WINE COUNTRY - PART I: SONOMA

I know how to spend a Saturday well. It's actually quite an easy thing to do living in San Francisco thanks in part to the proximity of Napa & Sonoma Counties. My day-long companion for Part I of my Wine Country Adventure: MoFo the Wise who never steers me wrong...

Stop One: Matanzas Creek Winery - I actually found a white wine that I really, really liked. I say this with surprise because if I hadn't been to a tasting, I doubt white wine would ever even pass my lips. Not only does Matanzas have a killer Sauvignon Blanc, but the environs here are stupendously beautiful.

Stop Two: Paradise Ridge Winery - Picturesque views, a sculpture garden, and oh yeah more wine. This time my focus was on reds, especially on a Cab [Cabernet Sauvignon for you who's not's] that MoFo ended up buying for her next wine tasting soiree. The super-sweet daughter of the winery owner and his late wife poured our wine... and she had a heavy hand, let me tell you, because by the time we reached Stop 3, MoFo and I were acting sillyly... and talking like I spell.

Stop Three: The Charles M. Schulz (Snoopy!) Museum - wow... I mean truly radical in a NorCal kinda way. I haven't had this much fun at a museum... maybe ever. Yeah, yeah the multitude of wine helped, but they have a clever set-up here - Sparky's (C.M.S's) old desk, huge murals and vintage strips (this is wine country still after all [grin]). It was the kind of place where I've wanted to go all my life without really knowing it.

Stop Four: John Ash - this is a hell of a dinner, accompanied by another incredible bottle of red, this time a Zinfandel (no, not a white Zinfandel, you wine novices [gosh, one day in wine country, and I've become a snob already]) - I had the steak, MoFo had the fish... did I mention the wine?

Stop Five: The one-man Star Wars trilogy - on the way back to the city, we stopped in San Rafael, former home to George Lucas and LucasFilm, to see Episodes IV through VI as performed by one man in one hour. Hysterical, especially to someone who knows all the lines to Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. I never cared much for those silly Ewoks. The performance was truly impressive, the voices were spot on, and the occasional commentary was scathing in its hilarity.