May 2017

The morning after Debbie retired from VMware, we began our travels by taking a car trip with Karen and Doug Perry into wine country. Our first stop was my favorite winery, Dry Creek Vineyards. We spent a good deal of time tasting their reds and eventually stocked up by buying 16 bottles and rejoining their wine club. We had been members before we had Chesirae but had let the membership slide. We are back and highly recommend their wines. As Karen said after tasting their 2014 45th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon, "Oh my God!"
After enjoying the fruits of the vine, we took the short drive back to Healdsburg for a delicious lunch of tapas at Bravas Bar de Tapas. Another "Oh my God!" selection. If you are in the vicinity, this little restaurant is a jewel, though hardly undiscovered. You needed reservations at lunch to get a table outside. Inside worked fine, however.
After lunch, we visited Amista Winery, also in Dry Creek; not that exciting though we all liked their dessert wine. We then drove to Clearlake for the evening. (See photos) The view from the Airbnb was magnificent and the sun set nicely over the lake and western hills to bring a lovely ending to the evening. At 4 a.m., an almost full orange moon set over the same hills, reflecting across the lake. While the sunset was pretty, the moon set was spectacular. Unfortunately, the picture I took did not turn out; iPhone cameras don't do night.
We took our time next morning, warming up with excellent coffee thanks to Karen, and collected ourselves to leave at 11 a.m. At the base of the lake, we stopped for brunch at The Spot in the small town of Clearlake. Very good food with outside seating that extended to the shoreline. Turned out to truly be "the spot."
We finished the trip by driving over the windy road to Calistoga, Doug taking the turns fast enough to make me a little queasy :-) Once on the Silverado Trail, we visited three wineries: Fairwinds Estate Winery where we bought an excellent Petite Sirah (which we were told is neither petite nor a Sirah), then Franklin Vineyards a beautiful setting, and finally Rombauer Vineyards. The last winery was where the picture of the flowers with the valley in the background was taken. A stunning setting and a great place to finish before driving home.