Day 1 – Sonoma: EWR to Wine Country

Hello friends! It’s been a little over one week with my feet on the ground back home after Greece and I am taking flight again! It’s my 7th flight and third trip in 3.5 weeks which sounds kind of crazy, but I am loving it. This time we are off to the west coast for 5 days where we will be indulging in lots of incredible wine and delicious food in the lovely Napa & Sonoma Valley for my dad’s 60th birthday. 

I’ll be honest, I was pretty nervous flying out of Newark Airport this morning with all of the delays/cancellations and runway closures that have been highlighted in the news recently. Luckily our flight was at 8:20am and it took off on time – the pilot said we might even land in San Francisco early. Praise Be.

Although this is a trip for my dad’s 60th, my 30th birthday is also next week so as an early birthday treat to myself, Stelios and I upgraded to first class using our miles. I’m also currently reading Chelsea Handler’s book “I’ll have what she’s having” where she has a whole chapter that talks about how she flew first class as a child and knew from the first time she boarded a plane that’s where she belonged. Honestly Chelsea, same. Lounging out in the pods is such a game changer. Overall the flight was smooth and comfy. I rested for a bit until our meal was served and Stelios played a railroad game on the plane the whole time that looked really hard. I watched Anyone But You and Godzilla X Kong to pass the time and we landed in SF at 11am.

The walk to the car rental from baggage claim was quite a journey but we made it. We reserved a Chevy Tahoe then drove an hour and 20 minutes to our Airbnb and Sonoma. We stopped at In-N-Out for a quick bite to break up the drive. The burger was “GAS” as Jen would say (which means it slapped or was fire in millennial slang). 

By 3pm we arrived at our Sonoma airbnb – a Spanish style villa that was gorgeous and even more stunning than the photos. We quickly changed, got ready, and drove to Sonoma square for some pre-dinner drinks. Sonoma Square is a very quaint and a cute downtown, with a historic vibe. We grabbed a table at Roche Winery & Vineyards who served both beer and wine. The boys got a flight of beer, me and Jen shared the Select tasting, and Paula ordered the dry rosé. Our favorite was the oaked Chardonnay, second was the unoaked Chardonnay, third was the rosé and the fourth was the Pinot Noir. Everyone loved the oaked Chardonnay so much that we ordered a whole case of it to be shipped back home. 

By 6pm it was time to head over to Cafe La Haye for dinner. This restaurant was highly recommended online and VERY hard to get a reservation, but I luckily snagged one on Open Table a few weeks ago. There was only 15 tables in the whole restaurant, and only one table was big enough for our party of 5. No wonder it was so hard to get a reservation! Overall Cafe La Haye was 10/10 and exceeded our expectations. We shared some delicious apps, the beef carpaccio was my favorite. For dinner Stelios and I shared a whole quail and the saffron parpadelle with shrimp. Every bite melted in your mouth and the homemade parpadelle was just like the pasta we had in Sicily. For dessert I was full but everyone wanted the apple crisp. There was only two left so then Jen asked for the butternut squash instead of butterscotch pudding (she clearly was buzzed haha). 

After dinner we did a lap around Sonoma square to walk off our dinner. Jen and I spotted a sign that said Sonoma speakeasy and we took a mental note to come back later. We also passed by Sonoma State Park, a historic site that told the story of how California got the bear on their state flag which I found interesting. After a lap around the square it was 8pm and the stores were closing but we weren’t ready to call it a night just yet. We did another lap in search of a cocktail bar and then remembered the speakeasy we passed earlier. The sign was gone but we somehow stumbled into an alleyway with disco music playing – PERFECT! At 8:30 pm on a Tuesday we were the only ones in the place but it didn’t matter, we were the party. We tore up the dance floor for about an hour, the DJ took all of my dad’s song requests and shouted him out for his 60th birthday. We called it a night at 10pm to get some sleep so we could be well rested for a full day of wineries tomorrow. What a great start to the trip!