After our trip to San Francisco, we loaded up and drove on to Sonoma.  On our way out of town, we stopped by Anchor Steam brewery for a tour.  Once we finally found a parking spot, we spent a few hours on a very informative tour.  Truth be told, they don’t put out any of my favorite brews, but there was a lot of history behind it and they are currently expanding as well.  From there, our itinerary listed Lagunitas brewery as the next stop, who, as it happens, DO put out some of my favorite brews.  I’ve also heard from many that it’s a great place to hang out, with a large outdoor area and a good food menu.  Alas, a quick check of their hours showed they were closed on Mondays, rats.  I guess that’s on the list for another trip, it’s not that far from our house anyway.  Deprived of that destination, we made the quick call to head to Russian River, which was located near our final destination for the day anyway.  They brew what is considered one of the top IPA’s in the country, so it was a suitable substitution to be sure.  We enjoyed a good lunch there, then checked into our hotel.  For dinner we went to a friend’s house who lives in town.  He fixed a great meal for the whole group, and we got to check out his cool gardens.  (Big vegetarian;  He’s got quite the setup.)

The next day, we all met up at his house again and loaded up in a limo for a Sonoma Valley wine tasting trip.  Our first stop of the day was at Coturri, which was quite a drive.  Our friend Steve knew the owner at this place well, so we got quite the hook-up.  I’d never to been to a winery anything like this place, it was interesting.  I’d call it “informal,” he kept grabbing random bottles from his storage building and bringing them out.  He had a table set up outside, and we just kind of enjoyed the weather and some tasty vino.  We stayed there quite a while, then headed off to our next stop at Buena Vista.  This one (and the remaining stops for the day,) were more what I’d experienced before:  Stand at the counter, taste a few glasses, move on.  And move on we did, to Gundlach Bundschu.  This was an interesting stop, as it is actually the oldest winery in the world.  Or maybe it was the oldest in California.  Possibly just Sonoma.  I don’t know, I was losing interest in wine rapidly by this point.  The building was certainly interesting though, and so were the grounds.  We spent some time there, then wrapped the day up with a nice little picnic in the square downtown.  Next stop, Lake Tahoe.