A Perfect Day

It's going to be very hard to top today.  It probably won't happen for a very long time!  We were up early and in the fitness center then off to find breakfast.  We had no recommendations from anyone so we Googled "best breakfast in Healdsburg" and a few things came up.  We didn't want a chain, we wanted something local.  We copied down three addresses and decided to go to the closest one, Ana's.

It didn't look like much.  A small "cafe" in the middle of a strip mall.  It was a "look up at the menu" place with just a few options but it sure smelled good.  You could tell from the clientele it was a "local" place.  We decided to stay.  Dave had a breakfast sandwich and I had eggs and bacon.  We were expecting styrofoam plates, we were surprised with real plates and very good food! 

As we waited for our food we watched Ana take very personal care of every guest that walked in the door.  It was just Ana and one other person in the place.  She practically danced around the front of the store getting lattes, sandwiches, coffee, whatever was needed.  She did it all with a smile.  She was amazing!

The salsa, obviously homemade, was really really good.  We resisted the urge to lick the bottom of the little bowl in which it was served.

Because we're still on CST it was only 9am after we finished breakfast so we decided to check out downtown Healdsburg.  We found an Oakville Grocery!  We didn't know there was one of those outside of Oakvillle!  If you ever visit, you have to visit the Oakville grocery IN Oakville.  Since we'd been there, this one would do.  We found these very cool plastic wine glasses modeled after the Riedel O series.  We picked some up.  They will be great for the deck in the summer or for traveling!  They were a whopping $4 each!

Dave wanted more coffee so we sat in a coffee shop for a while, in the sun and waited "patiently" for it to be time for our wine tasting at Seghesio.  Finally time! 

It was a bigger class than we had ever been in and headed by the VP of something-or-other for Riedel in the US.  This tasting was different from others we'd gone to in a couple of ways.  First, the glasses were all already full of wine.   Usually the glasses are all empty so you can pour the wine into each one to taste the differences.  Second, each wine was paired with a different salumi.  Yes, salumi, not salami!

Salumi is the umbrella term for Italian-style cured or preserved meats, meaning that salami is in fact a type of salumi. Although salumi is usually pork, any meat that is cured, preserved, or fermented can be a salumi.  We had four different meats.  Unfortunately my notes are packed safely in the box with my glasses, which is going to be shipped home by our friends at the Seghesio winery!  I remember there was one made of wild boar.  It was really good!  We also got to taste two additional Zinfandels during the class.

The tasting lasted two hours after which we shopped!  We were told that there was no more Home Ranch Zinfandel!  We would have to wait until May to get it in our wine club shipment.  Say it isn't so!  Enter Andy!

The first time we visited Seghesio we met Andy.  The tasting room was practically empty that day and we had fun tasting wines and chatting with him.  He was so much fun that he won our "prize" for the trip, a Wheatie's box with his picture on it!  (This year's winner is Ana!).  Andy "found" us some of my very favorite wine in the warehouse and got it ordered to ship!  He also took care of shipping the wine glasses from the tasting so we wouldn't have to deal with them on the plane.  We love Andy!  He may be getting something special this year too.

After the tasting Dave wanted to check out the Charles M. Schultz museum.  We drove there with the sun roof and windows open!  It was in the low 70's and sunny, a perfect day!  After a brief stop at the actual Charles M. Schultz museum for the artist (where I got the cool toy linked to below) we found the museum that had all the airplanes!

LINK to my new toy!

We decided it was time for "linner".  We'd had breakfast at 8:30, slices of salumi at the wine tasting and nothing since, it was now almost 3pm.  We went back to Healdsburg and stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Healdsburg Charcuterie.  Dave had a steak sandwich and I had a burger which left room for dessert!  Chocolate cake with vanilla gelatto and caramelized bananas with caramel sauce.  YUM!

We walked the square one more time stopping in the world's greatest candy store, Powell's Sweet Shop, before heading out of town.

This is just half of the store!

A complete set of Snow White & the Seven Swarfs Pez dispensers!

Willie Wonka playing on the TV surrounded by autographed pictures and real golden tickets from the movie!

On the way back to Santa Rosa we decided to stop at J Winery.  It's one we had wanted to stop at last time we were here but ran out of time.  We're glad we did.  We got there about 10 till 5.  They close at 5!  They let us in anyway.

Their chardonnay was so good we bought a bottle.  I tried a couple of their sparkling wines which were also very good but I think we can get those at home.  Dave tried a couple of pinot noirs, but didn't love either of them.  The fun part was the two women from southern California who were tasting next to us.  One was a wine snob want-to-be who argued with the person serving the wine about origins of different wines.  He told her that if he was right she had to join the wine club.  He pulled out the "wine bible" for her to look up the answer to whatever they were arguing about (we didn't really care).  She was wrong, she admitted it, but I don't think she signed up for the club! 

From there it was back to the hotel for a nap!

Tomorrow we're having breakfast at Worth Our Weight and doing a "Mountain Top Tasting" at Kunde.  Since we are now wine club members there it's just $15 each!  What a deal!  We're hoping to get to Cafe Citti tomorrow too.