Off to Mendocino

We got up bright and early (again! yay!!) thanks to the awkward sleeping arrangements at my parents’ house and my kids’ colds.  But that meant I had time to work out before saying bye to the littles and setting off to Mendocino with my main squeeze.  🙂

Starbucks in hand and whatever music we wanted…wooohoooo.

On the way up we saw quite a bit of devastation in Sonoma county, but not as much as I know there is in total.

First stop was in Geyserville at the Geyserville Grille for brunch (we had a reservation and me and my sisters all arrived within 5 minutes of each other even though we didn’t even caravan!). I got the eggs benedict and crushed the whole plate.  Oof.  Probably should not have licked the plate clean, because I had a long day ahead of me.  Why do I do this to myself???

Barely an hour later we stopped at Roederer Estate for some sparkling wine.   We hadn’t planned on going there, but we were ahead of schedule (we had a 1 pm reservation at Phillips Hill next door) so why not?!

We had gotten a few recommendations from a wine maker from the Anderson Valley area so we had plenty of options, and bubbles sounded great after a big breakfast.

Beautiful.

Sisters pic!  Happy Birthday Laura!

Once we hit the bottom of the bottle we hightailed it over to Phillips Hill.

Check us out looking all kidless and stuff.

I don’t know where the bobsled pics are from this tasting, but it’s probably for the best that they stay off the internet.

I liked several of the wines we tasted here, especially the Tempranillo.

Our last, and definitely not least, appointment was at Goldeneye.

All the more reason to drink!

My sister and her husband are Goldeneye club members, but had never been to the winery (since it’s pretty remote in the Anderson Valley), which is kinda what prompted this whole trip and location choice.

They are known for their pinot noirs, which is one of my favorite wines so I felt glad that I was drinking some awesome stuff.  I don’t consider myself a wine snob by any stretch but after my girls’ wine trip to Amador over the summer I realized I have a specific palate.  Goldeneyes wines were SO GOOD.  Even things I don’t usually like, like Chardonnay, were super refreshing and drinkable.

The scenery at Goldeneye is gorgeous.  We lucked out that the weather was as perfect of a Fall day as you could want, sunny, clear, and a crisp 70 degrees.

So we sat outside soaking up the day.

They gave us some nibbles, too.

Group pic.

We wanted to get to our hotel in time for the sunset, so we headed off around 4ish and braved the very windy roads to the Heritage House.  FYI, Kyle was sober and driving this whole time, just in case you were wondering.  He and I split tastings but he really had next to nothing.  We are both very serious about drinking and driving.

The resort was overlooking the ocean and super picturesque.   Their rooms were all along the coast, but my sister’s view was definitely the best.

It was starting to get stormy in the distance, but no rain for us yet (it was scheduled to hit hard that night and continue all through the next day though).

 

We reconvened at the hotel bar and I made some bad decisions and switched to hard alcohol.  On the left is my lemon drop and on the right is my French 75.  It’s hard to look at these photos now because of how TERRIBLE I felt the next day.

We hung out for a couple of hours at the bar until our dinner reservation.  We had done a bunch of research, naturally, and the hotel’s restaurant was supposed to be pretty top notch, so that was one of the main reasons we stayed there and made reservations that night.   Unfortunately their produce truck never came that day and as a result they were serving the BAR MENU.  For dinner.  We were all totally heart broken because the bar menu was basically 4 options, including things like quesadillas.   Considering half of us are intolerant of dairy this was a big deal.  We tried to stay upbeat, but there were no ubers around at all (the perks and pitfalls of being so remote) and we were all too drunk to drive, so we were stuck.

Burgers all around?  One of my sisters doesn’t eat red meat, so she asked to add chicken to a meh salad and made do with that, but I’m being nice when I tell you it was a disappointment.  I took the bun off my burger to make it gf and demolished the fries first and foremost, but the pinot noir was probably the high point of the meal.

But really, I should have stopped drinking LONGGGGG before that.  Because I went to bed with the spins and you all know how that ends…

I wish we could have had more time to take advantage of the hotel and all it’s luxe amenities.  It’s hard to be bummed about jetting off so early the next morning when we were going to something as fun as the Niners game, but to be real, I wanted to sleep in and get room service and just chill.  Not in the cards though.  Instead, I woke up with the worst hangover I’ve ever had in the past decade (not saying much, but it was really bad) and we then got to drive FOUR+ HOURS (remember those remote winding roads?) in the pouring rain to Levi’s Stadium.  In holiday traffic.  While trying not to puke.  Full disclosure, Kyle was doing all the driving.  I was horizontal in the passenger seat praying for the end of my headache, stomach ache, and nausea…and cursing my stupidity at the same time.  Seriously.  Elise.  WTF.  But enough of that.  Sunday was alright once I regained consciousness – at around 3 pm.

First and only (!!) meal of the day…pulled pork nachos without the cheese and coleslaw on top.

After the game, we drove BACK to the East Bay to get the kids at my parents’ house.  Then we drove back to Davis.  I think we covered half of California in one day and I’m not exaggerating.  That amount of driving should get your to San Diego at least!  Oof.  Not the best way to start off the week but it’s pretty lame to complain (the way I am) about doing too many fun things.  After the kids were in bed, I started a ton of laundry, took a long shower, and had a kombucha.  That alone almost made life normal again.  THANK GOODNESS my parents had the kids all day and fed them dinner before we drove home!  Gave me a fighting chance come Monday morning.