Tag Archives: Laxton Winery

The Honeymooners – “This Isn’t a Restaurant! It’s a Lobby!”

22 Jul

We were in no hurry to leave Sonoma, but it had to be done. First, it was to Carneros for breakfast, which wasn’t as good as the dinner we had there. Then, it was on the road to San Francisco. We had a room reserved on Fisherman’s Wharf. I know that it’s a tourist area, but sometimes you just have to do tourist things. Necole had never been there, and we thought that she should see it.

We retraced our trek and returned to the city by going over the Golden Gate Bridge. Necole put on Facebook that it wasn’t really gold, and one of her friends said the name had something to do with the type of paint they used. That’s not exactly right. The bridge spans over a waterway that is known as the Golden Gate. You have to watch out for those Facebook facts.

After crossing, we headed toward the wharf on streets that were filled with traffic. They were also filled with pedestrians, bicycles, trolleys and other untold transportation methods. Sometimes, I think that Necole is not impressed with my driving. On this day, she thought I was doing an excellent job.

We made it to the hotel, got into the room and said, “What the heck? Let’s go out amongst them.” Let me tell you, there were a lot of them. People were everywhere. Necole said that it was worse than walking in New York City. Crowds gathered around street performers and blocked the sidewalks. Bicycles whizzed by. People were wandering around and not looking where they were going. It was chaos. It was also linguistically chaotic, as we heard dozens of languages.

Anyway, we went to Pier 39, the heart of tourism along the waterway. This is where you can find the Hard Rock Cafe, Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company and a guy pretending to be Jack Sparrow. It is also where you can find the sea lions that are always hanging around. Except, they don’t hang around this time of year because they are busy repopulating the Earth with more sea lions.Honeymoon 037

There was one guy swimming around. I didn’t see a pocket protector, so I don’t know why he couldn’t get a girl.

By this time, we were becoming overwhelmed. We probably saw more people on the wharf than we had in Half Moon Bay and Sonoma combined. We were tired. We were hungry. It was time to find some food and some relaxation. Taking the advice of our bellhop, we went to Scoma’s. That was crap. He probably got a cut for sending people there.

We sat at the bar to wait for a table, and this crusty old bartender asked what we needed. She looked older than the wharf. Necole wanted something specific, and they had a little go around before coming up with a drink. Necole wasn’t happy and spoke in hushed tones about the bartender’s attitude. When we got up, she said, “That’s what you call a broad. Not a woman. A broad.” I was so proud of her. That term hasn’t been used since the days of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Necole went all historic on me.

The waiter was nicer, but I didn’t think the food was any better than the bartender was. After that, we walked some more and made our way to the hotel, which had some fire pits set up outside. Having some of that good Laxton wine with the twist off cap, we decided to take a bottle street side. That’s when Necole got into it with another broad.

Apparently, there is a $20 bottle fee at the fire pits, and the woman working in the deli shop inside was going to get her $20. We paid it but not without getting our money’s worth. The lady was told in no uncertain terms that we had paid hundreds of dollars for a room and should be able to drink our wine anywhere we wanted. She retorted that no restaurant would allow us to do that. That’s when Necole replied, “This isn’t a restaurant! It’s a lobby!”

Some guy from Los Angeles was sitting with us when that happened. We found out that his father used to be the mayor of Los Angeles, and that he was in San Francisco with a bunch of buddies. They were going to show up at any time. They never did show up. I think he was he San Francisco by himself.

Oh, I forgot that a homeless man was sitting at another fire pit when we sat down. They didn’t charge him a bottle fee for his tall boy.

Eventually, some people from Seattle sat with us. They were interesting and taught me a lot. Namely, the South does not have the monopoly on rednecks.

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The Honeymooners – Flanagan, then Begin Again

21 Jul

This is the day that we had been waiting for, the day for our big wine tour. I had scheduled a driver to take us to different wineries in the area. This way we could taste all we wanted. The plan was for the driver to pick out some places for us, but the first one was somewhere we had discovered through some friends.

When we were planning our honeymoon into wine country, some people in town said that we had to check out Flanagan Wines, a small vineyard that required a recommendation to visit. A few weeks earlier, I contacted the winery and received permission to visit. We fooled the driver on this one. She had never heard of it and, honestly, had a hard time finding it. However, we made it to the gate, of which I had the security code, and we drove up the hill to our destination. This is the view from the front door.Honeymoon 025

During the tour, we saw the wine-producing area and walked through the caves filled with barrels. It was a true learning experience because we had the place to ourselves and could ask any question. To me, the most fascinating information was how the weather changes from valley to valley. This means that each valley is better at producing a different wine. After the tour, we had a tasting while we looked out toward the rolling hills.

From this point, the tour belonged to our driver, and her best destination was a small market that made fresh sandwiches. Her winery choices left something to be desired. Laxton was the first. It was in a metal building and not as picturesque as the ones we had already seen. Flanagan had a modern feel while Inglenook was historically beautiful.Honeymoon 022

Laxton had a warehouse feel. By this time, we were pretty well buzzed, and that means my wallet will loosen up. I bought a t-shirt, and Necole bought a couple of bottles of wine. The wine maker, who used to work at the national laboratory in Oak Ridge, signed the bottles. It was later when we realized that they had twist off tops instead of corks.

We went to a couple of more, but I don’t remember their names. I remember that they were very touristy and that I felt bad for people who went to these and thought they were getting the wine country experience. I know that there are others, but nothing we saw could compare to Inglenook and Flanagan.

Upon our return to the hotel, Necole and I went to the pool. I chose the shady nap, and she chose the sun. At one point, we had a very deep discussion about human behavior. While people watching, I wondered out loud why women wear cover ups at the pool but tan in their bikinis. I thought about this as I watched several men walk by a young woman on a deck chair. Each one of them stared at her as he walked by. What’s the point in the cover up if it is going to be taken off?

Necole said that the men shouldn’t have been staring at the woman. I replied that she didn’t know men very well, then. Since men are going to stare at a woman who is asleep on a deck chair, then she may as well leave the cover up at home.

Eventually, we got up and readied ourselves for dinner at Carneros. The dessert was so good the night before that we decided to try the other food. It was great, too.

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