Life is so much better with a wine buzz...

So there are a few things I have realized thus far on this trip... 1) I don't really enjoy camping all that much (which is great considering that's what we'll be doing for a week in the DESERT!) 2) apparently whenever it's my turn to drive on this trip I get stuck with the windy, snake-like roads along the cliff where I feel like I'm going to plummet us to our death that also make Susie have to take a Bonine (motion sickness medication) and 3) life is SO much better with a wine buzz...

We have officially been on the West Coast for one week! Yesterday we left Oakland (after I FINALLY had a good night's sleep in a BED) and headed north to Muir Woods. WOW. That's all I can say about that one...giant Redwoods and Sequoia's everywhere you look along this 2 mile trail...unbelievable. Pictures do no justice. We continued north along route 1 to Bodega Bay for out last leg of the Pacific Coast Highway. Sad to know that that was it...no more coastal driving for us. :( Bodega Bay was beautiful as well....this giant bay with boats and crab shacks all around it. Unfortunately it was too cold to go to the beach there, so we decided to drive inland to Sonoma instead. BAD move. The temperature literally rose by like 30 degrees, maybe 40. We were sweat hogs in the pimp mobile for about an hour. Rumor has it it reached 104 here yesterday. Lovely. So we continue, or I should say I continue, to drive us up this huge, windy mountain (shocker) in hopes of staying at the Sugar Loaf State Park campground, only to find that it's "closed". So Susie takes over the wheel and bombs us down the mountain in search of some fine wine tasting...and oh did we find it! The only winery that we could find that was still open (all of them close around here at like 5, and it was 5:15...naturally) was Paradise Ridge and it was oh so delish! We got to taste a sparkling Shiraz which was definitely the highlight! We purchased a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and headed off into town, where we found this cute little hotel called the Pueblo Inn and went immediately to the pool and spent the evenining swimming and drinking our wine. Life doesn't get any better than that.

Today we're off to Napa for some a bike-riding wine tasting tour (YUM!) and then heading out to Tahoe (last minute decision). It seems like this trip just keeps getting better!! Love and miss you all! Talk to you soon!

~Andrea :)