Western Wine, Food, & Dog Adventures: Alexander Valley, another beach adventure, & Tree House Evening

We just came inside from spending a glorious evening by the fire we built just outside the Tree House. This is such a relaxing place to spend a few days. Tonight we built the fire and began sipping on the second bottle of our thrifty Joseph Swan Zinfandel . . . those folks somehow didn't realize how drinkable this 2005 Zin was . . . we've thoroughly enjoyed it. As the evening began to darken we fixed a fresh baby spinach, local cheese, and smoked salmon salad that we savored outside as we chatted and played with Sparta. For dessert we made smores, always one of my favorites.

Earlier in the day we explored Alexander Valley and stopped by the town of Healdsburg, a charming town kind of like Sonoma. The only wine we sampled was at Stephen & Walker where we bought a lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon . . . this is an elegant small wine maker that neither of us had heard of but we enjoyed visiting.

For lunch we came back toward the Tree House and ate lunch at a little cafe down the street, the Garden Cafe. The owner treated Sparta very well and Sparta felt special enough to eat all of her lunch.

After lunch we took Sparta back to Blind Beach which is located at Goat Rock Beach. We visited this place a few days ago, but this time we parked near the beach instead of climbing down the long cliff. The waves were huge today . . . Sparta found a couple of friends and played in the waves a bit.

To get our spinach greens we drove back to Occidental to the market where we bought our deli sandwich a few days ago . . . this market has lovely fresh produce as well as organic meats . . . .it is the best market we've found in this area.

Tomorrow we will be leaving our beloved Tree House and driving north for one day before we settle into a house in Napa. We'll write a blog when we next have an internet connection.