Boating and A Bastille Day Celebration

Happy Bastille Day! Many of the wineries in Sonoma held celebrations this past weekend, and we were lucky enough to celebrate with some delicious food and wine at DeLoach Vineyards.

The first half of our day, however, was spent celebrating my husband’s birthday on Lake Sonoma. If you ever get a chance to go boating on the lake, please do yourself a favor and go for it! What a relaxing and magical day. . .

We started with a hearty breakfast at our Healdsburg bed & breakfast  and then drove North to get to the lake, passing exquisite scenery all along the way.

We grabbed sandwiches and drinks at the marina and after getting a quick overview of the boat, we were on our way.

After some speeding around, we found a cove and tied up the boat so that we could swim, sun, and eat lunch. It was quiet, the air was SO clean and fresh, the sun was strong, and I was with my favorite person. The perfect getaway.

After some rest, we decided to explore the other side of the lake (which was actually once a valley that was flooded to form the lake!)

My photos don’t do it justice.

When the sun started to get to us, we drove back through the valley to Bella Villa Messina to cool off, shower, and get pretty for our visit to DeLoach.

On our drive through the Russian River Valley, we stopped for a quick tasting at Arista Winery . . . more on that later! Then it was on to DeLoach, a winery we visited and loved last fall.

DeLoach had a beautiful spread of picnic foods as well as wine by the glass.

The winery grounds were the perfect place for a summer picnic. We wandered around as we listened to the band and sipped on our wine. One of the coolest (literally) parts of the evening was watching a massive front of fog move into the valley, rapidly cooling the air. You can see the fog in the photo below on the right. By the end of the evening I was freezing! The Pinot Noir grapes of the Russian River Valley love this diurnal shift though, so I suppose for the sake of the wine it’s okay 🙂

We ended the night with a glass of Boisset champagne. Boisset Family Estates is the parent company of DeLoach, and I really enjoyed a bit of their bubbly.

After an hour or so we may have gone to a taqueria in Healdsburg for a little bit of this:

Mexican food is SO good in California! Just another reason to move there. . .

Our early Bastille Day celebration was a perfect day. There are so many incredible winery events going on in wine country, and paired with the natural beauty, it is simply amazing.

If you could move anywhere right now, where would you go? Or would you stay where you are?