Doug and I were up early and at the Jack London State Historic Park when it opened. I wasn't sure what to expect and was afraid that I talked Doug into something that wasn't worth our time. Thankfully, I was very wrong, and we absolutely loved our morning there. We spent the first hour at the park hiking down to Wolf House, Jack London's home that unfortunately burned down the month before he and his wife were scheduled to move in. The outside was still standing as the structure was built with lava rocks, but the inside was gutted. From the architectural drawings and pictures at the site, it would have been absolutely beautiful.
After walking around the property and visiting the Londons' graves, Doug and I hiked back up to Wolf Hall, the home that Jack London's wife built after he died as a shrine to their life together. It had become a museum after her death, and we both learned a lot about his life from the exhibits displayed. Our last stop was their cottage where London wrote his most famous books, White Fang and Call of the Wild. We could see his writing room and the remnants of the vineyard they had on property. Although I was completely exhausted from the hike up and down the trails, I was so happy that we decided to spend our morning exploring the park.
Our next stop was Mayo vineyard so that Doug could do some wine tasting. He really enjoyed the wines, and I loved the wine sommelier. He was funny and very knowledgeable about the area. He told us that Jack London wasn't as revered by the locals in the early 1900s as he was now. In fact, there were rumors that they actually burned his house down because he was so unpopular in the area. Either way, it was a fun stop on our way to lunch at a local brewhouse. It was very nice and the food was delicious.
Our last stop of the day was Sterling Vineyards. I had made a reservation for a wine tasting there with a seat reserved on their patio at the end of it. The vineyard was so far up the mountain that we had to ride a gondola to it which we both loved. There were several stations along the tour that gave us a sample of wine to try and information about different parts of the winery. The views from the top were spectacular and we once again had a fun, knowledgeable sommelier. I am not much of a wine connoisseur, but even I could tell that their wines were a lot better than any others that I had tried. I spent quite a bit of time taking pictures of the views while Doug signed up for their membership which allowed us to pick out wine to be shipped to our home three times a year. We were both excited about that as it would be the perfect "souvenir" to share with our children at the holidays. Overall, it was a wonderful day in Sonoma.
No comments:
Post a Comment