Happy Anniversary - TEN BLISSFUL YEARS!

How do I sum up our amazing 4.5 days in California in one tiny blog?  Well; the best way possible... In Song!

Sung in Tune to "12 Days of Christmas":  Ten Blissful years of Marriage, 9 pm Dinner in San Fran , 8 bottles of wine, 7 requests to go to Inn & Out from Kris, 6 dollars to cross the Bay Bridge, 5 Dollllars for the Gold-den Gaaate Briiiidge, 4 days in Cali, 3 different cheeses, 2 incredibly relaxed people and 1 case of beer in a conver-t-ible!! ~ Ok; so maybe the tune didn't work out perfectly, but all items up there worked perfectly to explain how much fun we had!  If I had more spots in the song, I would've covered the 12 wineries we visited in Sonoma, the 8 mile bike ride we took to visit a winery or two, and the 1 hour trip on our way to dip our toes in the Pacific!  But rest assured... All of these topics will be covered below!

Gma and Gpa Cannode were great enough to stick around Denver long enough to allow two very tired parents to go celebrate their ten year anniversary in wine country.  We were nervous to leave our kiddos ~ not because of the supervision... they were Wonderful! More because we have never been gone from both of them for that long!  We knew they were in good hands and would be SUPER Spoiled upon our return.  With good thoughts in mind; we jumped on our flight on Friday night and landed in San Fran around 6pm.

Only one way to enjoy the California sunshine, A convertible.

Our first part of the trip included a night at Amy's cousin, Janessa's Local B&B.  Janessa has a cute one bedroom apt in Nob Hill.  She was kind enough to give up her home for the evening and crash with friends across the street so that Kris and I could have a place to stay.  Our original plan was to grab a quick beer at her place and head to dinner.  One quick beer led to another and next thing we knew it was 9:30.  We grabbed a cab and hoped we would miss the dinner rush since it would be 9:45 when we got there.  We were WRONG.  Some places had up to an hour and a half wait; which we were told was quite normal. Crazy San Fran kids!  We finally found a place with less of a wait and enjoyed a beverage while we waited for our table and yummy pizza.  Janessa then took us to a couple of her favorite hot spots; where we got to meet her Body Guard... I mean Bouncer Friend, Big Mal (Jamal).  We must admit that we couldn't keep up with our twenty-something cousin and were back at her place crashing around 1am.  I am pretty sure she said there was a rousing card game across the street we could attend.  Next time, Cuz... Next time :-)  Thanks for the wonderful sleeping quarters and for being a great tour guide.  It was SO great to see you and we hope to visit you again soon (no matter where you live!) :-)

Amy and Janessa ready for the evening.
Look at her cute apartment!

Hanging out with Mal.

The next day, we "SLEPT IN" (first night away without kiddos waking us at 6am)!  We left Janessa's place around 9am and headed out of San Fran, but not before taking a quick shot of the Cable Car.  Fun fact of the day:  a) Cable car is pulled from underneath the road and b) Trolley is pulled by cables above the car.  We learn so Much while we travel!!

One of San Franciso's famous Cable car's
a half a block away from Janessa's place.

A great view of the Golden Gate bridge before we drive across it.

Upon ariving in the Valley, we hit our first winery; Rams Gate.  No idea why that one peaked our interest ~ ha.  We spent quite a leasurely time at this location, enjoying the view, the peace and quiet and of course the tasty wines.  We hit a couple more wineries before heading to our B&B. 

Enjoying the view (and some wine) at Ram's Gate.

Amy found someone to help her at Jacuzzi winery.

We found a friend at our favorite tasting room, Charles Creek.
Gretchen is made of wine corks!

Upon our arrival at our B&B, we had wine and cheese ready for us and we were able to sit by the pool enjoying the warm sun (it was 96 degrees that day!). As great as the first day in Sonoma Valley was, we were missing our boys so we got out Amy's new Ipad (an anniversary gift from her hubby) and Skyped Gma and Gpa Cannode and the boys. We were greatful that we got to skype them almost Daily! Normally this coincided with our daily wine and cheese platter provided by our B&B ;-)

Sometimes it's rough, but someone has to do it.

The next day, we started out with a wonderful warm breakfast, prepared by our B&B host and waited for our car to pick us up.  We used a service that day, which picked us up from the B&B, took us around to 4 wineries where we received preferential treatment and then dropped us back off at our B&B.  Our guide was Jerry (the owner of the company).  He was chock full of information and so much fun!  We picked up two other groups for a total of 7 of us plus our guide.  We mainly hit small, family wineries; which to me was a perfect fit.  We got to speak to the owner at each place and picked up all kinds of knowlege about growing the grapes and the different bouquets (smells) and tastes of each type of wine.

Learning about wine from the owner of Kachina winery, Greg.

Jerry, our tour guide, teaching us about wine barrels.

The view from the Mounts winery.

Hanging out with Dave, the owner of David Coffaro winery
Dave was a huge Raiders fan with Lots of memorabilia.

One winery in particular, we were greeted with ballons and a framed picture wishing Kris and Amy a very Happy 10 year anniversary!  Did I mention the preferential treatment we received that day? ;-)

Celebrating 10 wonderful years at Amista winery.

On Monday, we decided it would be fun to use the bicycles (provided by the B&B) and take a tour around town.  We stopped at the Mission San Francisco Solano, which was closed on Mondays, but at least we got to see the outside and read a bit about the history.  This was the last and northernmost mission of the famous California missions.  After our history lesson, we took a leisurely bike ride out to the Homestead Winery.  We had an incredibly fun host pouring us the tastings and fell in love with a few of their bottles.  Unfortunately, we only had 'one' more spot available in our travel box to get the wine home so we had to decide which was the absolute favorite.

Is it a good idea to drink wine and bike?  Only one way to find out!

For lunch, we got in the car and headed to the Infamous Inn & Out burger joint.  This is one of Kris' favorite places, and as it isn't available in Colorado... we decided it would be a treat to go.  Extra bonus was that it was on our way to the Pacific coast; where Amy got to dip her toes in the Very Cold Pacific Ocean.  Unforunately, this was a rather cold and foggy day in Cali so it wasn't really ideal to enjoy the ocean, but we sure did our best!

It doesn't get any better than this.

Amy enjoying the Pacific, but it looks a little chilly.

Tuesday, we took a leisurely morning enjoying breakfast, coffee on the front porch and drove slowly through the Valley back to San Fran.  We got to squeeze in one more hug with Amy's cousin (and saw where she works!) and headed to the airport.  We were ready to get home to see the boys!!

Kris enjoying a great breakfast.

A perfect morning for coffee on the front porch.

It was an Amazing trip for us, but not as great as the last Ten Years!  We've been blessed to learn the true meaning of Love, Honor, Friendship, Trust and Support.  We have had Many ups & downs over the years, but looking back... every moment brought us to today; which means we wouldn't change one bit of it!