We had another jam packed day today. The alarm went off at 6:30am so that we could get into San Francisco for our tour of Muir Woods 
and the Sonoma Valley wineries .
The tour started with the drive to Muir Woods, a protected area of woodland (technically a national monument, not a national park) containing lots of Coastal Giant Redwood trees . We spent about an hour exploring the woods, which are small but interesting and well presented. The giant redwoods grow to up to 250 ft despite having roots only 6-10 feet down, they grow in ‘family circles’ and link roots to hold each other up. They only grow near the coast because they need the mist to take on water at that height as trees can’t take water from the ground to that height).
We then drove out of the bay area to the Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley’s less well known but equally beautiful and less congested neighbour. We got to visit two wineries, one of them owned by the Jacuzzi family (the same ones whose ancestors invented the hot tub!) and got to enjoy two tasting sessions.
Unfortunately, Jen is still on antibiotics so couldn’t actually drink the wine but she still managed to taste a couple of them and there was more than just wine on the menu. The Jacuzzi Winery also had an olive press and we were able to taste lots of different flavoured olive oils (I’ve now fallen in love with hazelnut oil and ‘blood orange’ olive oil on bread). We then had lunch in Sonoma’s very Mediterranean looking square at the Sonoma Cheese Factory. We got to taste lots of cheeses and had a nice lunch, after which I managed to get another glass of wine in next door before continuing to our second winery and more wine tasting.
As you can see from the photos, Sonoma is absolutely beautiful and completely different from San Francisco considering it’s less than an hour away. They say it get’s a degree warmer for every 3 miles you drive north out of San Francisco, you can be wearing jackets and gloves at one end and shorts and T-shorts at the other.
We’re going to get an early night tonight and leave early tomorrow morning for L.A.