Baby Steps

Maddie Visits the Science Museum

Maddie has been reading all of Eric's dinosaur books. Maddie and I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota so she could see some dinosaur skeletons and get an idea of how large they actually were.

Maddie's favorite was probably this Triceratops.

Diplodocus, with Stegasaurus in the background.

Easter egg hunting.

Sonoma

Eric and Lisa took a delayed anniversary trip to San Francisco and Sonoma County, California - wine country! Grandma and Grandpa Roling came up and stayed with the kids in Minnesota to minimize the disruption. We had an awesome time and discovered a number of great new wines.

Just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz, as seen from the Golden Gate Bridge.

The coast north of San Francisco.

We took a long hike on the Pomo Canyon Trail just south of the Russian River. We started inland, hiked through a redwood forest, through the hills and to the coast and then back. The views were spectacular the whole way.

In California, even the outhouses are handicapped accessible!

Magnificent redwoods growing in clusters.

The ocean is just in sight, but it's a ways away still.

The Russian River winds its way into the ocean. If you've ever had a Russian River Valley wine from California, this is the one.

The coast at Shell Beach.

We saw a couple of otters frolicking in the ocean near here, but couldn't zoom in close enough for a good shot.

Lunch in Sonoma. We visited the Schug, Sebastiani, Mayo Family, and St. Francis wineries this day.

Wine tasting at the Mayo Family winery.

The St. Francis Winery tasting room. Notice the blue teeth!

The view from the St. Francis Winery.

The exterior of the St. Francis Winery tasting room.

St. Francis himself.

Day two in the Alexander Valley region of Sonoma wine country. We visited the Alexander Valley, Fieldstone, Stone Street, Murphy-Goode, and Geyser Peak wineries this day. Here I am in front of the Fieldstone winery.

Tasting at Stone Street.

At Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg.

Heading back to San Francisco.

We had a lot of fun and bought a lot of wine!!