Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 5

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 5

Today is our last full day at Sausalito before leaving at 4am the next day. 

Bill suggest that we do Angel Island by taking the ferry from Tiburon. So I got to see Tiburon and Belvedere as well 

Burgee at the summit of Angel Island

We ate a quick breakfast at a charming Sausalito Bakery near the hotel before heading out to Tiburon

Sausalito Bakery breakfast

Angel Island

We lucked out that there's a 70 kids outing that day which means the ferry is running from Tiburon to Angel Island. If not we would have to go to SF to get the ferry to Tiburon as they won't run with less than 25 people. 

What it also means is we are with a crowd of noisy kids for the ferry crossing =) 

Tiburon to Angel Island Ferry

View from Angel Island Visitor Center 

View from the summit 

Another view from the summit

We end up hiking the summit trail instead of going to the other buildings as we really need the exercise. As there's only one ferry going back at 3 hours later, we ran out of time visiting the other places. 

Leftover dinner sandwich, view priceless

Attempt of the 360 panoramic view

Freezing while waiting for the ferry 

After getting back to Tiburon, we walked to San Francisco Yacht Club and lucked out that they let us in even though they are not open till 5pm 

San Francisco Yacht Club

After that we left Tiburon and went in search of the floating houses in Sausalito after a quick lunch at the Bayside Deli. Good place for cesar salad with salmon. 

Colorful Houseboats! 

After that we met Peter and Jamie for dinner at Sausalito Yacht club which is a very charming Yacht club with a great view! 

Sausalito Yacht Club

Dinner with Jamie and Peter

More cute shopping in downtown Sausalito

I need that shirt

Lappert Ice cream! 

Wine is a favorite topic in the shopping

Found the best time to cross Golden Gate bridge. 4am with no traffic 

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 4

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 4

Today is hiking day. After a few days of tasting and minimum exercise, we are looking forward to the walks.  

Gravel pits hiking

The first area is really close to the vineyards at Windsor. The area is trying to restore the floodplains after the gravel mining

Only in wine country that trail and vineyards are next to each other

It's a very nice 1 hour hike around the gravel pits that's been filled with water. https://russianriverkeeper.org/restoration/

Pretty gravel pits

Huge trees on the trail

Pretty gravel pits

Armstrong Red Woods

After the gravel pits we went to Robert red woods that has a lot of interesting huge redwoods and hike around there for a bit. Foresight not to cut all the redwoods down for industrial purpose meant we can still enjoy the woods now.

Pioneer trail in Armstrong redwoods

Functional theater in the woods

Bill performing on stage =)

Bill and tree

 

The tallest tree is Parson Jones and it's tough to show the perspective. But >2500 years is a long time to be alive!

Parson Jones Tree

Impressive redwoods

Cute stream in the woods

Roots and large trees

Bodega Bay 

After the redwoods, we drove out to the bay for a quick check at the coast before heading to Sausalito. It's very pretty out there but definitely chilly 

Craggy rocks in bay

Another nice picture of the bay

Cedar tree windblown at the bay

Found a really cool place to eat at Bodega Bay call Fisherman's cove. Very good fried oysters, fresh, thin batter, well cooked. Decent clam chowder too with oregano seasoning 

Fisherman's cove fried oysters

Sausalito

After Bodega bay, we made our way to Sausalito and check into the hotel Gables Inn. This is the only non-big-brand hotel that we tried as they are right at the bay. It's slightly quirky, electrical power and plumbing don't quite work very well. =)

It does remind me of why AirBNB is losing popularity. The big brands do know what you need even if you are only using the room for the night! 

Gables inn in Sausalito

We walked around Sausalito town before settling in the room and using the balcony to have a quick dinner of bread, local cheese and salami from the local market. 

Little parking enforcement car in Sausalito ^_^

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 3

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 3

Burgee picture at Rochioli winery.. Russian river behind us

MacRostie winery

This is a beautiful winery with a great view. We are also just behind the Russian River but ironically we never took a picture with the Russian River as it's not been visible from wineries. 

MacRostie Winery View

This is again a great winery tasting that's very friendly and Saul is very generous with pours. We are greeted with a sparkling Chardonnay followed by 3 regular chardonnays that's tasted side by side followed by 2 more deeper Chardonnay. The Key and night wing Chardonnay are our favorites but both are overpriced at $75 and $58 that we can't justify purchasing them. We also told Saul that we prefer warm climate pinots so he gave us a first flight of 3 pinots to try from River Road, Klopp Ranch and Thale Vineyard. Followed by 2 more pours from Soberanes Vineyard  and Rose. Again, the pinots are ok but not enough $70 for a bottle. After that we tried their Cabernet, Zin and Napa red blend. All of them are very well made and good but start at $70 to $85. 

MacRostie Winery

Rochioli Winery

This is the top 5 that's recommended by Dave. It's interesting that the tasting is only $25 with 3 wines but they are not their top shelf wine. They are not really interested to let you taste their pinots as it's sold at restaurants between $100 to $200. So what they let u taste are not great wine but to see if you are interested to join their wine club to buy the pricier wines. So it's a little disappointing.  

Rochioli Winery

After the tasting, we both decide it's time to enjoy other activities for the trip and head to Healdsburg town to walk around and check it out instead. 

They have very cute wine related accessories that's hilarious 

Cute tea towels about Wine

Art gallery

Figurines made by fans

We also stop by Bravas to try the tapas. It is supposedly one of the better restaurants but unfortunately Bill and I have high standards that it's not as good as what we can get in Barcelona =) 

Bravas which has tapas and light wine

We check into the Hampton Inn at Windsor and went for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant that has surprisingly good sushi and ramen. 

Hampton Inn room at Windsor

Qimura restaurant

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 2

Russian River and Sausalito Trip Day 2

Today is Easter and a few wineries are not open. So I choose to book all the wineries for tasting to make sure we have no surprises. 

Santa Rosa Downtown Charlie Brown and Snoopy statue

Merry Edwards Vineyard 

Another very friendly and beautiful tasting room by a woman wine maker. It's our first tasting at 10am (Don't judge us...)

We shared tasting but they are generous with the pours. They open with a $45 Chardonnay that's really nice. We tasted 8 out of the 11 pinots that they have. The Anderson Valley pinot is the first and it's right that it does have a funk that's characteristic of Anderson Valley. Our favorite is Russian River valley pinot retailing at $60 (again, warm climate). The Dach blends with Russian River valley pinot which makes it very nice but overpriced at $75. Their Meredith is a cab level pinot that's inky but again overpriced at $100. We finish with a very good sauvignon Blanc and we end up getting the 2 whites and the Russian River as we waived the tasting with 3 bottles purchase. 

Chloe the vineyard cat sat with us for our tasting for the whole time =) 

Merry Edwards winery

Joseph Swan Vineyard

This one is the most disappointing out of all the tasting. It came highly recommended on the internet and it's a small owner low key place.

I want to like it but having pinots aged 7-10 years and still not taste good is a sign that we shouldn't buy it. They somehow had old vines zinfandel that we didn't like as well.  

View of Joseph Swan vineyards

La Crema

La Crema chardonnay is our go-to table wine. It made our list as other wineries near the area are not open that day.  It turned out to be a good surprise as they have Chardonnay grapes that isn't found in stores. And it's also a beautiful restored barn for their tasting room and off-the-script tasting with Dave who is really fun. We had a welcome brut on level 1 that's really nice. Followed by a least 4 chardonnays tasting and really like Kelli Ann Chardonnay $55 which is the most expensive Chardonnay that we bought. We tasted at least 5 pinots with them but still prefer their Cabernet at $50. It feels like a lot of the pinots are too cold climate and not flavorful enough for us.  We also got the tasting fee waived with 2 bottles purchase. 

La Crema tasting room

Harvest Moon vineyard

This one made the list as 2 other ones are not open. It's another small winery who owns and make the wine He offers more varietals like Zin, Malbec, Syrah, Cab and Zin. But unfortunately we also didn't like the flavors. (My theory is the region is too cold to develop those grapes properly)

He does a lot of sparkling wine which is good and fresh but too overpriced at $55-$80 range that we didn't buy anything 

Harvest Moon Winery

Inman Family vineyard 

This is a woman wine maker and small business owner. Their pinots are really good and we enjoyed them as they are very flavorful and very close to Halleck. Unfortunately everything is overpriced at $75 that we choose not to buy the pinots. Instead we got a white blend which is 80% white pinot and 20% Pinot Gris that's retains the pinot flavor and have interesting palette with the Pinot Gris that's reasonable at $43. We also got their Grenache & Tempranillo without tasting as it's me/Bill's favorite grapes and they are selling out of those and its reasonable at $42.  

 

Inman Winery

We check into the hotel at Santa Rosa and explore the Depot area in town to find all the statues of Charlie Brown cartoon characters. 

Snoopy and his friends!

Maybe it's Sunday and Easter but Santa Rosa Downtown is not very lively. 

So we had dinner at a very good French restaurant La Gare and had honeycomb ice cream at Nimble&Finns and call it a night. 

French dinner at La Gare with leg of lamb and butter shrimp

Nimble & Finns Ice cream

Some fun shopping at Santa Rosa Downtown