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It’s been just over a year since my first trip to Napa and Sonoma, aka, Wine Country. I had such a blast on that short vacation that I had to relive it with the 4 other people I went with. We spent a few hours discussing it and I thought it was worth sharing for others that may be making their way to Wine Country.

What follows is a series of posts recapping the visit, the struggles to get a rental car, the perils of useless limo drivers, an unforgettable night at Bix, 2 of the best lunches I’ve ever had and they were on-the-go, Sooz and downtown Petaluma.

This is installment #1 of 3-5 thoroughly enjoyable posts you’ll get to read.

Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 6am thru noonish
We caught an early morning flight from San Antonio to San Francisco, non-stop. Wahoo! We hate layovers.

We arrive sometime around 10am and make our way to the rental car section of the airport…the dirty underbelly of the parking garage.

There are 3 of us to begin with and between the 3 of us and all our bags it’s determined that a minivan is best suited for toting us around. You can be sure that I did not vote for the minivan. I vaguely remember saying, “convertible” and “sports car” but the sensible side in us (the ladies) won out. I am there with my wife Robin and our close friend Jerri. Jerri drives a minivan everyday so this was a good fit for her.

Jerri goes to the counter to get the keys while Robin and I wait in the parking garage near where all the minivans are parked. While we were waiting a porter somewhere between 90 years old and … oh, I don’t know…dead? backs a Subaru Forester right into a concrete post. He doesn’t even notice, or at least pretends not to. He gets out of the car and walks off like nothing happened. I take a quick peek at the rear of the Subaru and see that the damage is not severe. We got the van with a navigation system and headed for the wharf.

Since Jerri lived many years in or near SF she is our guide at Fisherman’s Wharf and the rest of the city. We drive up the wharf and decide we’re up for an early lunch at McCormik & Kuleto’s. It’s about 11:20am and time for the first glass of wine. I get a Syrah that I can’t remember the name of (theme building here). We eat a fantastic lunch while enjoying the view, watching swimmers in wet suits, freighters on the water and homeless people walk the street.

After lunch we take in the view and get a first-hand look at several people sleeping

on the steps of a small amphitheater. There is what appears to be a field trip for several classes of 7 year olds and they don’t even seem to notice the people sleeping on the steps; even when one wakes up and fingers a Vienna Sausage out of a can, licks her fingers and rolls back over for some more prime time sleeping! We eventually make our way back to Ghirardelli Square where I buy a 5lb bag of assorted chocolates that I will enjoy for the rest of the trip!

Since we’ve had a little time to let lunch settle and work up a new thirst we walk down to the Buena Vista for Irish Coffees where a guy who looks like Jack’s dad from LOST lines up 6-8 coffee cups drops in sugar cubes, pours in hot coffee and whiskey and uses a special wrist motion and a spoon to mix them all up. He’s very efficient as he can do all 8 cups in about 90 seconds.

Before leaving the wharf area we stroll around “shopping” and found a cheese store near/at the cannery. Both ladies love cheese but decide to wait until we get to Dean & Deluca’s to get the good stuff. Robin is a martini drinker as evidenced by this photo taken outside of a bar called Dirty Martini. We always try to bring her back from the dark side but I’m afraid it’s too late.

The day is just getting started and a night of too much fun is on the horizon. Check back for the next installment of Wine Country Revisited when our heroes take a ride down Lombard Street, continue to drink no-name syrahs and have multiple run-ins with a gang of surgical instrument salesmen.

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