Saturday, October 20

Today, we woke to the weather I had been expecting for the whole trip although still on the cool side. In the morning, Ann was interested in seeing the canyon Jim and I had biked yesterday so they headed up that canyon road. Laurie wanted to go for a nice morning jog. Since my knee was still feeling less than 100%, I convinced her to go for a bike ride with me instead.

We headed south on Rte. 128 from Jimtown House through a part of the Alexander Valley that we had not visited yet. We passed by several wineries including Stonestreet, Sausal, and Alexander Valley Vineyards.

Hanna Winery Tasting Room

At 10am, we arrived at Hanna Winery just in time for the tasting room to open. It was a bit early to be tasting wine but, as the saying goes, 'when in Rome...'. But alas, it was not to be as we had both neglected to pack any money for our morning ride (there was a $5 tasting fee here). No matter. This was a glorious morning at a beautiful small winery with terraced vineyards surrounding the tastefully designed tasting room. There was even a great blue heron posing in the lawn near the entrance. It was so still and it seemed like an odd location to find a great blue that we initially thought it was a statue. But, sure enough it was real and flew away flaunting its six-foot wing span.

Hanna Vineyards

After Hanna we biked back north and home. This was the perfect start to our final day in wine country.