Hillside Inn Santa Rosa

... of scenery and hopefully some excitment! On Wednesday Rob and I are heading up the coast with his mum and dad and spending the nightin Mendocino. Then Thursday we're meeting up with Doug and Flick to camp in the Anderson Valley then Eugene, Portland, Idaho... before heading up to Vancouver to settle down and work out our lives...<br><br>New Adventure.. starts now.

Okay - blotto is a bit of a stretch but if I hadn&#8217;t dumped some of my $40-$125 wine between the barrels I would have been.<br>Del Dotto is a winery that we visited while bike touring in the Napa Valley last week. They have two locations which offer quite different but very worthwhile experiences. Without hesitation I would highly recommend their cave tour and barrel tasting - and ...

... of Euchure then called it a night. <br><br>Today and for the rest of the week I need to be packing and getting everything left on my car fixed. Should be fun.<br><br>Wine Buys:<br>1. Faille Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007<br>2. Faille Estate Syrah 2007<br>3. Chateau Montelena Estate C******nay 1995<br>4. Chateau Montelena Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005<br>5. Reverie Cabernet Franc 2006<br>6. Reverie Petit Verdot 2006<br><br><br><br>

So, time to drag my sorry **** up a small hill and work off all this wine. I still wasn't walking straight after Monday&#8217;s 10 miles but I figured that getting out would be like hiking-hair-of-the-dog. On the way out I got to talk to my brother to learn that combined intellect of the NHS and DWP were once again causing him no end of grief. Having decided to exercise my right to JSA after my redundancy I know how endlessly and mindlessly complicated that the ...

... A couple of wine tasting menus &#8211; did not mean a whole lot!<br><br>What I saw. A ****** churned up freeway leading to some beautiful back woods wine country.<br><br>What I watched. Other than some College (American) Football out of the corner of my eye &#8211; nothing. Let&#8217;s see if I can keep that TV off while I am here.<br><br>What I listened to. A load of eighties classics on the Sirius &#8211; loving that radio!

The drive from San Francisco to Wine country took us through Marin County, a nice area of hills and pine forests were we stopped to have lunch and watch the rain clouds roll in (first time in California since we have arrived). All accommodation in Napa seems to be boutique hotels at the vineyards, but being on the motel budget we decided to stay a bit further North of Napa and Sonoma in a city called Santa Rosa. The plan of action was to arrive there, book a tour of the vineyards ...

... freeway, it was the fuel cap falling off! I happen to notice about a mile down the road a warning on the dashboard advising the fuel cap was not fitted! I turned around and tried looking for it on the side on the road but had no luck. I did manage to find someone else old fuel cap and took that hoping it might fit. It didnt fit the car exactly, the warning light stayed on, but at least it was better ...

... mentioning, let's just say worst nights sleep yet topped off by the experience at Applebee's which Gareth tried to sell as an American Cobb 'n' Co (surely Cobb 'n' Co was not this bad). It's worth mentioning other purchases made, one skipping rope for cardio purposes and one pair of jandals (flip flops for you Brits reading this) as he'd left his pair behind in Vancouver. Bring on Napa!

... admit. also i went 2 ash and mel's party and we slide on the ice w/ our knee pads! all we did was run and land on our knees and we slide for like 10 ft. not even joking it was, so cool. practically the whole trip i wanted 2 look at ur blog because the day before u said u would enter pics latr, boy that was hard 2 wait 4! can't wait 2 tak 2 u again and ill enter pics as soon as i get them from molly! Luv ya ~CArly

... the Sacramento River. We are very grateful to Claudia for her good care and for her and Robin's mapping out our walk to Santa Rosa. It was a sunny and warm day, and we had a nice little picnic along the way. Just as we were about to approach a bike/recreation path, we were greeted by a woman on a bicycle. This turned out to be Margaret Eldred, our Davis host. She was concerned about our progress and was checking up on us. We agreed that due to the late start in Sacramento ...