Trip to Sonoma

My mom took my sister, Charlotte, and me on a trip to Sonoma over the weekend.  It was too short of a time in a beautiful place!  We rented a house in Sebastopol, and the views were gorgeous.  It was so quiet there that I couldn't sleep!

We left on Thursday evening, my first plane trip with a child. It was stressful to travel with a baby! I have great admiration for people who do it often.  We left around 6 pm and I hoped Charlotte would soon go to sleep, but no such luck.  It was ok when she wasn't crying, but the more tired she got, the more she cried.  Here she is, finally asleep:

I was so exhausted when we arrived, and then we still had 1.5 hours to drive to our house in Sonoma.  Ugh.  On Friday I was definitely dragging, although my mom did get up early and spend time with Charlotte while I got some extra sleep.  

Friday we had a lovely breakfast on our patio, and drank lots of coffee.  Then we got going, looking around at the little towns.  We bought fruit, and eventually ended up at the beach in Bodega Bay.  

Bodega Bay- the view from lunch

The beach was lovely, with a strong breeze.  Charlotte enjoyed her first feel of sand, and she kept digging and playing in it.  I went to take a picture of her sitting in the sand and she promptly fell over on her face.  So upsetting to me!  But she didn't seem to mind and kept on playing after I wiped her off.

Meema with Charlotte at the beach

We had lunch in Bodega Bay, and then began our wine tasting for the afternoon.  We went to two wineries- Merry Edwards and Dutton-Goldfield.  They were both delicious.  We bought food for dinner, then went home where Meema and Elana napped and Charlotte and I stayed up.  Charlotte went to bed around 7, and we cooked a big dinner.  Around 8 our cousins from Berkeley arrived- it was very exciting, because I hadn't seen them since our last trip to California 4 years ago.  

Friday was so hot!  We went into Healdsburg and visited the Farmers Market there, then wandered in and out of shops.  We ended up having lunch outside:

Elana, Jim & Jennifer

Then Jim and my cousin Sophia went home to Berkeley, and the ladies went to wineries.  We visited Mazzocco and Matrix, which were also good.  Meema got a little tipsy and everyone got the giggles.  Charlotte was jealous that she wasn't tasting wine:

Charlotte wine glass tasting

Every night, Charlotte took her bath in a tub with a view:

Gorgeous girl, gorgeous view

There is nothing like that out our windows here!

Sunday we had nothing planned and had a lazy morning.  Elana got anxious about our trip ending and wanted to drink more wine- we visited Hanna vineyard and another one whose name I can't remember. Here is Charlotte at Hanna winery:

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Jim and Jennifer got Charlotte a beautiful new romper, and we had a small photo shoot on the patio at our rental house:

looking gorgeous and all grown up!

The house had beautiful scenery outside, and was overall a very restful and peaceful place to stay.  It made coming home to my smaller, more crowded house in the rain a little sad.

the view of vineyards from the front door

the front yard

It is so beautiful there, I really wish it weren't so far away.  Every time I go out to California I wish that I could move there.  Imagine living in Berkeley, just 1.5 hours away from Sonoma and a quick ride away from San Francisco- it would be amazing.  

We ended our trip by going into Berkeley and stopping for a swim at the Berkeley Tennis Club with Jim and Jennifer.  Charlotte actually went in the pool- her first swim!  Here she is with Jennifer:

She seemed to really enjoy it.  This bodes well for the rest of our summer, since it is definitely heating up here at home.  I cannot wait for pool weather- I can't believe that summer is here.  We seem to have skipped spring this year, but as long as it stops being cold and rainy, I'll deal with it.

I was thrilled to come home to my 3 handsome guys.  I missed them all so much while I was away- the only down side to my trip.  Now it is back to real life- work for me, school for the boys, and all the household chores that didn't seem to disappear while I was away.