Hike, Wine, Sunsets

Go for a hike in beautiful countryside in the morning, grab a bite at a local restaurant serving local ingredients, taste wine at an organic winery in the afternoon and head to the beach in the evening to watch the sunset over the great Pacific Ocean. This is definitely the life! Of course we have to work during the week, pay more in rent/mortgage, and deal with tourists but it is oh so worth that Saturday when you can take full advantage of where you live!

I started a new job so I now have a commute (prior commute was to my office upstairs) but it’s not so bad. I get to drive through the Napa Valley and all it’s grand beauty. How can anyone complain about that? I do look forward to the weekends a little more but love where I am spending half my days now.

Last weekend we skipped the hike…ahem…someone drank a little too much vino Friday night celebrating the end of one job/adventure and the beginning of another so we skipped our usual Saturday morning hike. The hubs and I did manage to go check out a local winery and watch the sun set over our beautiful ocean off the left coast.

In Sonoma County (and more and more of Napa) wineries are going back to their roots and becoming biodynamic and organic. Our roots run deep here (local advertising phrase), some vineyards have been around since the mid 1800’s and yes survived even through prohibition! This means they need to respect the earth so it keeps on giving back to them. We decided to check out a local winery in Santa Rosa that is biodynamic and certified organic. The zin from the 100+ year old vines was sooo smooth and delicious! But what we really enjoyed was checking out their Theatre of Nature they had set up outside the tasting room. Gardens, goats, sheep, chickens, and beautiful scenery. This is how we grow wine sustainably! Oh my goodness! Please check out the pics of the silly sheep in the gallery below. He was chowing down in the feed bin while the roosters were crowing around him and I was giggling. He finally came up for air so I could snap a pic of his cute fuzzy face!

Walking around the Theater of Nature was definitely interesting and I love that it is a teaching area for the many winery visitors. We definitely need to teach sustainability. Check out more here if you are interested and the Theater of Nature here.

So what do you do after having a lovely meal and tasting delicious wine? You take a cat nap of course! Then head to the beach for the sunset.

Bundled up and gear packed we headed out to the beautiful Sonoma Coast. The drive is a nice short 40 minutes through winding roads to hit the coast and head north just above Bodega Bay. I had seen some beautiful photos posted of Furlong Gulch online and wanted to see the beauty for ourselves. Definitely did not disappoint!! The large shale rocks along the Sonoma Coast get battered by the waves daily and still hold strong against the ocean. They make for interesting splashes in the photos along with the stormy clouds we had that day! A wonderful reward to a wonderful day!

This is our typical Saturday in Sonoma County! I know every town has its beauty but it just seems to be so plentiful around here! Off on another adventure this weekend. Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the beauty around them!

Theater of Nature

Stormy, colorful, love the ocean

Love the spray

Owl Box

This would be lovely to have as a backyard!

Statue at DeLoach

This is what I look like in the morning, cheerful but crazy hair!

He was too funny!

Beautiful rocks

Almost to the beach

Amazing how many different shades one sunset can be!

The sunset photos are linked back to the Weekly Photo Challenge, Reward. Check out other bloggers interpretation of Reward here!