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| House We Rented in Glen Ellen |
We wanted a weekend getaway with Rak and Sim, so Sim found a wonderful house in Glen Ellen where we could base out of to visit the wineries in Sonoma Valley.
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| Pool at the House |
Simran found the
house on Beautiful Places web site. It is about a mile out of Glen Ellen village in a small gated compound of four houses. It is a two bedroom house, with one bedroom on the top floor and the second, along with a daybed in the hallway, downstairs. The top floor has a reasonable size kitchen and a family sitting room. The outside has several areas to it: a small deck, a patio outside the kitchen with a pizza oven and grill, a hot tub, and a large pool area.
Keith was in Los Angeles earlier in the week so flew directly from there to SFO, arriving on the Wednesday evening. Rak was in NYC and Sim was out at a CPR class, so she left the key for Keith to let himself in. Sim showed up at about 9pm, then made them both a delicious dinner of leftovers.
Keith, Simran, and Ria headed out to Glen Ellen at about 10am, getting to the house an hour later. There were a few wrong turns on the way, but nothing that got us too far out of the way. Sim's friend Stacie showed up a bit later with her two kids to use the pool and spend part of the day. Keith worked in the dining room on wifi while the others spent the afternoon at the pool. Shawna flew in to Oakland later that evening and got to the house at about 9pm, when Simran cooked an awesome lamb curry, spinach, and carrot raita for dinner.
Rak was on a late flight from NYC so arrived early on Friday morning. After a quick breakfast, we headed out to a few vineyards, ate a picnic lunch at Stuhlmuller, and then headed back to the house for a swim - where Ria showed us all the dives in her repertoire: pencil, spider, cannonball, running, running while holding hands, sideways, and turn (and many more that we can't remember). Shawna was in charge of dinner and made shrimp & avocado salad, tuna on potato cakes with mango salsa and spinach - then we stayed up late drinking some of the wine we bought earlier in the day.
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| Pool Time |
On Saturday, we had breakfast in the house, then Shawna, Keith, and Sim headed out for some wine tastings while Rak stayed back with Ria to heat up and prepare the pizza oven. We arrived back at the house at 1pm to find Rak channeling his inner Italian and tossing pizza dough and jamming to music. The pizza was awesome - we had veggie, salami/mushroom, and the piece d' resistance, lamb curry. We drank three bottles over lunch and it turned into a bit of a dance party. We then had a nap and afterward hit the pool for more Ria diving. Simran and Shawna headed to Sonoma to walk around the square, while Rak cooked a yummy dinner of scallops with arugula, mussels and clams and lamb burgers with raita.
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| Pizza Cooking |
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| Proud Chefs |
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| Time to Eat! |
On Sunday, we all took our time getting up and then made brunch which was eggs benedict served on potato cakes, salad and tomatoes. Keith, Simran and Shawna went into town to see the farmers market which was probably the smallest we had ever seen - it didn't take long to walk around. After walking around the old mill, we returned to the house for one last dip into the pool before we packed up to leave. We all drove to Sonoma for an early dinner at an Indian restaurant and then Keith headed to Oakland airport while Shawna drove back with Rak and Sim as she was taking the red eye to CT out of SFO airport.
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| Simran and Keith Wine Tasting |
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| Keith and Shawna Wine Tasting |
Chalk Hill - Great winery - loved the Pinot Gris.
Stuhlmuller - Shawna wanted to go to this vineyard as we had tried their wine in NYC at Gramercy Tavern and really liked it. It's a cute, small vineyard. We had a picnic lunch here with a bottle of their chardonnay.
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| Stuhlmuller Winery |
BR Cohn - The chardonnay was good. They also have a nice store where you can buy some products they produce such as olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and mustards. We bought a few vinegars (aged balsamic, fig and champagne).
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| BR Cohn Winery |
Imagery - We went here upon a recommendation from friends. While the people were nice and there was cool art to see, the wine was not great.
Landmark - The best winery on this trip -- all of the wines were awesome - chardonnays and pinot noirs!
Videos:
Pool Time
Pizza Time
Big Butt Dance Time
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