Day 2 – A full day of wine tasting!

We decide to join a tour so we can truly enjoy a day of wine tasting without having to worry about driving. Wine tasting is no fun when only one person can truly indulge. We join Platypus tours which usually takes smaller groups and customizes the tour based on the group. Floyd, picks us up at the hotel at 10:30am and then it’s off to pick up two more people. We’ve completely lucked out, there are only going to be four of us on the tour for the day. Another plus of touring on a weekday. Turns out, the other two folks, Andy and Sarah, are a couple celebrating their 4 year anniversary.

The roads are winding, the van ride is bumpy and it turns out the Traveling Hillbilly is the only one on the tour who doesn’t have issues with getting car sick! Things start out pretty rough. For the first 30-40 minutes of the ride, it looked like it might get ugly and messy in the back of the van, but we stopped at our first winery before anyone tossed their cookies! Whew! The first stop, Alderbrook. The Traveling Hillbilly was disappointed in this winery as were the rest of the crew. We were all ready to head on to the next destination. We hopped in the van and headed off to Everett Ridge Winery. We all LOVED Everett Ridge. We got to sit outside with amazing views of the winery, while Ben, who has a true passion for the wines he serves, proceeded to allow us to sample at least 8 different wines! Floyd realizing we were all having a good time and might be staying for a while, stealthily disappeared only to reappear with a nice cheese tray for us to sample with our wines. We all loved Everett Ridge and each bought multiple bottles of wine! All in all it was an amazing place and Ben was key in making it a truly great experience! Thanks Ben!

Next up? We headed to De La Montanya for more tasting and a picnic lunch. While we were engrossed in our tasting, Floyd once again snuck away and started preparing a great little picnic lunch for us. We decided to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy with our lunch and all sat outside on this lovely spring day and indulged!

My friend and I really lucked out. Andy and Sarah were a really terrific couple and Floyd was pretty cool too. We all had a great time.

Next up, a cool little winery with a tasting room inside a cave, Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves. Here, thanks to Sarah’s inquisitive and outspoken nature, we actually got to sample some wine right out of the barrel. While we were checking the cave out, we stumbled upon a man, taking some wine out the barrels to test the taste. Sarah asked him what he was doing and when he told her he was do a taste test, she asked if we could try some too! He politely obliged the request and proceeded to tell us about their wine making process. Little did we know until later, he was actually one of the owners of the winery. Thanks Sarah for making this a little more unique experience for all of us!

The last stop, Raymond Burr Vineyards. Here we got to taste some wine, play with Lucy (a cute and hyper little pup) and have our picture taken holding Raymond’s Emmys. It was a fairly quick stop and the Traveling Hillbilly has to admit, after an afternoon of wine tasting, this last stop is a little fuzzy

Hotel Healdsburg – Day 1

We arrive at the hotel minutes before our spa appointments. We don’t even have time to check in. We pull up to the hotel and tell the valet we’re staying at the hotel, but will have to check in after our spa appointments. He kindly tells us he’ll take our luggage to the room and it will be waiting for us whenever we’re ready. First impression of The Hotel Healdsburg? What great service.

What about those spa appointments? All the Traveling Hillbilly can say is aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Second impression of the Hotel Healdsburg? What great service.

After a relaxing couple of hours at the spa, it’s time to officially check in to the hotel and get ready for dinner. The room is really large for a hotel room. The bathroom is the biggest the Traveling Hillbilly has ever seen in a hotel. The bathroom is probably the size of the Traveling Hillbilly’s guestroom!

We have reservations at the hotel restaurant, The Dry Creek Kitchen, a Charlie Palmer restaurant. The dinner was fabulous. The food was delicious, the wine was top notch (cheers to the Sommelier for a great reco) and the service was great. Third impression of the Hotel Healdsburg? What great service. Are y’all starting to see a pattern here? The Traveling Hillbilly highly recommends the Hotel Healdsburg.

P.S. You must try the Guiness Ice Cream. Yum! Yum! Yum!

Getting Arrested in Sonoma?

Turns out my friend is looking for a rental for the summer in the area, so next stop is a house on the potential list. We stop at this amazing house in the heart of Sonoma. We go inside and quickly try to disarm the alarm. Suddenly the alarm goes off and we panic assuming we’re sure to be arrested any moment. Luckily we get a hold of the owner and are able to disarm the alarm. Whhhheeeeewwwwwww! Close call. Time to get back on the road.

The second house was actually located on a vineyard and the Traveling Hillbilly considered it to be more of an estate than a house! It had absolutely stunning grounds with a little brook running through it. As you enter the main gait, there’s a “geese crossing” sign. The landscape was truly stunning.

My friend is going to have a tough decision choosing. Both houses were amazing.

Wine Tasting in Northern California

So the Traveling Hillbilly decides to meet up with a friend in San Francisco for a weekend of wine tasting up north. First on the list is a stop at Domain Caneros, a recommendation from a co-worker that has wonderful sparkling wines. It turns out to be a great recommendation. We sit outside on a fabulous sunny day and have a flight of delicious sparkling wines. The Traveling Hillbilly ponders if life can get any better!

Burlesque Show

As promised, here are the details on the Burlesque/Variety show we saw on New Year’s Eve. First, it was amazing; very entertaining and so funny. One of our favorite acts was “the hula hoop girl.” She came out acting stumbling drunk and then proceeded to hula hoop like we’d never seen. She was incredible! Next up, we saw an act that did the ultimate mash ups. They managed to squeeze in Justin Timberlake, Paula Abdul, Madonna, Wham and even Barry Manilow, without skipping a beat! It was truly incredible. We also saw a marvelous and laugh out loud funny ventriloquist! Now keep in mind this was all early in the evening, when we were still on our first cocktail. Plus the food was really good as well. I’m not sure this type of show is a regular event, but the Traveling Hillbilly highly recommends this as a totally unique experience on your next visit to London. Just go for dinner and stay and dance at the nightclub after. Check it out @ www.cafedeparis.com

New Year's Eve in London!

What a fabulous New Year’s Eve we had in London! How cool is it that the Traveling Hillbilly got to spend New Year’s Eve in London with friends from LA and San Fran, plus some new friends from London?! We spent it at a cool club/restaurant called Café de Paris. We had dinner, got to see a burlesque/variety show and then it turned into a night club after dinner and the show were over. We were worried about being able to stay up to ring in the New Year since we had to be there by 6:30pm. However, we had no problem partying until 3am! A truly great time was had by all.

However, some of my friends seem to be getting a rather late start today.

More details on the dinner and show later.

Theater Reviews

First up, Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey Jr. is great! Jude Law isn’t too bad. He would not have been the Traveling Hillbilly’s first choice for the role, but you can actually forget that it’s Jude Law at times. Rachel McAdams was not right for her role. She can be great, but she didn’t seem to be the appropriate choice for this role. However, all in all the film was fun and entertaining. The Traveling Hillbilly recommends.

Next up, Grease – Rizzo steals the show! The actress that plays Rizzo is an amazing performer and was by far the best thing about the whole show. The guy who played Danny was good, but the girl that played Sandy, not so good (she was the understudy). She was a terrific singer but she could not act or dance. However all in all, the show is fun and energetic. The music is great and makes you want to sing along. The Traveling Hillbilly recommends if you really want to see a musical and you’ve already seen the other popular musicals like Wicked, Mama Mia and Jersey Boys. If not, I’d recommend seeing one of those first.