This is like watching our vacation slides

Except you aren't trapped in the dark on our couch, so you can skim through them as quickly as you'd like without risking offending us.

John and I recently returned from a week in northern California, including a few days in San Francisco and the rest of the time in Sonoma, which is the sort of low-key wine country sibling to Napa Valley.

In SF, we stayed at a funky B&B run by a Brooklyn native who's now a sort of San Francisco fashionista party girl. While we were there, they had a backyard wedding for some middle aged Jewish hippies and on the morning of the wedding, we had breakfast with the bride, groom and pretty much the entire party.

The photos below show the amazing view from our third-floor room, as well as the wake we stumbled into at John's favorite coffee shop, Caffe Trieste, celebrating the life of a beloved SF musician. There were musicians playing inside, musicians jamming and smoking pot outside, and generally the kind of adoring send off we should all aspire to.

Here's me at a hipster coffee shop where they roast their own beans, and John about to dive into a sampler of some microbrews at a brewpub near the Pacific Ocean. Finally, us on one of SF's many hills, with a great view out over the city.

Then it was time to drive north, up over the Golden Gate Bridge, and into Sonoma, where it was grape harvest season.

One of my favorite photos of the trip -- us with Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood, which makes some of my favorite wines.

Some vino highlights of our copious tastings: Random Ridge 2002 cabernet, Benziger's about-to-be-released Tribute cab, Little Vineyards syrah, Viansa prindelo, Gloria Ferrer blanc de noir, Gundlach Bundschu gewurtziminer. Can't find these in your local wine shop? The Wine Exchange in Sonoma would be happy to help by shipping wine from tiny wineries straight to your doorstep!