Sonoma Stay

Mrs. de-I and I liked up in San Francisco International. It was a long a rainy drive up Marin County and on to Sonoma. We spent the night in Santa Rosa, then went on to our destination. I had work on Saturday. Wife went off a-photo-ing. We caught up in the late afternoon. She took me for a ride over the coastal hills and on to the coast.

Mrs. de-I Photo-ing the Coast from the Standing Position
Yes it is as cold as she looks.

And Now from the Sitting Position

An Attempt to Catch Wave Action

An Attempt to Catch a Sunset

On Sunday we went down the Russian River for more photo shooting the went to Armstrong State Park, a redwood forest, for some hiking. We had a nice 3.2 mile hike with a 500 foot, steep climb included. Boy, I was so glad for the exercise after a week on the road. My body was muy happy.

Mrs. de-I Tromping through the Redwoods
It was quite cool in the forest

After climbing the hill we were stripping off layers

A Redwood

Next it was off to a winery. Heck we were in wine country and we had been told this particular winery, Iron Horse in Sebastopol was the best combination of both wine and view. So we did some tasting and I bought a half a case. And the view was classic wine country stuff. The weather was perfect too.

We hadn't had a lot of luck with our dinners during this trip but our last stop was at a place in Sebastopol called Alice's Restaurant. We had a great meal. I had crab cakes up front with confit of lamb as a main course. My crispy duck skin children would have died for this dish. It was accompanied by mash potatoes that were excellent. It is very, very rare for me to say that! Most of the time potatoes are relatively insipid. Finally there was deep fried spinach as a side dish. Never had it before. Don't know how it's done. It's like having spinach chips. We have had excellent wine through out (buy local) and tonight was the same, an Atascadero Creek Syrah. For dessert was a creme brulee with just a touch of ground walnuts in the sugar crust. Magnifique! We met the chef/owner who did a wonderful job of damage control with a table where one of her waitresses had screwed up the order. Turns out she was also the owner of the cottage we had rented for the weekend.

My Duck
This photo does no justice to the bright green deep fried spinach

Scene from the Kitchen of the Cottage

The Breakfast Nook of the Kitchen

The Living Room