My wife and I recently changed jobs, which was a good thing for us. The downside of that was that as new employees, we have limited PTO. For this year we will have to plan trips that allow us to have the most bang that we can in a short time. One way to do this is to plan smarter - we used Labor Day weekend and it allowed us to get the time that we would need for a short trip but without using as many days as we normally would have to.
We knew that we would have to choose someplace compact with a variety of things to do and places to go. We had been talking about NorCal and some of the California National Parks but hadn't made it back out during the Covid era. We ended up deciding to hit Sonoma, Monterey Bay, Sequoia and Kings Canyon and finish the trip with Yosemite. We always try to visit the quirky places, to eat and drink local brew and food, to not just do the same things on vacation as we do at home.
Day one started in Benicia at the Air BNB. A nice little coffee shop and breakfast at a local deli was next - the area around the Benicia Capitol park has some really nice restaurants and shops. We then jumped in the car and headed for Sonoma and Santa Rosa. We had originally looked at Napa for wine tastings but the cost was quite steep. Sonoma had more economical prices and seemed to be more family type vineyards not the highly polished corporate establishments.
The first stop once we got to Santa Rosa was a brewery from my must stop list: the Russian River Brewing tap room. It was the wrong time of year for Pliny the Younger but there were plenty of other really good beers to try. Even better, there were plenty of bottles for carryout that I could bring home. I was able to try my Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig along with a "few" other beers - I got the California taster (12 beers) and there wasn't a bad beer in it! I somehow forced myself to finish them. After a pint of Pliny, some to go beer and a ton of merch, we were off to explore the downtown area around Russian River.
We wandered around the downtown enjoying the area, found a nice wine shop (Willibees was great!) and reaxed for a bit before jumping back into the car for a quirky winery that we found, Paradise Ridge Winery, just outside of Santa Rosa. My wife got a chocolate and wine pairing that she really loved. She will always claim that if there is wine and chocolate, it can't be wrong, and in this case she was right - very, very good. I didn't opt for a pairing - I got a glass of Pinot which was very good. The views from the terraces were spectacular and the art installations throughout the grounds was something that you don't normally see.
www.russianriverbrewing.com
www.prwinery.com
www.nuggetmarket.com
