For those of you that don’t know, Jes and I are in beautiful Sonoma Valley with a few of my closest friends and their wives to celebrate my birthday and Memorial Day. We have both been looking forward to this trip for 4 or 5 months and so far it has not disappointed. Yesterday was our first full day out here and we took an amazing chauffeured tour from our house just off the Sonoma Square to 4 separate wineries where we sampled the local fare. Jes and I are total novices – so not only did we get to try some amazing wine but we also got to learn a great deal directly from the people who make it.
Today we are planning on going on a (hopefully) lengthy run through Sonoma Square and some of the trails that run off of it, which will allow me to use one of the presents that Jes got me, my new running shoes with custom fitted insoles! I have trouble with nagging aches and pains every time we go running and according to everything I could find, custom insoles are the best thing you can do to help reduce this, so I am extremely excited to try them out! The true test however will be once we can get back to our usual Chastain Loop and a real apples to apples comparison, but I guess Sonoma town square will have to do, life is tough, I know, you don’t have to tell me.
After we go for our run we are planning to head over to Dry Creek Valley for some more winery tours, which will give me an opportunity to continue using my other present that Jes got me, a camera tripod. I know most of you don’t get to hear my general musings on photography as often as Jes does, but if you ask her, she will tell you ever since I started toying with photography I have wanted a tripod, but I’ve never been able to convince myself to buy one. I seriously can’t even begin to explain how amazing the tripod she got me is and I have already put it to good use. One of the wineries we toured yesterday was set inside their wine caves and the lighting was far too low for a hand-held photo. Out comes the tripod and an image like this one is simple and easy.
Tomorrow we will be biking through the southern outskirts of Sonoma on our way to a few more wineries. Neither of us has ridden a bike in quite some time, so hopefully the old saying holds true. So far we have done more “tastings” than “tours”, but that will change tomorrow and I am looking forward to actually getting out into the vineyards and doing some guided exploration. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip for my birthday and as long as the remaining days are half as much fun as the first we will have a blast.