Flights of All Kinds

The last full day of our Napa Valley trip... wasn't spent in Napa. We headed to the neighboring Sonoma Valley instead, starting our day in downtown Sonoma. We walked around, checking out random stores -- and looking for one place in particular.

The day before, while at Cakebread Cellars, we got to talking about our plan for an afternoon picnic somewhere in Sonoma. We were advised to check out the Vella Cheese Company near Sonoma Plaza, not just to pick up some great cheese, but also a purportedly phenomenal butter. A San Francisco local, also sampling wines at Cakebread, jumped in to endorse the suggestion. The butter is "amazing," we were assured. So first thing on our Sonoma day, we tracked down the place and bought both cheese and butter to tuck in our cooler, all the while wondering how good it could possibly be.

Next we had an hour drive ahead of us. We were headed closer to the coast, and to the Redwoods. The drive took us through Petaluma, California -- and the most acrid, rancid, shockingly bad odor any of us has ever encountered. Colorado residents: think Commerce City and Greeley somehow combined and amplified. I dubbed this memorable smell the "Petaluma Funk." I Googled after the trip was over and learned it has the far more clever name of the "Sonoma Aroma," which can be attributed to local dairies, the seasonal spreading of cow manure over local fields, or both. It is haunting. Fortunately, we planned no stops in the area.

We made our way to Sonoma Canopy Tours, a zipline course through the Redwoods. It was the first time my husband and I had ever been ziplining, and a great location to try it out.

Seven different lines (plus two Temple of Doom style rope bridges and a "rappel" off a platform at the end) led throughout the Redwoods.

At heights of up to 250 feet, speeds of up to 40 MPH, and with one line 1500 feet long, it was great fun.

Afterward, we headed over to Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates. K-J is another kind of wine widely available here in Denver, but there were opportunities there at their tasting room to try things you couldn't get elsewhere. We enjoyed a flight, then selected our favorite and bought a full bottle to take outside to a gazebo on their grounds.

Picnic time had arrived. There at Kendall-Jackson, we pull out a variety of cheese, bread, crackers, and fruit we'd brought with us. Plus, of course, the famous Vella Cheese Company butter. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, or maybe the buzz of the wine, or the lovely view, or the fond feelings of the trip overall... but that butter was everything it was promised to be and more. Somehow it was both light and rich, airy but also flavorful. It was damn good butter, and we'd wished we'd brought about twice as much bread as we did. (We took the rest back home for toast the next morning.)

The special alchemy of scenery, butter, and Kendall-Jackson wine finally wore us down. All trip, every winery we'd visited had sought to sign us up for their wine club. Special bottles only available from the winery! Personal shipments multiple times a year! (And, in many cases, exorbitant prices for the service.) Cakebread Cellars had almost convinced us. Kendall-Jackson, with a more reasonably priced club that still included Sonoma exclusives we couldn't get back in Denver, finally closed the deal. A few times a year, we can look forward to shipments from the winery that also double as reminders of the great time we had on the trip.

One last dinner back in Napa, and our vacation was basically over. We drove back into San Francisco the next morning and caught a rather turbulent flight home to Denver. (A nervous old woman in our row wailed dramatically with each shake, declaring repeatedly that "this is the worst it's ever been!") But a few bumps at the end of a flight were nothing compared to great times we'd had flitting through wine country. At more than a dozen wineries in five days, maybe we overdid it a bit? But hey, that's why we went.

We got everything we'd hoped for.