Sean and I spent the weekend on a little getaway to Sonoma. Both of us had passed through there before but not spent any real time there. It’s cool to be able to drive just over an hour and really feel like you’re somewhere very different from the city.
I had some Marriott Points still available, so I used it to get us a free room at the Lodge at Sonoma. Although I’d planned it a while ago, coincidentally it turned out to happen right after the official closing on my house. With that financial stress gone, it was nice to go away to celebrate.
When we arrived late Friday afternoon, the front desk staff let us know they’d upgraded us to one of the cottage rooms, which was great because we had a larger space with a comfy sofa and fireplace in our room. Given the cool, dreary weather, the fireplace was a nice touch.
After getting settled, we went up to the town plaza (about a mile from our hotel) for dinner at The Red Grape. It was a cute, casual place with fantastic pizza and friendly service. We finished off by sharing one of the best bread puddings I think I’ve ever had. The funniest part was that we were tempted into it by the couple sitting next to us who ordered it first, then we had it, and the new folks sitting next to us were eying ours as if they were going to order it. I wonder how long the bread pudding chain lasted that night? We finished up with a walk around the square to do a bit of recon for the next day’s meals, then headed back to the hotel for the evening.
Saturday morning we wandered down the road away from town to the Schellville Grill for breakfast. It was so good we came back on Sunday. Not an ounce of pretension, delicious food, and lots of local character. Exactly what we love in restaurants. After that, we took a drive up to Jack London State Historic Park. It took a little longer to get there than we’d planned thanks to some GPS challenges but once we were there we enjoyed the semi-sunny morning and walks around the grounds to see Jack London’s grave and the ruins of the Wolf House, which was burned down before he even got to live in it. We went inside the House of Happy Walls to tour the museum section, then headed back down the road to town. Lots of photos here.
On our way back into town we stopped to sample some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chocolate, and cheese. Sean bought some of a delicious unpasteurized cheese from Oregon, and I couldn’t resist a bottle of the 20-year old balsamic. At the price, it’ll surely be saved for special occasions. Back in town we went to the Town Square and had a nice (if a bit chilly) al fresco lunch at LaSalette, a Portuguese restaurant. Afternoon was spent mostly vegging out (I read a book, Sean caught up on sleep from the previous week), then we eventually made it back to the town square for dinner at Murphy’s Pub.
Not much to report today but rain, rain, and more rain. After another breakfast at Schellville Grill, we spent most of the morning curled up on the couch watching movies (HBO had Definitely, Maybe on, which was actually above average for a rom-com. Not great, but not horrible, either.)