Spring Break Part 2 - Electric Boogaloo

The second leg of our Spring Break journey brought us to Sonoma and the heart of wine country. The drive from San Luis to Sonoma was trecherous - mostly Oakland and this bizarre stretch of traffic that seemed to be caused by a Sunday-only flea market in some middle-of-nowhere town along the 210. Our arrival brought the realization that our quaint inn was in a not-so-quaint neighborhood and was likely only serving as temporary home to 3 other guests. However, the Sonoma Creek Inn had nice rooms (documented by the dozen or so pictures Amanda took of the room at various angles) and we even had a fountain on the patio. Amanda stayed in the room for a nap as I ventured out with a long-time friend who drove out from ______ to go taste some wines in a local tasting room. The wine I had was really unique. Somewhat carbonated with a malty taste - even a sense of hops. OK, so the tasting room turned us away saying they were closed although it was 30 minutes before the time displayed on the window. After 2 pints of Smithwicks and some garlic fries I made my way back to the room and left shortly thereafter for the dinner at the Rutheford Grill in nearby Napa. The dinner was noisy but tasty as the patio with gimongous fireplace was the highlight.

Our first full day in Sonoma brought us to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park for some hiking. It was a bit awkward since there were no rangers to be found and only one other couple in sight. However, we took of on our adventure and quickly found ourselves face-to-face with some very dangerous wild animals. We stood still in the distance hoping to avoid being spotted. We were not so lucky. I did get this picture before the attack:

OK, so it wasn't that bad. That, my friends, is a wild turkey.

Here are some other pictures from the hike:



I was very impressed with my wife seeing that she got to the top of these huge rocks with what seemed like great ease. After climbing up myself I discovered that the other side was about 5 feet from the ground. I climbed the tough part again later just to prove my masculinity.

One of the hikes that they offered was a trail that they called the "planet walk" in which they created a trail that was a scale model of the solar system. The idea was that you would realize just how much empty space there is in the solar system. Each step accounted for 1 million miles. You quickly got from the sun to earth in about 500 feet and Mars in another 1000 feet or so. We made it to Jupiter and Saturn no problem, but were quickly running out of time, so we stopped short of the next planet. However, for your viewing pleasure, here is... wait for it...

... the bridge to Uranus.

This was a really nice park, but the lack of other people combined with tall brush and narrow trails and the big watch out for mountain lion signs brought our hiking day to an end.

I'll continue later with some wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma. I know you're all intrigued.