Life is Sweet*: Santa Rosa

Showing posts with label Santa Rosa. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Santa Rosa (wine, beer, and art, oh my!)

Labor Day weekend was so much fun this year! We had a blast on our mini trip up to Northern California. And even though our trip plans changed a bit, it was still a great little vacation!

We left right after work on Thursday and drove straight up to Santa Rosa. With a stop at In-N-Out for dinner, of course. :) We didn't get to our hotel until after 1:00am - traffic was crazy! Our main purpose of going to Santa Rosa was to check out some wineries in the area and of course, visit Russian River Brewing Company again. We've been to this area a couple times and have gone to different wineries every time. We picked some goodies this time! Our Friday was spent exploring the wineries and tasting all kinds of delicious wines.

1st stop:

~ Paradise Ridge Winery ~

Wine tasting on the balcony with such amazing views
and then wandering around their winery grounds
with the pretty vineyards and awesome art installations...

2nd stop:
~ Dry Creek Vineyard ~

Wine tasting with some really nice winery employees

and then a little picnic lunch in their gardens

(with the best sandwiches we've ever had from a little general store up the street!)...

3rd stop:
~ Preston Farm & Winery ~

An all organic winery that also is an all organic farm. Pretty neat!

4th and final stop:

~ Russian River! ~

Brett's version of heaven...
(gotta throw in some beer after all that wine!)

Awesome day with so many awesome beverages...
We love this little area of California!

(Up next... exploring Point Reyes!)

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Matanzas Creek - Santa Rosa {California 2012 Recap}

Continuing on with my California trip recaps... (I am more posting these for me to look back on in the future, so bare with me through all of these recap posts!).

On our second (and last) day in wine country, we had 2 winery visits on the schedule. First up: Matanzas Creek Winery. This winery was by far our most favorite of the trip! The grounds were absolutely gorgeous, we got a personal tour, and in addition to making wine, they grew their own lavender. This winery was simply stunning and the wine was delicious too!

Our personal winery tour (from such a nice guy!)...

Wine tastings in their amazing building...

And some more roaming by ourselves around these amazing grounds...

There was barely anyone else there while we were. It was so peaceful and relaxing; we could have stayed here all day. But of course, we could not - we had a second winery to visit!

Up next... Gundlach Bundschu Winery!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Russian River - Santa Rosa {California 2012 Recap}

After a day full of wine touring, we made our way over to Santa Rosa where we were staying for the weekend. And there can only be one reason that we would choose this locations: BEER.

Santa Rosa just so happens to be the home of one of the greatest breweries in the country: Russian River. So obviously, being the beer lovers that we are, we were most definitely ready for some brews after all the wine tasting.

Russian River is AWESOME. We ended up going both nights that we were staying in Santa Rosa because we just couldn't get enough. We even went there on our honeymoon. We just really like good beer and this place has got it.

Oh, just sampling every.single.beer. on tap

Annnnd conquered!

We love this place! We even smuggled some beers home with us to Pittsburgh because we can't get their beer over here on the East Coast. Totally worth the fee for having to check an extra luggage bag just full of alcohol... ;)

Up next... Day 2 of wine touring!