A Picnic in the Wine Country (Mother's Day, Part I)

One major perk of living in the Bay Area is that we can easily hop in the car and head to a really cool destination for the day.  When we return, it always feels like we’ve had a little mini vacation and it’s always so refreshing to get out of the city for a bit.  Sunday was one of those days…
This morning, we made some lattes at home and then piled in the car and drove up to the wine country.  It was cool but sunny in the city, but as we drove across the bridge, we could see “Karl” the fog rolling in.  We couldn’t even see the water, much less the iconic orange towers as we drove across the bridge, which is always such a crazy feeling (and our two year old was baffled and kept asking us where the bridge had gone – try explaining that!)  Just on the other side of the bridge, though, it was hot and sunny (another reason to get of the city once in a while!)  We drove up to St. Helena, which is one of our favorite little towns and went into Dean and Deluca to do our shopping.
I used to go to Dean and Deluca when I lived in Manhattan (where it originated) and I’m always excited to walk into this familiar and gorgeous culinary retreat.  I could shop in there for hours!  We picked up some fresh fruit and cheese and some grapes and sandwiches and some yogurt for the kids.  We also grabbed some black and white cookies, which are my favorite and you cannot find outside of NYC for some strange reason.  They are SO yummy!  We also found a few items for our kitchen – some artisan honey and some delicious fleur de sel.  Then, we drove over a couple of miles to Rombauer Winery.
We went to Rombauer last year on Mother’s Day as well and it was so fun!  The winery is set up with little grottos in their lovely gardens which have well-maintained picnic tables surrounded by lovely flowers and little pieces of art.  It’s a great place for a family picnic and today was no exception.  Hubs got all of us situated at a great little table in a shady spot and then went in to buy some yummy wine for us to drink.  We went with their Zinfandel, which is delicious, although their Chardonnay is also really tasty!  We had such a fun time eating our picnic lunch outside and it was so nice to let the littles run around the gardens while we ate our lunch slowly (a rarity for me as a mom!)  After Rombauer, we headed over to Paraduxx and then to Bouchon Bakery before heading home.  Stay tuned for more detailed posts on those later this week!   All in all, it was such a lovely Mother’s Day.  I felt completely spoiled and had such a wonderful day spending time with my precious boys!
Check out our photos below to see why this is a must-visit winery.  What are your favorite spots in the wine country that we should try out?  Let us know in the comments below!