Day 29: 6/15/15 (Healdsburg)
84 miles
Today was the big
day! We were awake just before 5am
waiting for the call from our pilot to see if the weather was good enough to
fly today, and fortunately we were good to go.
We drove a short distance to a meeting location where we met four other
couples taking the ride with us. The fog
in Sonoma Valley was too much so we took an hour ride over to Hidden Valley in Lake
County which was a better location to take off.
Our pilot/driver had a kind of perverted sense of humor, but at least
some of the others seemed to like it.
When we arrived, there was already a crew starting to get everything
ready. After getting everything laid
out, a high-powered fan was used to start filling the balloon. Eventually, it was filled enough that we
could walk inside the massive 350,000 sqft balloon. Once they started using the flames, it only
took a few minutes before the balloon was off the ground and the basket was
upright. We all jumped in and within a
few minutes we were up, up, and away.
Watching everything on the ground shrink so rapidly was a crazy feeling, but once we hit about 1,000 feet we just floated around and it was pretty relaxing. The only thing that can be controlled on a hot air balloon is the height so you just float up and down trying to find the Jetstream to take you along for a ride. During our hour-long ride we traveled maybe 2 miles over the valley – pretty much from one side of the road to the other. The most exciting/scary part of a hot air balloon ride is the landing since there’s so little control over everything. We landed with a little jump, bump, and skid, and just like that we were grounded again. A few of the guys, including Rico, went out to help stuff the 650lb balloon back into its case. Jillian was close by and was asked to climb up and jump around to help pack in the balloon – apparently it’s a necessary step. Once everything was loaded, we made the hour drive back to the café where we heard a little bit about the first hot air balloon flight and toasted with champagne (a ballooning tradition).
By the time we were
back from ballooning, the vineyards were open for tastings so we didn’t stay
long with the group. The bed and
breakfast we were staying at is owned by a couple who run 8 different wineries
so we were offered complimentary tasting at each. With 11am-5pm hours, we realized we wouldn’t
be able to hit all 8, but we started with the closet one, Matrix, which is
situated by the Russian River (known for pinot noir, yum). There were 7 or 8 wines to try and we liked
all of them! We were introduced to rosé and
zinfandel, wines that we were expecting not to like, but we learned that they
aren’t as sweet as we had pegged them for.
Jillian fell in love with one of the pinots and we knew we’d end up
leaving with a bottle. We were informed
about the wine club which sounded really enticing, but it was too much of a
commitment for our first stop. We
decided that we would come back, if not later, then the next day, so we headed
out to continue our tasting tour.
Next, we visited
Mazzacco which is famous for their zinfandels and we quickly picked out a
favorite and made our purchase. We knew
that white zinfandel is a very sweet wine so we were expecting the same out of
the red counterpart, but they couldn’t be more different. To make the most of our day, we headed up the
dry creek to a country store to pick up a sandwich to take with us to the next
vineyard. We had heard from Mazzacco
that deLormier was known for Bordeaux wine which is a blend of several
varietals. We tasted one of the more
popular ones, but it wasn’t exciting enough to make a purchase. We found that we did really like their
sauvignon blanc though. We had a goal to
make it to 4 vineyards, so we left quickly from deLorimier and headed to Soda
Rock which was in a cabernet sauvignon region.
This vineyard had a really cool vibe with an eccentric sommelier. She introduced us to their “party wine”, as
she calls it, and we liked it enough to make a purchase. We found that the sauvignon blanc at Soda
Rock wasn’t as good as the one at deLorimier so we headed back quickly to make
a purchase.
With about 20 minutes
left we raced back to Matrix to make a purchase and join their wine club. We had inquired about a few of the other
clubs, but Matrix had a better deal and better wines. We were hoping Patrick would hold up his offer
in shipping all our wines for free (it’s supposed to be just the Matrix wines). As uncomfortable as he seemed, he made the
deal! It was such a relief for us to be
able to ship everything home for free because we weren’t sure how well the wine
would survive in our car for another 6 weeks.
The wine club we joined means we will be getting 6 bottles from the
vineyard twice a year – a little gift for ourselves. Once we officially became members, they
offered us a little bit more wine so we could sit outside and enjoy the weather
and the view.
As the vineyards all
closed down, we headed back to the inn to get changed for dinner. We decided on a tapas bar called Bravas which
was right downtown. We ordered some
cocktails which were refreshing after trying to distinguish between about 25 different
wines for 5 hours. We stuck with our
respective tequila and gin – a pear margarita for Rico and a strawberry basil
gin and tonic for Jillian. For dinner we
started with a small goat cheese crostini and then ordered paella for two which
is a Spanish rice dish that had mussels, scallops, chicken, and chorizo in it. We didn’t stay out late since our day started
so early and because Jillian wanted to watch the Bachelorette (waiting for the
day that the episode will make it all the way through the rose ceremony –
C’mon!). Afterwards we watched the
season finale of Game of Thrones – more frustration. The season ended with more questions than
answers, surprise surprise.
Fact:
Our palette is keen
on high-altitude varietals
Lesson:
Wine county cannot be
fully appreciate in just 2 days
Eat Well; Travel Often
Rico & Jillian
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