Inn at Sonoma

... of expired deer. It was a awesome and gory site. Then we enter the Calistoga Ranch, impeccably groomed grounds and smiling faces greet us. We feel like celebrities. April directs us to not touch our luggage as the valet takes care of everything.

They whisk us up the hill to the bar in a golf cart with great plastic door with spring-loaded doors. The ...

... the boys were ready and waiting to unload. In the process of unloading Wendy checked the passenger footwell when collecting her bag and surprisingly found the sat nav window bracket.... it must have fell out of her bag at the car rental and dropped under the seat!!

We all met up in the bar at 8pm and headed off for the evening to a few bars and then a Chinese restaurant to have a very filling meal. Angie had come to life, but tiredness had caught ...

Mena and I hit many of the Sonoma State Beaches. The first one we came to was Bodega Dunes. As we pulled in we came across a deer standing next to the roadway eating. It was exciting to be able to get so close to a wild deer. This beach also had a very ricety walkway that was in serious need of repair. I also enjoyed watching the snowy plovers running back and forth along the beach, trying to escape the incoming waves. As expected, most of the beaches were empty at this time of day.

... good but some of them are, well, so-so or poor. Just goes to show you do not need to pay a fortune for a bottle of wine. You either like the taste or don't. After lunch we headed down to the Schug Carneros Estate SW of Sonoma. We mainly went there because of the name. In Scotland, anyone called Hugh is automatically called Shug. No idea why. Anyways, another tasting in Schugs and we bought a bottle of Roige De ...

... into the wine which is one way different years can have different flavours. We really liked the final dessert Red we tried (Loxton Late Harvest) and so bought a bottle of that, $24. As we bought a bottle there was no wine tasting fee. The next visit was the Kunde Estate. The Kunde is a slightly larger business who does ship nationally and some also does go international. We got a tour ...

... you don't belong. On the outskirts is a winery named St. Francis. This has been my favorite wine since 2004 when I first tasted it. My first taste of the wine was the 2002 C******nay which had a heavy oak flavory (yes flavory) with a buttery finish.....needless to say I fell in love. Ever since then I have been trying to find a wine that has that same pop. I had to find out the story from ...

Only have a few minutes as we're running out of the hostel but just wanted to tell everyone that San Fran ROCKS! We made it in time for critical mass yesterday and it was unreal. Best intro to a city ever - guided tour with over a thousand other cyclist friends as we peddled over 30 K around town for hours having a blast. So much fun, a beautiful city, and the people so ...

... the Xray machines to get through to Terminal B. We are like sands in an hourglass, pushing our way through the chaos just so that we can make our connecting flight. There is absolutely no courtesy at this airport whatsoever. Cutting is just what everybody does, so hey, as they say... when in Rome Milan... With a little pushing and shoving, Deo and I made it through. Thank God the line to get into Terminal C is not as bad! Whew! We finally made our connecting flight. More ...

... that wobbly street today...Lombard i think its called, it wasnt as steep as we thought it was going to be, but having said that EVERY street in SF is rediculously steep. You get some serious thigh exercise here! we went shopping again today as ive given up on ever seeing my bag again.I think the best thats going to happen is they'll send it back to the UK...eventually...when they can be *****! so ive bought yet ...

... what to think of it all, other than that our history seems to be one of a few fortunate and/or talented people doing incredibly great things and incredibly bad things at the same time,. That I live in a time and a place where I can wander around the world pretty much at will looking at all of it makes me a very lucky person indeed. Such peaceful times are uncommon, both in the past and presumably in the future. Even more awe inspiring is my fortune ...