At the end of my most recent West Coast business trip, I played hooky* from work and left for wine country with my San Francisco-based friend C.

When we left SF, it was drizzly with heavy cloud cover. After about thirty minutes of driving, it looked like this.

What a treat it must be to live so close to this beautiful part of the country!

On the way into Sonoma, C suggested we stop at Ram’s Gate Winery. She said a lot of people bypass it in their haste to get to Sonoma proper. Don’t make this mistake.

Ram’s Gate is incredibly beautiful with terrific wine and food.

We had a proper lunch at Centre du Vin (get the blue cheese fries) and then walked around Sonoma Square, ducking into a few of its quirky shops.

After spending the night at the local Marriott ($199 plus tax; not bad for Harvest), we enjoyed breakfast outside by the pool.

After my friend M joined us, we set out to drink more wine. St. Supéry obliged.

The Virtú was our favorite white and this was our favorite dog.

All too soon, it was time to head to the airport. I’ll be back soon, Napa and Sonoma.

*I’m lying. Goody-goody me took an official vacation day. Hooky sounds more fun though.