Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Traveling to California was complex this year for various reasons; ideally, we'd all plan to arrive within minutes of each other at SFO around mid-day Wednesday, May 20th. The plan for most of us to be on the same flight was disrupted by weather (affecting connections) and other considerations.
Gael was already in Santa Rosa visiting with Matt, Kristyn and Da Boys so the plan was for Bill, Leah, Fred, Fran and I to arrive in SFO a bit after noon. But weather delays caused Fred and Fran to miss their connection from Charleston to Atlanta and, therefore, to spend most of the day flying around the country. Newsom and Beverly had a similar problem flying from Knoxville and they, too, spent most of the day in the air. Gotta love modern-day travel! The plan was always for Dale and Allie to fly into Oakland, but they wouldn't arrive until nearly four hours later.
So Bill, Leah and I picked up one of the rental vans, motored up to Santa Rosa, picked up Gael and headed off (four Musketeers instead of the planned eight..) to our first winery of HOB 2009: Benovia Winery.
Gael and I had visited Benovia and the genial Bob Mosby at Christmas-time so we'd warned him what to expect. He was geared up for ten of us but hid his disappoinment well when only four of us showed up.
Grapes are just beginning to form:
We love Benovia!
What a pity that the Bakers, Gunters and Hunters missed this great tasting opportunity. Sadly, there wasn't enough time to return on this trip.
Off to dinner at Willi's Wine Bar:
We'd kept in touch by phone with the "Missing Six" and found that only Dale and Allie were able to join us for dinner; the rest were still circling somewhere over San Francisco.
We'd been to Willi's before on HOB 2005 and 2006 plus Gael and I eat there often on our other visits to Santa Rosa. Willi's is a tapas/wine bar restaurant and their food is just great. The six of us had a grand time.
We dropped Bill and Leah at their hotel; the Hunters had their own rental car from the Oakland airport and they took themselves home to their hotel.
We tracked the Bakers and the Gunters who arrived at SFO around 9pm. They picked up van#2 and headed directly to the hotel, plumb tuckered out. The plan: Meet at the hotel at 10am tomorrow and hit the road.
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