Sonoma

As mentioned in my earlier post, spent the day today visiting a variety of Sonoma wineries and sampling their wares...visited the following wineries: Ravenswood (obsessed with Zinfandels and the only one i'd heard of prior to visiting Sonoma); Gundlach-Bundschu (one of the oldest Sonoma wineries, founded in 1858 and still run by the same family); Sebastiani (founded in 1904, the town's biggest and most powerful winery; currently trying to rid themselves of a reputation for shitty, mass-produced "jug wines" earned during the 70's and 80's and build a name as a quality winery); Buena Vista (the "original" California winery, established in 1857 and a state historical landmark); and Schug Carneros Estate (small winery, only ~30K cases a year, specializing in French Burgundian style pinot noir and chardonnay). Stopped in at the Plaza Bistro right on the town square for a delicious italian cold cut sandwich and a cold, tasty budweiser, which tasted even better after a day of drinking wine. one odd thing i've noticed, miller lite is not *nearly* as big a presence out here as bud, especially on tap, compared to back east...wonder why?

The town itself is very pretty, small, and "quaint". The wineries themselves are gorgeous, even though harvest just occurred/is ongoing so there's not a ton of grapes left on the vines. i got interesting tours of a couple of the wineries, and got some good pictures. however, i would have to say that i've been abit annoyed to be surrounded by pretentious wine assholes for a good part of the day. now, far be it from me to judge someone else's enjoyment of an alcoholic beverages, but some of these idiots are a little too much...seriously man, it's just a glass of wine, not the key to all the secrets of human health and happiness! combine that with the idiotic giggling groups of 20/30-something "OHMYGOD i can't believe we're in wine country!!! it's just like we're in Sideways!!!" girls and i was honestly rather glad to be done with the winery portion of my day. In the interest of preserving my legs for Redwoods National Park (and also out of sheer laziness), i drove the Pimpmobile around today instead of renting a bike...but don't worry! i didn't drink a whole lot at any of the wineries, so it was all rather safe.

after i was done with the wineries, i parked my car back at the hotel and walked around the plaza, took some pictures of the historical buildings in the park, did some people-watching, and was molested by a rather large and hairy (but very friendly) dog named Zeke. back at the hotel now, killing some time by writing up this post. gonna head back out in a little bit to watch Marvin Harrison cruelly and gleefully put the kibosh on the High Rollers' season and drown my fantasy football sorrows in a couple of beers. Looks like my drive tomorrow won't be as long as i had originally feared so might have some time to do a little non-winery-related historical sightseeing in Sonoma tomorrow morning before i hit the road for Redwoods National Park. As i mentioned earlier, i doubt i'll be able to blog from the park, so this might be my last missive before i get to spivak's in eugene on friday, barring any drunken blogging i do after returning from watching the game tonight...

...couple quick tidbits then i'm done:

a) talked to the Redwoods hostel this morning, apparently the bear was caught and released in a different section of the park. the hostel operator is cautiously optimistic that it shouldn't be a problem again...uhm, ok....

b) This is currently causing a lot of trouble for my good friend Frizzy and his new (and lovely) wife Nicole, along with (of course) a massive number of people living throughout Southern California. I was *just* in that area barely a couple of weeks ago; it's so beautiful, and it makes me very sad to think of all the destruction that's going on there right now. Take care of yourself guys, i'm thinking about you and hoping for the best...