Category: trip report

Wine Country Trip: Part 1 Sonoma


700+ pictures later, I ‘m back from vacation. 5 days in wine country with my husband. A personal/pleasure trip with professional overtones (and perks), as my husband is “in the trade”.

As the effects of so much good food, good drink (wines and of course, a beer or two), fresh air and sunshine wear off; I’ve been slogging through the pictures trying to figure out how to organize a blog post,a trip review. Realize that *a* blog post won’t cut it, but probably neither will posting 700 pictures – which even with editing out the crap ones is still close to 600. Decided on four posts:

  1.  Part 1. Sonoma

At least that’s my intent at this minute. This summer has not been great for getting all my mental ideas into blog posts, so we’ll see how it goes.

We’d flown into San Francisco on an evening flight, a delayed evening flight, arriving close to 11pm, and spending the night in the airport area. The San Francisco morning proved cool and foggy making conditions for viewing and picture taking at the Golden Gate Bridge somewhat less than ideal.

However, as we drove north the fog cleared, and by the time we arrived at Sonoma-Cutrer winery, for our first appointment/tour of the trip, the weather was perfect. Located in the rolling hills west of 101 at Windsor, Sonoma-Cutrer is known for their chardonnays, which are done in a Burgundian style. For the last few vintages they have been producing Pinot Noir, staying true to the Burgundy theme. We were met by Scott, the tour center director, who first took us through the vineyards, explaining their trellis styles, philosophy and general winery history.

All around us the views were stunning.

Next up a quick winery tour, where the workers were busy preparing for harvest; cleaning and moving barrels.

Finally, Scott took us through the wines. These have been some of my favorites since I sold them in my Kentucky distributor days in the late 90’s. It was a treat to sit out on their patio overlooking the tournament croquet courts (who knew the North American Croquet championships were played here each year – not I, not until this day).

Sonoma-Cutrer has an excellent line-up of wines. Until recently, they were only open to the trade. Our tour was arranged as members of the trade – so I’m unsure what the public sees on their tours. Nonetheless, if you love California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown and produced in a Burgundian style, I highly recommend a visit!

Leaving Sonoma-Cutrer, we headed west out River Road toward Guerneville to Korbel Champagne Cellars where we were staying for the next two nights in their vineyard guest house. I’d stayed in this house in ’95 or ’96 while on a trip with the KY distributor – the only female manager on the trip, I had the house to myself, while the men stayed in the larger guest house. I love Korbel, not only for their méthode champenoise champagnes, but also for their gardens (more on those in part 3). The vineyard house is surrounded by a small portion of these gardens.

Korbel has a rich history with the Korbel brothers immigrating to California in the late 1800’s, fleeing Habsburg rule in Czechoslovakia. Originally purchasing the land for the timber, they first moved into brandy making, and then champagnes. Both of which they still produce today. The tour offers glimpses of both the history of the Korbel family (which includes the first female winery president in California) and the true process of making champagne known as méthode champenoise. And of course, samples of their excellent wines. On property is an excellent deli with ample picnic area, a charming gift shop, and the not to be missed opportunity for garden tours. Korbel – for the champagne lover, brandy fan, or gardener, it is a must visit.

While in Sonoma, we enjoyed several great meals, two in Bodega Bay – dinner at the Duck Club and lunch at Lucas Wharf.

We were charmed by the historic railroad district of Santa Rosa – home of Peanuts creator, Charles Schultz. Here we had a fabulous dinner at Lococo’s Cucina Rustica.

And in our family tradition of documenting accomodations, the charming vineyard house. Loved the view from the breakfast room, the well stocked kitchen, know my Mom would love that each bedroom included a flashlight. The hospitality and graciuosness of everyone at Korbel can’t be beat, and for that I say a huge thank you!
Sonoma County, the wineries of Korbel and Sonoma-Cutrer – a great start to a great trip……

Mi Mexican Casa

There’s times I think I work to support my vacation habit. I come about it honestly, my parents were great travelers, and my mom still is- just returning from a cruise through the Panama Canal. As a child we traveled a lot – cross country to California, toured most of the west, the southeast. I am nearly always dreaming of my next trip. I keep a count up of last time I was at Disney, or snorkeled/scuba-ed, and countdowns to next trips on my facebook page. Friends comment on how often we take trips. My timeshare weeks and points allow us to go to some incredible paces – this trip was no exception.

The latest trip was to one of my favorite beach destinations, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula about 45 miles south of Cancun. This time we didn’t trade a timeshare week, but instead purchased a $200 “Extra Vacation” from RCI for a 2 bedroom unit at Hacienda Tres Rios. Of course, we still had to pay the all-inclusive fees, but overall for considerably less than it would cost to book this resort through a travel agent.


Loved Tres Rios. Highly recommend. Wish we could have spent more time. If you go, try to do the bike tour and the coati (snorkel) tours early in the week, just to give you a good feel for the resort. After that you can check out bikes, grab kayaks, and swim the cenotes at your leisure.

The Resort:
Hacienda Tres Rios bills themselves as a luxury, all-inclusive, eco-friendly, “green” resort, spa and nature park. As stated on their website, they are “at the forefront of sustainable tourism development, creating amazing guest experiences while protecting the region’s natural beauty and culture”. Loved the nature park and all the included activities. We biked through the jungle to the cenotes,

Snorkeled from a cenote down the river to the sea.

Kayaked up a river from the sea to another cenote

Sailed on a hobie cat in the Caribbean sea

Played volleyball on the beach, chilled where the river meets the sea, toured their nursery where they are working to restore the vegetation lost in Hurricane Rita, and skipped countless rocks into the cenote or the ocean.

Of course, we also relaxed on the beach. Oh, those beach beds. Nothing could be better than a mid-afternoon siesta on a bed on the beach, feeling the sun, hearing the sounds of the ocean.

Resort also has two pools and three hot tubs. My son and his new BFF loved what they called the cliff area of the upper pool – which conveniently placed them close to the pizzeria.

The Food and Drinks:
The resort has a buffet style restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A dinner-only restaurant that rotates 3 nights a week with an Asian theme, 3 with an Italian theme. A fine dining Mexican dinner restaurant. An outdoor grill open for lunch and dinner, and an outdoor pizzeria open from noon-7pm. They also offered two theme style dinner parties, a Mexican fiesta on Sunday evening and a Caribbean party on the beach mid-week. Finally, there’s a coffee/pastry restaurant. Son loved the pastries, I loved the mid-afternoon pick me up of a perfectly foamed cappuccino. Oh yeah, also 24 hour room service.

We mainly used the buffet restaurant for breakfast – nice fruit selection, really good granola with a wide selection of yogurts. Interesting selections on the buffet, son loved the pastry, chef making eggs/omelets’ or quesadilla to order. Never ate lunch there, dinner was ok, chef doing pasta.

Spent a lot of time at Hacienda Grill – the outdoor restaurant /bar. Lunch there was very good, dinner even better. But our favorite was grabbing a table w/ friends around 4pm for some chips and guacamole, or shrimp and having happy hour. Close to the pool to watch the boys. Fresh, yummy guac. Nice steak at dinner.

The boys couldn’t get enough of the pizzas. Lunch, dinner. Gotta admit I loved the European pizza – a white pizza with guyere and gargonzola. Oh my. One thing we did find odd was the “Italian sausage”. Probably better described as hot dog.

The most interesting meal was the adults only “chef’s table”. This one required the purchase of a bottle of wine. Was a five course meal in the kitchen just outside head Chef Oscar’s office. Oscar helped present most every course. Started with a summer roll, then a coconut shrimp with a great mango, peach and sundried tomato sauce, a duo of cream soups, salmon with saffron sauce and vegetable risotto, beef with miso sauce (sorry, Chef, I’m not such as fan of the sweet, clingy miso sauce which you seem to love to use, and I think overpowers everything), and a chocolate dessert.

There’s a tradition for Chef’s table guest to sign the chef’s apron. I choose to sign next to the Prince and Princess of Denmark (who were also guests of the resort while we were there).

Italian concept was very nice. From appetizers through dessert. I had a well done risotto with sausage, hubby had a veal dish which he loved, and others at our table enjoyed their meals. We all agreed on enjoying this restaurant. The first time we ate at the Asian restaurant, did not enjoy it. Sushi was three pieces of rolls with minimal fish. I had something with the words sashimi tuna, tempura and miso in the description. To me sashimi tuna implies something other than heavily battered fried fish with a sweet clingy miso sauce. I admit to not noticing the word tempura first time through.

For our last dinner, we’d originally planned to go back to the grill. However, ran into Chef Oscar and made a comment about the coconut shrimp. He said if we came to the Asian restaurant, he would make us a plate of them as an appetizer. We decided to give the Asian restaurant another try. Noticed though some folks were eating lobster. Hmmm, that’s not on the menu. Talked to our server who arranged a special menu. Quite good. Choice was just lobster, surf and turf or surf and surf. Between the six of us we had all of them. Plus the coconut shrimp. And a mixed dessert platter to share. Highlight of the evening was tableside preparation of Mexican coffee.

As to the bars at Tres Rios;
I think bars are the one big miss here. Granted there is a very good selection of premium/top shelf products. No skimping there. However, with all-inclusive comes the expectation of pool bars (the swim up kind), no such thing here. In fact outdoor drinks are a bit tough. There are servers on the beach and pool side, but service is slow (like 20-30 minutes to get a drink, hour or more to get food). While we enjoyed “happy hour” at Hacienda Grill, if you weren’t there by 5pm, you were out of luck as they closed from 5-6:30 to prep for dinner. Which means the only outdoor bar is closed. There is spotty bar wait service at the outdoor tea/martini bar – but on a couple of nights servers were not present. With all the lovely scenery and beautiful weather more options for outdoor drinks with friends (esp. casual, post beach time) are sorely needed.

This is not a big night life resort. Yes, there are shows and events at night – but all fairly low key.

The Room:

Magnificent, huge, well equipped. We basically had a one bedroom suite with a connecting hotel room. Fridges in the rooms stocked with sodas, water and beer.

Overall an incredible vacation. Made even more special by meeting some new friends. Tom, Stephanie and their son Spencer. The boys hit it off as fast friends. The parents also. From the time we all meet, we were pretty much inseparable. Hope to travel with them in the future, enjoy more meals, more wine, and games of find Stephanie a new drink. Great, great family. And huge thanks to Tom both for taking me out on the Hobie Cat not once but twice, and even more importantly, the really good pictures on the blog are his – thanks so much for allowing me to use them.

Newborn, Natchez, Noshing, Nashville, November

Our family had a little something extra to be thankful for this year – my new nephew Jack Stephen. Jack is the first child of my brother. He’s named in memory of my Dad, Jack, and in honor of his maternal grandfather, Stephen. My brother was a confirmed bachelor who hit the jackpot in his mid-40’s when he met his wife, Gina. Smart, fun, beautiful with an incredible family to boot. Really none of us could have asked for more. So, this year for Thanksgiving, we loaded up the car, put the bikes on the rack and set out on the 10 hour drive to celebrate with Jeff and Gina’s family and new son down in Nashville. And celebrate we did.

Gina’s Aunt is a great hostess and great cook. As with many great cooks, they have friends who are equally good cooks adding to the fun. What a feast we had – a foodie’s heaven! Two turkeys, one oven roasted, one smoked, two kinds of stuffing – including Gina’s family recipe of an italian sausage and bread stuffing that was almost addicting.

More and more food kept appearing on the tables….a couple of different sweet potatoes, the most amazing layered jello salad, several versions of cranberries, I loved the cranberry ginger chutney. Wines of the day were Pine Ridge Chenin/Vognier, Edna Valley Chardonnay, and Ponzi Pinot Noir. Blue Moon Honey Moon was available for the beer lovers. A bottle of Woodford Reserve was around. (any guesses what hubby and I were responsible for bringing). I forgot to get a picture of the dessert table – but it was equally impressive – two kinds of pumpkin pie, pecan pies. All so yummy.

Thank goodness with all that eating, we’d brought the bikes. Got in several good rides. A couple around Nashville in the Oak Hill/Belmont areas. But the most memorable was a ride along the Natchez Trace. Beautiful and challenging with the continual rolling hills.

Discovered that I’m a bit of a wimp riding over this famous bridge over Hwy 96. Heading out I stayed a decent distance from the edge. Coming back, a crosswind had blown up, and I was scared to death. Rode at almost the center of the road. Even once we got across and I got off the bike to take these pictures I never was able to stand next to the rail. Just a bit too freaked out.

The nice weather also provided an opportunity for a walk around Radner Lake.

Ended the weekend with a celebration of Mom’s birthday. A great trip, wonderful meeting Jack and spending time with family. Enough to wear a guy out!

What happens in the Dells……..a trip report

Another quick trip down to Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. If you haven’t figured out by now, I like to play. Be it trips to Disney, riding my bike or heading to the waterpark, I find I’m a much saner, calmer and happier person with frequent doses of playful fun. Luckily my ten your old son is still at an age that he enjoys time spent goofing around with Mom, even if this trip did include him bringing a friend for part of the trip.

The Wilderness resort is a mega complex with three large indoor waterparks, three equally large or larger outdoor ones, not to mention the upscale adults only Sundara Spa complex, a couple of golf courses and another lodge area on the shores of Lake Delton. Obviously, a trip to the Wisconsin Dells in mid-November means sticking to the indoor parks. All three have giant water slides – body slides, tube slides and specialized slides with names like “Fantastic Voyage”, “black Hole” or the “Hurricane’, there’s a large indoor wave pool, lazy river and interactive water fun play areas. Be prepared for lots of stair climbing. Of all the slides, “Black Hole” is my favorite with “Fantastic Voyage” a close second.

Usually I also enjoy their lazy river, but felt like this trip it just wasn’t heated to an enjoyable temperature. In fact, I would say the same for the various hot tubs – really should have been hotter. Not sure what the issue was, but hope they solve. I’ve been to Wilderness on other winter weekends, and hope this isn’t a new cost cutting measure – as it would make me question spending my playtime there in the future. While I’m criticizing this otherwise great resort, I’d also suggest making one of the hot tubs adult only or at the very least enforcing those large “No one under 6 allowed in hot tubs” signs. The hot tub picture below was taken on Friday afternoon before the weekend crowds, when the hot tubs were literally shoulder to shoulder (both around edges and in the middle) with people.

Sunday brought a sunny, unseasonably warm day, so while my Mom supervised my son and his friend in the waterpark, hubby and I went for a 7 mile walk around the Wilderness grounds and surrounding area. We hadn’t brought the bikes, but still had a little chuckle around this set of signs.

Here’s some outdoor shots from the walk. The outdoor parks had sad, lonely feel with their empty pools. The new, but closed Zipline tours were taunting me. I’ve been dying to try them. In the past when I had opportunities to zip in Hawaii or Mexico or wherever, I weighed more than the max allowed weight. Now that I comfortably make the weight limits, I still wasn’t able to go. We’d been to Wilderness last July, the weekend before these zips opened, and now here we were back the weekend after they closed. Sigh. I’ll have to get that bit of fun and excitement on another trip (and Hawaii and Mexico zip lines are still on the to-do list!)

Decided we must plan a grown up weekend at Sundara some day (maybe next anniversary?), I’m a spa addict and that looked awfully nice – not to mention based on all the steam rising from the surface of the water, their outdoor pool is very well heated – no cost cutting over there! As golfers (he’s avid, I’m a duffer), we enjoyed walking the cart path of one of the courses shut down for the season. Lake Delton looked gorgeous – some of you may remember this as the lake that broke about a year ago, washing away a couple of huge houses. Lake has been fixed and re-filled. Loved this carved tree trunk at one of the lakeside houses

Last few pics are from our unit at Wyndham’s Vacation Resort at Glacier Canyon. As I’ve mentioned before, I own a decent amount of points (all purchased via ebay) in Wyndham’s timeshare system – as does my Mom. For this trip we had a three bedroom unit. Very, very nice. Master bedroom with the tub for two, king bed, walk in shower, second bedroom with another king, third with two queens. Nice shared bath for those two rooms. Sleeps 10 (via a hide a bed in living room). We had my son & his friend, my Mom, hubby and I. Kitchen very well equipped with service for 12, plus all the typical small and large appliances. Though honestly we ate out much of the time. Kept the fireplace going in the evening which was a cozy touch. And naturally, one section of the closed zip lines passed right by our balcony – taunting me further!

The Dells are a bit kitchy. Son finally got his trip to a Ripley’s Believe it or Not on this trip and was unfortunately more fascinated and interested in reading all the signs and exhibits than I hoped would happen. We found the “resort” my parents had honeymooned at 54 years ago – a bit worse for wear. Have to say, kitchy, touristy or not, for a fun filled weekend, close to home they fit the bill. (Which is a good thing, because in late January we’ll be back for one of my son’s gymnastics meets – though after 4 trips to Wilderness we will be trying a new resort that trip. Not to mention hoping to get some skiing in at Cascade Mountain).

They say Karma’s a bitch……

Or payback is hell.

But the brilliant thing is that the flip side to bad karma coming back and biting you in the ass is that sometimes getting what you deserve or earned is a good thing. And that appears to have happened to my son and I this weekend.

Last December armed with our first ever Disney annual passes, my son and I had a 5 day pre-Christmas trip to Disney World planned. This grown-up but kid at heart Disney fanatic has always wanted to see the parks and the resorts in their Christmas finery. Each day was well planned with dining reservations, carefully researched park plans to avoid the “extra magic hour” crowds, not to mention a list of shows and resorts to visit. And then the great snow of December 19th hit Milwaukee. Closing the airport. And for the next 2 1/2 days my very patient 9 year old son and I were in airport stand-by hell. Somehow our Friday 6am direct flight turned into a 7pm Saturday connecting flight through Atlanta. We tried to stand by on every flight in between. No luck. And then of course, our flight to Atlanta was delayed and we found ourselves stuck in Atlanta, a city we never planned to visit for the night. Sunday morning brought more stand by flights, and a melt down and tears from the grown-up, and continued brave face from the 9 year old. Finally at 2pm Sunday, 62 hours later we were in Disney.

And I swore I would make it up to my son. (OK, yeah, me too) Upon returning home, using frequent flier miles, timeshare points and of course knowing we had annual passes, I booked a Halloween trip back to Disney.

From start to finish this trip was a dream. Flights going and coming were on time. Car rental no line, no problem. Sure a 6am flight made an awfully early start, but we managed – and boy, did we manage getting all the highlights done.

Some of the highlights: While the parks were fairly crowded, it was primarily Food & Wine Festival attendees and folks with young children. Which meant lines for the attractions requiring folks to be over 40″ tall were not bad, not bad at all. So much so, we hit all our favorite rides, most with literally no wait. On rides like Everest Expedition, Test Track, and Rock-n-Roller Coaster we employed single rider strategy. If you aren’t familiar with this, some rides have a third line in addition to the normal line and the fastpass line. You will not be sitting with your party as they use the singles to fill in the odd numbered groups. However in most every instance we were in the same “car” or train or whatever that is called. Others, such as Tower of Terror (my #1 fav ride) simply had no waits. You could ride them as fast as it took to walk through the queue. All said in our three days, the final tally was Everest Expedition 6 times (son did 7), Tower of Terror and Big Thunder Mountain 5 times, Test track 4 times, Splash Mountain, Kali River Ride, andStar Tours 2 times plus a trip on the Great Movie Ride, The Backlot tour, Soarin’, Maelstrom, Mission Space, Haunted Mansion, Pirates……Oh, and I got to be one of the “actors” in the Pearl Harbor scene on the Backlot tour!

Of course, I had to get my fireworks fix. The first day we were worn out from our 6am plane flight and considered skipping fireworks. Instead we headed to Beaches and Cream for burgers and ice cream. Remarkably we had no wait for a table, and finished dinner just in time to walk in the back entrance of EPCOT and snag a great view at a spot between USA and Japan. The park was crowded but somehow, just as the announcer blew out the fires, there was a two person opening along the fence. The next night was Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party where we enjoyed Halloween Wishes from our fav spot front and center of the castle. Finally the third night, son wanted to repeat the Beaches and Cream / Illumination plan. This time we scored a spot between China and Germany with a perfect view of Illuminations but also a goo view of Wishes just to the left of Spaceship Earth – huge bonus for this fireworks lover.

One of my favorite memories was the morning after Mickey’s Halloween party, when my son in all seriousness asked, “Mom, did you feel like a kid again last night?” I replied, “What do you mean?”. “well, you were wearing a costume and went trick or treating”. And, yes, he was right, I did feel like a kid again, and both he and I thought that was pretty darn cool.

Finally, in keeping with family tradition of documenting our accommodations. Shots from the 1 bedroom unit at Wyndham Vacation Resort at Bonnet Creek. I own a decent amount of points in the Wyndham timeshare system (all purchased on eBay, which is a whole other story). Their new resorts are quite nice, and the point system allows me to book 3-4 night long weekends. (Like the one in November to Wyndham Glacier Canyon at the Wisconsin Dells or the December weekend at Wyndham Grand Desert Las Vegas – which will include doing the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. The location of this resort is pretty incredible – within the World, next to the Caribbean Beach Resort, very close to EPCOT, the Boardwalk and Hollywood Studios. Will return to this one!