A long weekend in San Francisco

Since last weekend was a long one, my friend Kitty (nickname, obvs) suggested that we go down to San Francisco for it a few months back. I hadn't been to San Fran since I was in middle school, and I like having trips to look forward to during this deployment so I thought it would be the perfect getaway. My friend L (who visited Seattle in December) expressed interest in going to San Fran, so I invited her to join us.

Us three ladies on the evening of our arrival to San Francisco

 We flew down on Friday evening, and hopped in this bad boy the next morning and cruised up to wine country to get our vino on.

Cruising up the 101 in a convertible Mustang is the way to do it, folks. There was some really good sights, and the driving was nice and easy once you get out of the hub bub of San Francisco, but not before passing over the massive Golden Gate Bridge. It's one of those landmarks that seems way bigger than you would imagine.

Our ending destination was Hopland, CA. This small town used to be known for it's cultivation of hops for beer. However, a natural mold started spreading among the hops and it wiped them all out. The town ended up just throwing in the towel on the hop growing and switched to wine. The 101 goes right through the little town and it is FULL of tasting rooms and lots of wineries are sprinkled near by as well. I drink a decent amount of wine, specifically red, and this small little town has some of the BEST wine I have ever tasted. On top of the deliciousness of the wine-it's SUPER cheap to purchase bottles. I think the most I paid for a bottle was under $20.

All our wine bottles purchased

My little brother lives in Northern California so he met up with us for wine 'drankin. He hasn't done wine tasting since he moved to California so I was glad he was able to join us. The little broski and I have gotten closer in the last few years so I had a really good time hanging out with him. I believe we made it to four tasting rooms which all (but one) gave free tastings. They were not stingy one bit either! You were always able to try all the wines you were interested in. I think the great part about Mendocino county is that it isn't as well known as Napa or Sonoma Valley is. Therefore you get less people, and better pricing on wine. I definitely could have spent another day or two there checking out all the wineries near by.

After all the wine, we grabbed some delicious pizza and Italian food, fireside, at a restaurant located just steps from where we had been hanging out for the past few hours. We had an early night. Drinking wine all afternoon is always so tiring so we made our way back to the hotel. It was decided that we would get up the next morning, grab breakfast in town, have a champagne tasting, and then drive back south to San Francisco.

 Next up is part two of San Francisco weekend...