Wine Country

We finally took a vacation without having to fly somewhere! It was fun exploring places close to home that we hadn't been to before or it had been a very long time ago! We swapped our time share for a nice spa resort in Sonoma. The only thing we used close to the spa was the pool and exercise room! We had a cute cottage with a fire place and roses and wisteria all around.



Here was our home for a week! We beat the crowds by traveling in April and even had great weather!
One of the beautiful wineries we visited. This was one of my favorites - a very old stone building with gorgeous grounds and picnic areas.
We found an area outside of town with incredible houses. This one was one of the most modest but my favorite!
This is the Ledson winery. The inside was beautiful too!
We took day trips to St. Helena, Windsor, Healdsburg, Calistoga, Napa, Geyserville and here in Santa Rosa at Luther Burbank's home and gardens.
One day we rented bicycles and went 12 miles on the back roads, stopping at wineries if you chose. It was lots of fun and so pretty!

We had 18th row tickets for the 50th anniversary game of the Giant's. We went to Fisherman's Wharf first and got a seafood salad and fresh French bread at the bakery and enjoyed it at the game!
The banker that gave us the tickets invited us their suite which offered a beautiful view!

It was nice to have great weather, even if the Giant's ended up losing.
We realized we both had always wanted to take a hot balloon ride so decided it was the perfect time to do it! We got picked up at our hotel at 6 am and taken to the take off site. I wasn't scared until I saw the size of the balloon and had to climb into the basket!
We watched the sunrise and floated for an hour over beautiful estates and vineyards. We were amazed at how quiet and peaceful it was! We saw other balloons flying near us. This is our shadow on the hills!
After a perfect landing, we were treated to a delicious champagne brunch. This adventure was worth every penny! We loved it!
The last day, we took a picnic and went to Jack London State Park. We learned a lot about his life at the museum and then enjoyed hiking to the lake and eating our lunch among the wildflowers.
This is what remains of Wolf House, his dream home that was destroyed by fire just before moving in.

It was a great week - restful with just enough adventures for lots of memories!

Courtside at Warriors vs. Lakers!

Phil was given two incredible Warrior's tickets ($1700 each!). He and Diane were driving down from Oregon to the game when he called Mark to chat. As it turned out, he realized Mark would enjoy the game much more than Diane so we went to meet them in Oakland. Diane and I had a great time catching up at a nearby hotel where the game was being played on a big screen. The guys were loving their courtside seats at a great game - even overtime!