It's pronounced gun-lock-bun-shoe.

After Healdsburg, we headed over to Sonoma.  Want to know where we stopped first? You guessed it...another brewery!

Lagunitas Brewing Company is in Petaluma, CA.  D had the hook up for us, so we spent plenty of time touring and tasting (less tasting for me, the driver!).

[bottles & goggles]

[View from the brewery]

D got a little carried away with the touring, so we left the brewery in a rush.  We ended up being late to our winery tour.  Not to fear though, we certainly weren't to late to get in on the tasting.

The tour and tasting at Gundlach Bundschu was so beautiful and informative.  We got to actually walk down into the vineyard.  Gundlach Bundschu is actually the second oldest vineyard in Sonoma (only the second by two months, I think), so the history is really interesting.

 [The wine caves!]

[Filled with lots of wine!]

After this tasting, we headed to their sister winery, Bartholomew Park Winery.  It's much smaller, and we just did a tasting there.  

After a hotel snafu, we ended up in a really cute hotel in downtown Sonoma.  We definitely enjoyed the hot tub.  Before we got to hot tubbing, we hit up a highly recommended restaurant downtown.  The Girl and the Fig was amazing!   I told D I think it was my favorite meal of the trip (although obviously many meals consisted of fried brew pub foods)!  It was simple, but absolutely delicious.

We started with the house made charcuterie plate.  Just amazing.  Cured meats (my favorite meats ever probably), cheeses, delicious mustard, fig paté, mixed nuts.  I was in heaven.

MANO FORMATE is the deli/meat curing station/"fig store"/etc. This was right inside the restaurant behind the bar.

My dinner was simple but delicious. It was a croques monsieur with a fresh farm egg added.  The side salad was amazing as well.  It had house-made pickles on the side and a delicious vinaigrette.  If you're ever in Sonoma, please please visit this restaurant!  The website says make reservations, and that's probably a good idea on a weekend or later in the evening.  We came in earlier in the evening and had no problem getting seats at the bar.

We enjoyed the hot tub and headed in early to get on the PCH down the coast!

(Ps. While you're hanging out this weekend, go check out Lauren's AMAZING blowout giveaway to celebrate hitting 300 followers!)

We'll be in a silver Prius, no big deal.

After San Francisco, it was time to get pick up the rental car and head out to wine country!

We were amazingly lucky in that we were able to rent this beauty for the price of our compact car!

[Um, seriously we drove from San Fran all the way down to San Diego and only spent $90 on gas! #win #extradrinkingmoney]

It was time to head up to Healdsburg.  We had just enough time (well, 45 minutes) to stop by Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa.  According to D, they make some of the best beer in the US.  Since I haven't had enough beer to verify that statement, I can testify to the fact the brew pub is awesome!

 [Ridiculous beer menu!]

 [Sampler of every single beer on that menu.  Amazing.]

 [Even the menu is fucking awesome.  This pizza...die.]

It's just ridiculously sad that we only had 45 minutes there.  D got some beers to bring back from Russian River, and we hit the road to Healdsburg!

We started at Twomey and explored the Dry Creek area in Healdsburg.  It's just beautiful there, and the wineries were amazing.

 [Twomey]

 [Lambert Bridge - a really stunning winery!  They have a great outdoor area]

[Ended our Dry Creek tour at Preston Vineyards, which is also a really amazing family farm]

I wish we could have stayed longer at these places, but you know how it goes with wine tastings and driving.  After settling in at our hotel, we headed out to eat at Bear Republic's brew pub.

Of course there was more beer tasting and eating of fried foods.  We did spend the rest of the evening strolling around Healdsburg, which is a perfect small town.  We stopped in at a local restaurant that had amazing mixed drinks.  The next morning we also stopped at a french-style bakery that had an amazing breakfast!  Then it was off to Sonoma...