Guess what? This is is not another Las Vegas trip report! I mean, I have one coming soon, but we actually went somewhere new this time! Our friend from Seattle has been telling us we need to meet her in wine country sometime, so we finally made that trip a reality.We visited Healdsburg and San Fransisco over an extra long weekend.
We had breakfast at the relatively new HiLo Diner at the main terminal of the MSP airport. It was pretty good actually, for airport food anyway.
I think we used a companion fare from one of our Delta credit cards. We flew into SFO and picked up the rental car from Budget. The first Budget check in line we saw was huge, but luckily Kris, our Seattle friend knew to go down to the level where the cars are and the line there was much, much shorter.
So we were finally on our way to wine country. John loved driving over the Golden Gate bridge. Not really. I think it hated it, narrow lanes and lots of traffic.
SFO
I think it look us about two and a half hours to get to the town of Healdsburg, which was our home base for the first few nights.
We stayed at the H2 Hotel, right on the main street. It is a fairly small hotel, and everyone we encountered was very nice and the room was great.
After settling in a bit we headed out to dinner at Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar. Everything was really good and the restaurant was just a couple blocks from the hotel.
We had an enjoyable dinner and afterwords we all headed back to our hotels and called it a night. It was a long travel day.
The H2 hotel included daily breakfast in the daily rate and it was a really great breakfast. There were several items you could order off the menu and coffee, beverages, bagels and some fruit and yogurt.
After breakfast on Friday we headed to meet Kris and meet our driver for the day Jim. Kris has used his many, many times before and he was great.
first stop was Hanna winery
view from the patio at Hanna
second stop was Alexander Valley Vineyards
Silver Oak tasting room
wines at Silver Oak
We had box lunches from Oakville Grocery. There is a location in Healdsburg and Jim stopped so we could pick them up before heading out of town.
Foley Vineyards
Robert Young
The last stop with Jim was at J Vineyards and Winery
We had dinner reservations, but none of us felt like a big dinner after the long day of wine tasting. John and I grabbed a pizza at Pizzando and called it a day.
Spoons fountain and sculpture at the H2 hotel. It made a cool tinkling sound too. Saturday morning John and I had breakfast at the H2 hotel and wandered over to check out the Healdsburg Farmer's market. I got a cute dog themed wind chime.
After walking around town and looking at the assorted shops, we decided to try a sampling flight at Bear Republic Brewing. They had a nice patio overlooking the creek.
had a pretzel as a snack too
Kris was still getting her day started, so John and I decided to start wine tasting for the day at La Crema Winery. They had a tasting room in Healdsburg right on the main street.
Next, was Stephen & Walker Winery just a few doors down.
They served a cheese plate with the wines that really enhanced the flavors of the wine.
We all had lunch at Healdsburg Bar and Grill on the patio.
Williamson Wines tasting list
We visited Longboard winery, and then we went to The Rooftop at the Harmon Guest House.
Nice views of the town from The Rooftop!
Our last stop was the lobby restaurant at the Hotel Healdsburg for a variety of appetizers and snacks.
all the wine we bought- shipped home by the hotel...for a fee of course!
Sunday morning we eventually got going and packed up and drove back to San Francisco. We checked in to The Marker Hotel on Geary Street near Union Square.
hotel lobby
I was able to use points from the Chase Sapphire card for our room nights here, so that was a great redemption.
John and I were excited for some sourdough bread! We had dinner at Hog Island Oyster in the Ferry Building.
garlic grilled oysters
fish sliders
crudo plate
exterior of the ferry building
After dinner, John and I went to check out the Tonga room at the Fairmont Hotel. We were not really feeling like drinks, but it was going to be closed on Monday, so this was the only time to visit.
seating is around a large water feature that use to be the hotel's swimming pool
Monday morning John and I had breakfast at the Pinecrest Diner just down the street from the Marker Hotel.
After breakfast we rode a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. Kris had to work on Monday and Tuesday during the day, so we were on our own sightseeing around town.
sea lions at Pier 39-- smelly things!
We decided to do a short boat cruise around the bay. It was a nice overview with great views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the city.
After the bay cruise, John and I had lunch at Bistro Boudin near Fisherman's Wharf.
the crab cocktail was amazing
crab cake sandwich for John
crab cake for me
We walked down to Buena Vista Cafe to try the Irish Coffee. Apparently this place introduced the beverage to the United States once upon a time.
great neon sign at the Buena Vista
turntable for the cable cars
We took the cable car to Union Square and wandered around the stores and then headed back to the hotel to rest for awhile.
We had dinner with Kris at the Trailblazer Tavern. It is a chef Michael Mina Hawaiian themed restaurant. The food and service were all excellent. Hawaiian fish is so amazing and flavorful.
ahi poke nachos
pork and crab lumpia
mocha crusted opah
miso honey glazed butterfish
The kimchee fried rice with pork belly was amazing!
MW chocolate cake with passion fruit sorbet
Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the Taylor Street Coffee Shop. It was a tiny little place, but we only had to wait a few minutes for a table.
Millionaire's bacon was very rich and delicious!
Taylor's hash
Marguerite scramble
After breakfast we took and Uber over to Chinatown and wandered around a bit. The coolest thing we saw was a guy unloading live fish with a net from a special compartmentalized truck and delivering them to a grocery store.
Fortune Cookie factory in Chinatown- great smells! Fresh fortune cookies are excellent too.
the alley the fortune cookie factory is in
The cable car museum was really neat and it was free too. We just had to walk up a huge hill to get there.
The cables and engines that run the entire cable car system. Very interesting.
After the museum I think we headed back to the hotel and packed up our stuff and took an Uber to the airport. The traffic wasn't too bad and we arrived in short order. We had time to kill so we went into the Delta lunge for awhile.
We had lunch at Farmer Brown at the airport before our flight.
Our flight home was uneventful, which is a good thing. We had a great trip and a really fun time with Kris. I'm glad we had someone who had been to wine country before, because there are so many wineries, it is hard to know which to visit. Having a driver helped with this also. I'm not sure we learned a ton about wines, but we definitely tried a lot of wine and found things we liked.
Our wine shipment took 2.5 weeks to arrive and several phone calls to the hotel and the shipping company, but luckily the wine was located and it had arrived. Now, we need to start enjoying it!
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