California Wine Country - Day 1

Day 1

Travel to California, Drive to Wine Country and Settle In (or so we thought)

Destination 1: Healdsburg, California

Healdsburg is located in Sonoma County surrounded by Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Sonoma Valley, Russian River Valley, etc.. Healdsburg has a great town square with hotels, restaurants, shops, grocery store, tasting rooms, and more. Check it out at http://www.healdsburg.org/ or http://www.ci.healdsburg.ca.us/.

• Fly to California and drive to Healdsburg, CA where we stayed at two B&B's (explanation to follow).
• Budget car rental - reserved a Mustang Convertible five months prior to the trip; arrived and was given an Eclipse Spyder because Budget ran out of Mustang's. The Eclipse is significantly smaller than the Mustang and not nearly as fun to drive. I'm not trying to sound snobby or like a cry baby, but given that this trip was to celebrate our five year wedding anniversary, we decided to save up and splurge on the rental car. So, beware if you reserve a fun car, because you may not get what you reserve and still have to pay for a 'similar' car even if it isn't 'similar' at all. Update - after sending an e-mail to Budget, they did send us a $50 voucher in the hope we will give them our business again.
• Arrive at first B&B - we will not provide the name b/c despite confirming our reservation the week prior to the trip, they forgot our reservation and gave our room away on the second night. They booked us at another B&B and paid the difference, but the new B&B was not walking distance to restaurants, which was a key deciding factor in selecting where we wanted to stay.

Despite these bumps in the road, we were determined to enjoy our vacation since it was our first time away from Kaitlyn and to celebrate our five year anniversary. So, now let the FUN begin...

• Dinner at the Healdsburg Bar & Grill - http://www.hbg4fun.com/. This simple restaurant provided us with great ambiance with the outdoor seating and good food. We weren't expecting a five star dining experience, but it was certainly better than your typical 'bar and grill' food. We enjoyed a salad, margherita pizza, homemade mac-n-cheese, and a homemade ice cream sandwich (excellent). Another bonus is that they have an area to play bocci ball, which Dave appreciated. Unfortunately, we couldn't use it because there was a big party in the area.
• Finished the evening by walking around the square.