Our Weekend in Sonoma

Last weekend Kevin and I headed to Sonoma for a weekend away.
Kevin turned 40 in May (remember the Surprise Taco Truck Party I threw?) and when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted a weekend away with just the 2 of us.
It had been 6 years since we have gone away for the weekend without kids! 6 years!!!!
(We went to Florida for a wedding that Kevin was in, you can read about it HERE)
We have gone away for a night here and there, but not more than 2 nights.
With 3 kids and busy schedules, it can be hard to find people to watch them and go away for an entire weekend. I have some fun money set aside (thanks to Rodan + Fields!), so I planned a weekend getaway for us!

 We really wanted to go to Santa Barbara, but it's a 5 hour drive, so deciced to stay more local.
We are lucky that we live in the Bay Area because there are so many places to go that are only an hour away. We had just gone to Seascape in March with Kevin's family, or I would have totally gone there again!!!
We have been to Carmel & Napa tons of times, so decided to go somewhere neither of us have been.
 We chose Sonoma because it's near Napa and we love wine tasting!
We also heard great things about the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & I have always wanted to stay there, so we decided to go there!

 It was a beautiful drive to Sonaoma, I love when you drop into wine country and see all the vineyards.
We were hungry for lunch, so when we got to Sonoma, we went right to Sonoma Square & ate at Sunflower Caffe.

Whenever I visit new restaurants, I like to try new things that I might not normally order. For lunch I got the "Ham & Jam" sandwich. It was a ham, brie & strawberry jam sandwich & it was incredible!!

 Kevin had a chicken & avocado sandwich & it was also delicious!

 We loved the food at the Suflower Caffe and loved the outside garden eating area!

After lunch we headed to the resort to check in. It was beautiful!

They have complimentary wine & cheese tasting every afternoon, so we were excited about that!

 The outside grounds were so pretty with chairs & tables scattered around.

So relaxing!

 As you might know, California is in a major drought, so there were signs like this all over the resort:

 We had dinner reservations at El Dorado Kitchen, which is another restaurant on the Square.

 I had a lemon drop, of course ;)

 For an appetizer, we got the fried green tomatoes:

 I got the New York Steak for dinner:

 Kevin had the salmon:

Birthday dessert:

Our meal was incredible at El Dorado Kitchen!

The next day, we decided to go visit some wineries!

But first, we stopped at the Basque Bakery Cafe for coffee & pastries!

 This was my wine tasting outfit:

 Our first winery was Gundlach Bundschu Winery in the Southern part of Sonoma Valley.

They had this shirt in their gift shop... I thought it was hysterical.

Our 2nd winery we stopped at was Deerfield Ranch Winery. The wine tasting was in a cave, it was really neat!

 The caves were lined with barrels of wine:

 We really liked the wine:
Our 3rd & final spot was BR Chohn Winery:

 It was adorabel & they have vineyards & olive tree orchards surrounding the winery:

 The wine was decent....my favorite things about the tasting room was their SF Giants memorabilia!

 Not only did they have wine tasting here, they had Olive Oil tasting!

 And...Balsamic Vinegar Tasting!

 It was fun to do an olive oil & balsamic vinegar tasting!

 Who knew there could be so many flavors? Not me!

 But wait...it didn't stop there...they also had chocolate cabernet sauces tasting & chardonnay caramel sauce to try out. Divine!

 Had a really great time at BR Chohn, great ambiance:

After we left the wineries, we saw this cluster of signs with arrows pointing to different wineries , we had to take a picture of it since one of the wineries was Larson winery :)
Then we headed back to the Resort to have lunch and relax by the pool! 

 It was so relaxing...I read this book & people watched (my favorite!)

 I really like this book...I finished it during our weekend away. If you liked Gone Girl, you would like it!
For dinner, we headed back to the Square & went to The Girl & the Fig.

 A lot of people recommended we go here & it did not disappoint!

 I had the fig & arugala salad to start:

 I had the Kind Salmon for dinner:

Kevin had the flounder...it was AMAZING.
We ate dinner outside on their back patio & it was a gorgeous night:

 Kevin's all time favorite dessert....creme brulee!

 I got a chocolate parfait that was to die for!

We loved the Girl & the Fig! 

 The next morning we packed up & said goodbye to The Fairmont.

 It was such an awesome weekend away & much needed. we missed our kids, but it was nice to have a break and just hang out for 48 hours as a couple!

I am so glad I was able to give Kevin this weekend away for his 40th birthday....it was truly a present for him  since I paid for the entire weekend with my Rodan + Fields money!
 If you are looking to earn some extra money each month, I would love to chat with you about the business side of R+F,!
For information regarding earnings under the R+F Compensation Plan, see the Income Disclosure Statement {HERE}
 

Any one who joins me in business in July will receive  $75, $100 or $125 cash back off their business kit (depending on the kit you get)

Email me if you have any questions about the business or products!

melissa_larson17{at}yahoo.com 

I am so glad we went to Sonoma, it is such a charming town!

I loved the downtown Square, it kind of reminded me of a California version of Stars Hollow :)

We have lived in the Bay Area our entire lives, but had never been to Sonoma even though it's just an hour away! We usually go to Napa for wine tasting, but I can tell you that we will now be adding Sonoma to our list of "go-to" places when it comes to wine tasting & weekend getaways!

We had such a great weekend, ate amazing food & had delicious wine!

Most importantly, we were able to carve time out for each other and go away for the weekend without kids!