Happy Birthday to me!  The day started off right with the high-end coffee that our hotel provides.  The family then got in the van to begin our full day of eating and wine tasting in Sonoma.

We began at a marketplace/winery called Viansa.  Frankly, the exterior grounds were more interesting than the marketplace.  It was too early to drink, and this place, as a winery, was not in the top 15.  We left quickly.  Because my wife didn’t have enough olive oil yesterday at the Oxbow, she requested that we go to Jacuzzi Winery, which also has the Olive Press.  The kids liked the architecture and the grounds.  Barbara bought olive oil.  Next stop was to Ferrer Vineyards, where there was supposed to be a decent champagne wine tour.  We took the tour, which turned out to not be all that great.  Still, the kids mostly enjoyed it.  I enjoyed the champagnes, but I really, really liked the now discontinued 2009 Merlot.  I bought one of the last 100 bottles.  By this time, it was time for our lunch reservation, so we headed into town and went to La Salette, a Portuguese restaurant.  The food was good, but not quite in the fantastic category.  Still, under $100, which was good for lunch.  After that, we headed back to the wine trail.  I had heard that Gundlach-Bundschu Winery had some fantastic views, so we went there.  We were not disappointed.  It is a pretty place.  The kids went hiking around the pond.  I tried wines and fell in love with a Spanish variety wine called Tempranilla.  It’s rare here, but apparently common in Spain.  I bought a bottle.  The next winery was also supposed to be pretty.  With a name like Buena Vista Winery, I sort of expected a view.  There wasn’t one, but it was indeed a pretty place.  I was served by a Czech wine steward and I was in a section alone with a German family from Frankfurt.  We had a great (wine induced) conversation.  It was very enjoyable – more so than the wine in this place.  Ravenswood also did not produce much memorable wine.  The kids wanted to get downtown so we stopped going to wineries and started hitting stores.  First stop was the Vella Cheese Company, a favorite of Barb’s and mine.  We bought a lot of cheese.  After that, we toured shops until our feet got sore, then rested in the central park for about an hour.  Our dinner reservation was still an hour away, but we were hungry so we decided to ask if we could arrive early.  We sure could, so we ate out back at “The Girl and The Fig,” our favorite restaurant the last time we were here.  Being that it was French food, you could expect it to be a bit expensive, and it was.  Even with no wine, the bill came to $200, but it was a pretty great meal.  The crème brulee for dessert was divine.