West Coast Road Trip: Day 2

Day 2 we woke up in Sonoma and wanted to get an early start, to make the most of our one full day in wine country!

We LOVE going out to breakfast, so we started the day in downtown Sonoma at the Sunflower Caffe.    This place was adorable - it was slightly cool that morning so we had the entire, very lime green back patio to ourselves. We both got toasts (his savory, mine sweet) that were delicious.

After that we headed off to our first vineyard of the day, Domaine Carneros.  Ant's cousins Sabrina and Keith had suggested this one to us.  They had enjoyed it on their visit to Napa, and we liked that they specialized in sparking wines, so it was a little different than the other vineyards we planned to visit!  This was the only vineyard we crossed into Napa for - it was located right on the main road connecting Sonoma and Napa.  We were a little early, so we wasted a few minutes driving down the back roads exploring the vineyards!

Domaine Carneros Chateau is absolutely stunning.  All of their tastings are done as table service (prices starting @ $30), so Ant and I got a table along the balcony and enjoyed the views while tasting a flight of their sparkling wine.  As we were chatting with our waiter, we mentioned that we typically enjoy reds, and he started telling us that Domaine Carneros specializes in sparkling wines and Pinot Noirs, which we hadn't realized!  He had us try a few of their Pinots, which we also loved.   

Their wine club was the most user friendly we had seen - so we signed up for their two bottle club.  They ship 6 times a year, so every other month we get two bottles sent!  You can choose each time before they ship whether you want red or sparkling, which works out great.  All winter we've been getting Pinot Noirs, and when our June order ships I'll switch it to sparkling for the summer!  It's the best of both worlds.  They also don't have a cancellation fee, as long as you get at least three shipments.  We're way past that, and don't intend to cancel anytime soon.  The bottles are slightly more expensive then what we buy on a regular trip to the package store, but I love taking the guesswork out of it!  I know the wine we're going to get is going to be good, and it's a nice reminder of our trip every 8 weeks :)  

Once we signed up for the club our waiter brought us a few more of their premium sparkling wines to try, and so we sat for awhile longer enjoying the weather and the view.  We spent way more time at Domaine Carneros than we had originally intended, but we didn't have any real plans until our 1pm Hanzell tour, so we just enjoyed relaxing there!

Driving up to Hanzell was a totally different experience!  We had to go back through downtown Sonoma, and then way up onto a hillside to get to the vineyard.  Their tours & tastings are not free - they have two versions, one that is $45 and one that is $65.  Each can hold up to six people, but we ended up having a private tour with just the two of us!  The tour took us down into the vineyard in a land rover, and our guide told us all about the history of the property and the vines.  

After the tour of the vines, we went down into their wine caves, and learned more about their wine making philosophy and their history.  The tour ended with a private tasting in their Heritage Winery.  Hanzell has so much history in Sonoma, and with it's location way up on the hill the views overlooking the town were incredible.  The wine was significantly more expensive then some of the other vineyards we had been to, but we bought a bottle of chardonnay home with us.  If you are looking for a unique and memorable experience while visiting Sonoma, I couldn't recommend Hanzell more highly!

Our last vineyard of the day was Benziger Family Winery.  Benziger has been a certified Biodynamic farm since 2000 and their Partners Wine Tour has been voted best winery tour in Sonoma multiple years, so Ant and I decided it was worth checking out!  Again, these tours are limited to 8 guests, but Ant and I ended up with another private tour!  The benefits of visiting on a Friday I would assume?

This tour gave us a behind the scenes look at their estate vineyard, including the wine caves.  The tour included a barrel tasting (which neither of us had done before!) and ended with a tasting of estate wines in the wine cave.  

Ant and I really enjoyed all three of our vineyard experiences on Friday.  Probably my favorite part was how we ended up seeing three very different vineyards, which VERY different types of visits & experiences at each!  We fell into each vineyard through recommendations/by accident, so I thought we were very lucky to have it work out as well as it did!

After our final wine tour, we headed back downtown to have dinner at Harvest Moon Cafe.  I wish I had pictures of it - they have a beautiful patio that they cover up so it can be used year round (it was still too cool for open air when we were there).  They have a highly personalized dinner menu that changes daily, so you are always getting the freshest ingredients!  We enjoyed our meal, then headed back to our place.  We had a VERY early start the next morning to get back to San Fran!

We absolutely LOVED Sonoma - good wine and good food, what's not to love?  Have you been?  What vineyards/wineries did you love?

xoxo

West Coast Road Trip: Day 1

Okay - so Cate is going to be giving you your fill of wedding planning details...and I'm going to go back and talk you through all the details of our West Coast Road Trip that we took last June!

I've been thinking about how to break up our trip on the blog, and I decided I'm going to do it by day.  That means there will be quite a few of them.....but I'm hoping that allows me to relive every delicious moment, and talk you through our plans... how they worked or changed along the way!  I'll also go back and do a planning post at some point, because we get a LOT of questions about our trip, asking how on earth we came up with the idea, and then planned it all!  and if I'm being honest, we had so much fun planning it, I could talk for days!

Day 1:  We found AMAZING flights out of Boston.  With our multi city flight - Boston to San Francisco, then Seattle to Boston, we were able to get nonstop flights for around $350 each.  No - not joking. $700 TOTAL got us to the west coast and home.  with no layovers! {!!!}

My sister was sweet enough to ride along at the crack of dawn to then drive Ant's car back to my parent's house, saving us the major $$ you have to cough up to park at the airport.  Our nonstop flight got us into San Francisco at about 12:30pm on Thursday, easy peasy.

Things we had planned in advance:  Pick up our rental car, drive to Sonoma, check into our airbnb.  That was the extent of our plans - we knew we would want to try to get to a vineyard or two, but hadn't picked any in particular - and we knew we wanted a good dinner after a long travel day.

Things we planned on the fly:  Pun TOTALLY intended here!  We literally took full advantage of wifi to start scoping out vineyards on the flight to San Francisco.  I started by google mapping the drive from the airport to our airbnb, and searched vineyards along the route.  Ram's Gate jumped out as the first vineyard you hit on the road to Sonoma.  I looked up their trip advisor (we live and die by TripAdvisor usually) and it had 4.5 stars - but required reservations!  So I emailed, from the plane, to see if they had anything available that afternoon.  I successfully made 2:00 reservations!  I then also researched Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Winery.  For both of those, reservations were NOT required, and tastings were free! {FREE!} - so we decided we would start at Ram's Gate and see how far we got.

The process of picking up our luggage, getting to the rental car center, and getting our rental car took longer than expected - so we ended up pushing our reservations back until 2:30.  We had thought ahead and packed a change of clothes in our carry ons so we had easy access to clean clothes, and changed in the garage at the rental center.  We hit the road and headed straight for Sonoma!

Ram's Gate Winery was right off the main road, you couldn't miss it!  We pulled up and checked in - they DO say reservations required, but that afternoon we were essentially the only people there, and the woman did comment that when they are that slow they will accept walk ins, so it's always worth a shot!  We did two different wine tastings, which allowed us to try the most variety and split a delicious cheese plate.

While we were there, we spent a lot of time chatting with the sommelier who was serving us.  We asked him for his recommendation for places to try - and with ZERO hesitation he said "Hanzell - but you probably needed to make reservations yesterday."  I immediately went outside and called to see if they had anything available, and was able to make reservations for early afternoon on Friday!

We enjoyed our wine at Ram's Gate, and decided to splurge on a bottle to bring home.  We then enjoyed the grounds a bit, and hit the road.  In retrospect, Ram's Gate was easily one of the more expensive vineyards we visited, and we probably wouldn't go back if we went back to Sonoma, knowing what we know now about some of the other vineyards....BUT!  We certainly enjoyed our visit there.

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards was literally just a few minutes down the road, so we stopped there next.  Jacuzzi was a very different set up - tastings are free and you stand at a tasting bar where there were quite a few servers working.  It was definitely busier, and a less personalized experience, but we enjoyed the wine and bought a bottle (or two) to take with us.  We quickly learned that this was going to become a dangerous trend of ours! :)  In the back on the grounds at Jacuzzi they were setting up for the most adorable wedding reception right in the middle of the vineyard!  I died.

We only had a day and a half in Sonoma, so we decided to push our luck when we left Jacuzzi and try to sneak in a final tasting at Cline Cellars.  Cline was similar in set up to Jacuzzi - free tasting at the bar, but they also offered an upgraded tasting for a fee.  Ant & I each did the free one, and split the upgraded one!  When in Rome, right?  The gentleman (I use the term loosely....he was barely 21) was an absolute sweetheart.  Grew up in Sonoma and knew the family who ran the vineyard, and just had the goofiest, friendliest personality!  We enjoyed our wine there and stayed until they closed up for the day.

At that point, we went and checked into our AirBnb.  What a start to the trip!  First - it had my favorite kind of check in.  The "key is under the mat no real check in necessary" kind.  Don't get me wrong, I love meeting new people which is one unique aspect of airbnb...but after a long day of travel it was exactly the quick and painless process we needed.

Once we unpacked we prepped for dinner, and headed off to downtown Sonoma.  We spent some time exploring the green before our dinner reservations.  I LOVED Sonoma.  I kept telling Ant it reminded me of our town at home...it was the Guilford of California, and in wine country!  Whats not to love.

We had made reservations at the girl and the fig, a restaurant that came recommended by a number of people.  Dinner was delicious, but the long day of flying and wine tasting caught up to us and by the time we were done eating I was falling asleep at the table!  We joked that we must have seemed like such stereotypical impatient New Englanders because we skipped dessert and quickly asked for the bill to get the heck out of there and back to our room!  Friday was our only full day in Sonoma, so we wanted to be able to get an early start the next morning.

Day 1 maps:
Day one was an easy driving day - I put some maps below so you can see what our route looked like!

Next up I'll be talking about Friday, our full day in Sonoma!  Have you been there before?  Did you love it as much as we did??

xoxo

other West Coast posts...
Renting a Car

World, Meet Franklin!

Ahhhh.  We are the Mascias, party of 3!!!!!

World, meet Franklin!  He is a 2 month old Cavalier mix - his official breed is a Cavapom but I call him a little ball of fluff :)  We brought him home on Monday night, so his homecoming date is February 23, 2015.  We knew we wanted a puppy, and had decided that we were going to wait until spring....but then we met Franklin!  He was "black & tan baby boy" at the pet store in town, and we fell in love...so we brought him home on one of the coldest nights of the year.  Franklin is named after two very important gentlemen - FDR & Benjamin Franklin!  We thought it was an appropriate name after our recent trips to Philly and Washington DC.  He is a little nugget and we are so in love.

This was our first family photo!

I just love his silly little face.

This is actually what most of the pictures I tried to take our first night with him looked like.... #puppyproblems

4 am snuggles with mommy (that bone stood NO chance)

and then some early morning snuggles with daddy.  my two boys :)

this is how Franklin likes to watch the Bachelor.  by napping.....

we get lots of extra snuggles today since mom got to stay home from work unexpectedly!!

I mean really....look at that face!

xoxo

6 Months as Mrs. Mascia

Happy Sunday!

Ant and I just got back from a long weekend in D.C. - we had SO much fun and I can't wait to share all the details of the trip with you!  But today - I just want to wish my handsome husband a Happy Anniversary.  We've been married for 6 months!!

I know, I know....it sounds silly, especially when you think about what 6 months means in the scheme of a lifetime.  BUT, I love any reason to celebrate - especially with this guy, and this is just as good a reason as any!  You're only a newlywed once ;)

He is my partner in crime, adventure, life and love...I am a lucky lucky girl.

xoxo

#Wifey Diaries: Mix and Match Mama

I told you my first #Wifey Diaries post would be about my crock pot....so now that you're all thoroughly excited...here we go!  This post is more specifically about Mix and Match Mama.  and how Mix and Match Mama makes me feel like a #SuperWifey.

Mix and Match Mama is the "foodie blog" of Shay Shull.  Shay is the sister of Sean Lowe {as in Sean from the Bachelor}.  I pretty regularly read both of her blogs, and recently Mix and Match Mama has become my favorite spot to go to for recipes, especially crock pot recipes!  They're sort of her thing.  Ant and I discovered the joys of crock pot cooking when we lived in our apartment but horribly underutilized it.  Since moving into our home, we have learned just how incredibly valuable it is!  There is NOTHING better than crock pot meals - especially in winter, which also happens to be one of my busiest times at work!  Crock pot meals are almost always comfort food...warm, and delicious and EASY.  Ahhh the easiness is unreal.  Even when I feel like I have zero minutes in my life, I can still find the 10 minutes it takes to prep the food for the crock pot, throw it in and hit start!  By the time we get home after a long day, dinner is ready.

She changed my life with this particular recipe for Sweet Corn Chili. {click the link for the full recipe!}  The shopping list was this:

Shopping List
1 pound of ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14 oz) can of creamed corn
1 (14 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Salt and Pepper
Sour cream and/or shredded cheese to garnish, optional

The first thing that stood out to me was that it was SIMPLE.  None of those ingredients looked at all complicated.  Ground turkey was a win for my *trying to eat healthy* husband.  I then decided to use her slogan "it's more about the method than the recipe" and ad lib it a bit.  I don't love onions, and I HATE jalapeños, so I skipped them entirely!  I stuck to ground turkey, chili powder, frozen corn and all of the canned goods! Talk about an insanely simple shopping list! {and if you know me and my grown woman grocery store temper tantrums, the more simple the list, the better}....I brought it all home, cooked it up....and had dinner waiting to surprise the hubs when he got home! and guess what?

It was amazing.  By far one of the best crock pot recipes we've made to date!  We eat it as chili...we eat it as tacos with sour cream and cheese added....we eat it as a nacho dip with tortilla chips...you name it, we've tried it!  It's good as dinner, it reheats well for lunch at work. It's a win/win/win.  

Yup.  That's right.  #SuperWifey speaking.

The same can be said about many of her other recipes as well - if I'm looking for something simple and delicious, 100% of the time I search her site first.  We had dinner with two other couples the other night, and I was bringing a side dish.  Something simple and delicious AND easy to transport?  Mix and Match Mama to the rescue!  I tried out her Mashed Potato Casserole.  I was able to do all the pre work at home, and when we got to our friends house I just threw it in the oven for 20 minutes and it was done! 

The thing I love about Shay is that she doesn't pretend to be too fancy or over the top.  Her recipes don't make me nervous about whether I'm going to screw them up or present them properly!  She uses disposable baking dishes for parties so clean up is easy, her dessert recipes often include boxed mixes as a starting point...she isn't worried about anything other than a delicious end result!  I may not have 3 kids, but my life is still pretty busy and it's nice to know that I can still feel like a wonderful hostess and wife without losing my mind in the kitchen! {besides, the reality of the situation is Ant is still a better cook than me....Shay just helps me hold my own!}

There are so many delicious recipes on her site, I occasionally browse to get an idea of what I might try next...I think this one is at the top of my list for next summer!

What sites are your go-to for recipes?? I'm always looking for new ones!  Do you have a favorite crock pot recipe?  Share, please!!  This girl will take all the help she can get :)

xoxo