ADVENTURES IN WINE COUNTRY

I live about an hour from Napa but I rarely go there. It involves a bridge toll that I normally am too lazy to go get cash to pay for. Plus… I do not love wine. It’s all right but not my fave. So going on wine tasting tours and whatnot is not my jam. BUT I recently made plans with an old coworker who was up for her birthday to go to a winery and do some wine tasting.

Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, CA

We first stopped in Sonoma at the R2 wine tasting room and had a round of tasting. They were pretty good. We then headed to downtown Sonoma (the square) to check out a chocolate tasting place (Wine Country Chocolates I think) and I noticed there is a mission right there – I haven’t been to a mission in years! This one was cute. We didn’t go inside but I have made a mental note to go back and check it out.

The chocolate place was really delicious – I got a boysenberry one and a cinnamon honey one and my friend got rocky road – and everything was so good! I would definitely go back.

After that we headed into the hills to the Hess Collection Winery which was totally beautiful. They were setting up for a wedding or some kind of event. On the upper two floors of the main building was a very nice art gallery which I enjoyed viewing.

Wine barrel room at Hess
Some art and interiors
Stairs they wouldn’t let us climb
Me and Nohemi

After Hess we were all hungry so we wound up at Downtown Joe’s in the town of Napa and were seated outside. It was a beautiful day, not too hot (the previous week/weekend was like 113° so the weather in the 80s was so much nicer). At the restaurant I had chili cheese fries and they used homemade spiralized potatoes that were super delicious. I’d randomly been to this restaurant with the parentals a year or so ago and it was good then too.

Napa River view

Anyway, it was a nice day out with good people. Always good to get out of town for a bit even if it’s just a day trip.

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