner.  We had a little bit of time to kill before dinner, so we headed into Murphy's Pub.  If you've been following since last year, you may remember that we spent a fun night at Murphy's Pub when we went to Sonoma last year!  We went and had a toast to B. and J. who sadly weren't with us this year.

Dinner was at La Salette, a Portuguese restaurant that Bruno wanted to try.  Since he drove us around all afternoon, we thought the least we could do was let him pick the restaurant!  We had a delicious dinner ... starting with a traditional Portuguese dish of Bolinhos de Bacalhau (cod cakes) and then each trying something different for dinner.  Everything was delicious!

And then we headed back into San Francisco.  R. and I spent the rest of our night watching Louie and videos on YouTube :)  Saturday night is always exciting with us :)