For our last day together, we packed a LOT in! We started out with an early morning drive out to the coast on Hwy 12 and had breakfast in Bodega Bay at the Tides restaurant. Best apple pancakes and crab cakes benedict EVER! This was the sight of where Alfred Hitchcock filmed much of his movie "The Birds".
The seals were barking so loudly! We could see them swimming around the docks but they wouldn't come closer to us, too bad we didn't bring them breakfast.
This cute little guy kept us company during breakfast!
After breakfast we stumbled upon the "legendary" pink taffy shack that I had been raving about all week! Who knew it was right around the corner from the restaurant?!
It's such a cute little place, nothing much to it, but no one ever leaves there without a smile. Before we left, we made the owner promise to never paint it anything but pink and white. She said ok! :)
We drove up Hwy 1, or the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to Jenner and then took the Russian River Road back east to complete our circle. Had to stop for a few pictures!
Loved driving in the redwoods.
The Korbel vineyards
The Korbel champagne winery offers free tours, so of course we said yes! It's a fascinating process, how they make champagne, and we also learned that the Korbel brothers originally started out making cigar boxes before they grew vineyards!
The beautiful flower gardens and grounds were as fascinating as the vineyards!
This tower was built as a sober reminder of one of the Korbel brothers captivity in a similar tower in Prague before their mother busted him out of jail. Loved that story.
After Korbel, we sorta got lost and found our way on the back roads to Healdsburg, my favorite little town around here! We had lunch at the Shed - I think that was a margarita pizza that we scarfed down.
After zipping from one end of Sonoma County to the other, we came home and changed clothes and off we went to "the surprise". I had been planning something special for weeks, ever since I knew Stef was coming out! Cooking classes at Sur La Table!! (I loved the irony since a good portion of our conversations all week had revolved around food and things we love to cook or bake.) I signed us up for the class "Fall Dinner Party", and as luck (or blessings!) would have it, no one else signed up so we had the chef all to ourselves! Private cooking lessons from Jude Affronti?!?! Yes please!!! He studied under Mario Batali and was such a great teacher. In between each of our four courses that we prepared and ate, we picked his brain on everything from cooking tips and fine French Cuisine to Top Chef and his favorite cheese! (And then we had the whole store to ourselves to go shopping, try out food processors and Kitchen Aides, and play!)
This is Stef, folding in the cream and chocolate for our Mousse! Sooooo delish! We also made a pear and goat cheese spinach salad with a balsalmic vinagrette, rice pilaf, and pan seared chicken with fines herbs! Yum!
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