day two

We started the day early, eating breakfast in the bar: a delicious apple turnover for Ryan and a smoothie (pomegranate, banana, ginger, and orange juice) for Emily.

We went to the spa to try the bathing ritual. First a grape seed exfoliating scrub in a shower, then into a pool kept around 92 degrees.

After 15 minutes of relaxing in the pool, sipping cool water, we moved into the 102 degree whirl pool. We went into a quick cool shower, then onto a wet steam room. It was really dark, with blue lights, and lots of fog. We found it difficult to breathe because of the water vapor, which smelled of eucalyptus. We went into the dry sauna, where we warmed back up. By this time we were feeling pretty relaxed and we still had half an hour before our treatment. We went to the lounge area, where we tasted some “elixirs” and ate some almonds and fruit. Emily managed to fall asleep for a few minutes due to the whole relaxing experience. We went upstairs to begin our treatment with a lavender bubble bath in a large copper tub. Next we were covered with a lavender, grape seed, and tea tree oil scrub and wrapped up for a while… where Emily managed to fall asleep again. They massaged our heads and feet during this time. Once the wrap was complete, we received full body massages.
After quick showers, we checked out of the hotel and returned to the spa boutique for some gifts. next we received free smoothies as a gift from the spa. Ryan chose orange juice, strawberry, and raspberry, while Emily got another vanilla float.
We next moved onto the yarn store, where we chose some yarn from a local alpaca to be made into something as yet undetermined. the locals seem to be fairly impatient drivers. as we were turning into the yarn shop, we were passed by several cars (and one large (Ryder-sized) truck, who went off the shoulder just to get around us.
When we were getting ready to leave the yarn shop, Ryan started to look up driving directions to the Sonoma Plaza. The iphone thought we were about 12 miles south of town when really we were about 7 miles northwest. The yarn shop owner helped to clear things up and gave us easy directions to the plaza. we left the yarn shop and drove to Sonoma’s main plaza to try some tacos at Maya. They were simple, made of hangar steak pieces and cheese, but they were delicious. We walked around to scope out places to visit later, and found some promising leads. We also visited the three dog barkery, which sells a few treats at dlm. We didn’t want to buy anything yet, so plan to return at the end of our trip so that the treats are at their freshest.
by this time we were able to check into El Dorado Hotel, so we did just that and took a nice long nap. The hotel is much more modern than its look from the outside.

After our nap, we walked around the plaza again to determine what we had missed and look at the menus.
We returned to El Dorado for dinner at El Dorado Kitchen and sat outside on their large patio. It was half price wine night, so we selected an expensive blend. We started with “farm frites”, which were asparagus fries served with a lemon wedge and aioli sauce that were fantastic… sort of a vegetarian calamari.

Next we had chilled spring garlic soup, which had a few shreds of radish in it and was topped with what was likely basil oil. Emily thought the soup would be made slightly better with a few scallions, but we both enjoyed it immensely. For the entrees, Ryan got a leg of lamb with lamb jus and lamb confit with a bean and frisee topping,
while Emily chose a truffle risotto (yes, Emily got RISOTTO!)
The risotto was quite tasty, although it was a bit too rich to eat as an entire meal—it would have complemented the lamb with its simple flavors perfectly as a side dish. having a long list of delicious sounding desserts, we settled on the s’more tart, as we felt it was most unusual. a buttery graham cracker crust with heavy chocolate ganache topped with Italian meringue, served with vanilla gelato and caramel sauce.
Emily decided the gelato was her favorite part and that the caramel was delicious but not as fantastic as the one from the Wine Gallery.
We attempted to stay up until a reasonable hour, but pretty much failed miserably.

Wines for 27 May 2009: (see picture) Muscardini “Tesoro” Sangiovese/Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, 2006. $38 (Half Price)—didn’t go with the lamb as well as expected. Good, but not $70-good.

day one

Worst time with tsa in Dayton. The lines are now divided, and we ended up in the “family and medical liquids” line because there wasn’t a sign explaining the differences between the 3 lines until you’d stood in line for 10 minutes. Our line was by far the slowest but we had no idea because it seemed to be moving okay until we started watching people we’d gotten in line before going through. We were lucky that boarding was delayed a few minutes.
the flight to minneapolis was uneventful. a little bit down the concourse from the gate we landed, there was a giant snoopy that we decided to get our first honeymoon picture with. We asked a man who appeared to be taking a picture of his daughter’s my little pony with the snoopy, and he obliged (although he didn’t hold long enough, so we never got a picture)
He then asked if we were on our honeymoon, and when we said yes, he took us to the delta sky club. These places are absolutely ridiculous! The changing table in the bathroom was stainless steel. The floors are marble. There are free fancy coffee machines as well as danishes, bagels, and alcohol to make your own drinks. There are free newspapers and magazines, wifi, computer stations, printers, and copiers. The chairs are large and comfy.
We left the club after about an hour and a half in order to eat a larger breakfast. We found ourselves at ike’s, a hometown kind of place. it was good, although probably not worth writing much more about. We ate enough to hold us over until much much later, then left for our gate.
Upon landing in San Francisco, we headed to baggage claim where our three bags were among the first 20 out (our plane had 174 people). We got onto a train to get to hertz. We managed to get a dog-loving agent, so she saw pictures of Henry and Milo, and then when she found out that we were on our honeymoon, she upgraded us to a 2010 Ford Mustang convertible.
The trunk space only holds two of our bags, but it was by far the best way to go over the golden gate bridge, which we did as we headed out to Sonoma.
We had a bit of trouble finding the hotel, but managed to find the yarn shop less than a block away. No time to check it out yet, as we had places to be, but we plan to tomorrow.
We checked into the Sonoma Mission Inn, where we were informed that they had managed to upgrade us to a Mission Suite (which contains a king size bed, non-smoking, romantic Jacuzzi, patio, fireplace, complimentary wine and wine tasting), which we later determined usually costs $449 a night!


We walked in; the place was gorgeous, and a bottle of champagne was waiting for us. We didn’t have time to enjoy it yet though, because we had treatments in half an hour. We changed and walked over to the spa. We were too late to enjoy the bathing ritual, but plan to arrive with plenty of time tomorrow morning. For now, we enjoyed the fresh strawberries and oranges along with the mint and lime flavored water.
Emily got the vanilla floatation. They dry-exfoliated her with these gloves, then slathered her with body butter. She was wrapped in towels and sheets and then the table lowered into hot water, where she stayed for 45 minutes as the therapist massaged her head, neck, and feet. At the conclusion, they provided a vanilla float smoothie. during the session Emily asked the therapist about good local Mexican food and she recommended two places: the taco cart across the street and Maya (a sit down restaurant) which is located in the plaza. we plan on having the taco cart for lunch tomorrow and going over to Maya later in the week while we are staying at El Dorado which is on the plaza.
Ryan enjoyed the watsu massage, which involved his therapist to move and stretch him in may different ways under water. his legs were supported at the knee by floats, and while it did not deeply massage his back, he called it the “most relaxing thing he has ever done”.
We came back to the room and drank a little champagne on the patio. We hadn’t made dinner plans, so we decided to head to the four diamond rated hotel restaurant, Santé. After ordering they served us a course of chilled leek and onion soup topped with a little basil oil and served with some dehydrated carrot to sprinkle on top next to a little brioche topped with black truffle mousse. I wish we’d remembered to get a picture, but we didn’t. Then the bread and butter came. There were two types of butter—a French, and a Californian. neither were salted, and there was French sea salt in between the two that you sprinkle on top.
It was all fantastic, and interesting to see how the different breads took the butters differently. Then, because it was our honeymoon, the chef prepared an extra dish for us. It was presented on three plates of concentric sizes, with napkins in between the layers. It was a cauliflower custard with black truffle shavings and black truffle oil. This we were both pleased to discover was fantastic. Our dinners soon came... Emily had an artichoke ravioli with pickled pearl onions and a lemon beurre sauce. Ryan’s dish was a Bodega Bay duck breast with huckleberry reduction, wilted spinach underneath, caramelized pearl onions, and a side of duck confit hash browns with a quail egg on top.
For dessert we split a blueberry and almond financier that reminded us of a muffin/cupcake mix. It was topped with lemon thyme sorbet which was much creamier than expected, and a candied lemon along with a blueberry reduction sauce. They had written happy honeymoon in chocolate sauce along the edge.
We walked back to our room, where we crashed finally.

Wines for 26 May 2009:
Buena Vista, Syrah, Carneros, 2005, $15 by the glass – All the wines at Sante were expensive but Ryan decided that a glass of wine with the duck breast would be great,. This glass of wine was the cheapest on the menu but it was very good, especially with the duck.