We were very excited to finally see the California wine country. Then the fires came.

We landed in San Francisco to a smoke filled city. It didn’t get a whole lot better the whole trip. The air quality was pretty bad during our entire stay but it definitely gave us some perspective on what’s happening in CA and how devastating its been and continues to be on the wine country. I grew up in El Cajon, in southern California and I still remember very clearly the day we had the family and all the pets ready to jump into our station wagon to escape a wildfire that was getting dangerously close to our home. Its for real.

We enjoyed our trip which was November, 2018. We landed in San Francisco and crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge (my first time going across!) and headed to Sausalito for a quick bite and then to a #BucketList destination for me, Muir Woods. Stunning place and so quiet standing among these majestic redwoods. Stops in Petaluma, and Sebastopol to see The Barlow. Unfortunately the smoke was heavy and a lot of businesses were closed. Russian River Brewing was our destination for the night and we ticked off another Brewery Bucket list destination!

Healdsburg did not disappoint. I would love to come back to this town and spend more time here. We stopped and spent time at some amazing wineries including Mauritson Family Winery, Kokomo Winery. We dined a couple times at The Shed and the town of Healdsburg was probably my favorite of all the places we visited. We stayed at a great hotel, Hotel Trio, highly recommend.

We spent some time in Calistoga sampling and buying at Olabisi Winery. Beautiful town and it was interesting to talk to the locals about the wildfires and nearby towns that were nearly wiped out by the fire.

In Napa, we enjoyed a very nice wine tasting at Frog’s Leap and walked around the farm. We continued our drive with a stop at the Robert Mondavi winery, definitely worth having a look! Yountville and St Helena were amazing as well.

We ended our trip in Sonoma, known for Pinot Noirs. The Oxbow Public Market and coffee at Ritual Coffee Roasters was a great place to refuel before hitting more wine country. We spent some time lounging at Scribe. What a great California vibe going on there. The wildfire smoke stayed with us all through this trip, you could always smell it and feel it in our eyes and throats. Our last night was a quiet evening exploring the town of Sonoma.

I hope we can get back to the California wine country someday hopefully when the skies are blue again.