After spending our Saturday morning celebrating the fourth birthday of our very adorable niece, it was hard to tell if we were going to find any motivation to do much else. The party was at Pump it Up which, for lack of a better explanation, is a large establishment full of different inflated activities. A blown up gladiator ring, basketball court, jumbo slide and obstacle course, all glorified bouncy houses on an extreme level, fit for children and adults. Feeling like we had spent an intense two hours at an NFL training facility, we made it home to shower and rest and faced the dilemma of either forfeiting our Saturday to R&R or getting up, getting somewhat dressed and getting out. Taking the executive decision making into my own hands, I told Ryan to get himself together and get in the car. At first it was an empty threat, thinking there was no way he would just jump up and follow command. You can imagine my mental panic when I realized he was full on trusting my planning abilities and actually heading to the car. With zero plan in mind, I turned the ignition and played a quick game of eeny-meeny-miny-mo in my head. In silence, I turned onto the freeway for our Saturday destination, downtown Sonoma.
Half -way through Kenwood (home of many a local winery), and with no sign of me stopping, Ryan figured out where we were headed. Other than passing through, I have never actually stopped in Sonoma and it was one of the few downtowns in the county that I was dying to explore. I assumed that much like Healdsburg, Sonoma would be full of historic foundations, over priced boutique stores, a glass of wine available at every other doorstep and an excessive selection of places to eat. I was pretty dead on. We spent a couple of hours strolling around store fronts, indulging in a few jewelry purchases, taking in the park around City Hall complete with duck ponds and live music, and lastly curing our hunger and dehydration with bubbles and classic Sonoma cuisine.
At five in the afternoon on a Saturday, few places were open. The Ledson Hotel however was packed and seemed to be a popular joint. Beaming with preserved historic architect, a brick lined patio rowed with French Doors exposing a marble finished, bistro feeling interior, if the aesthetics hadn’t captured our attention the menu would have anyway. How often do you see Quail and Waffles as an entrée? Considering we were only hours passed birthday pizza we went light. Splitting the crab cakes, so fresh I actually had shell in mine (not complaining, refreshing to not be served imitation crab so far from the coast), and the Sonoma Chicken Sandwich (grilled chicken, caramelized onions, gruyère cheese on a toasted French baguette with roasted cherry pepper butter and garlic aioli), we each sipped on a glass of Schramsberg, Mirabelle Brut Rosé. We felt very Sonoma. If we had been able to have the hostess as our waitress as opposed to someone who seemed let’s just say, ready for her break, uh-hum, it would have been the perfect afternoon experience. Someone should remind that lady her tip is dependent on service, just saying.
Considering I was so focused on what the heck I was going to come up with for our days entertainment, believe it or not, I put very little effort into getting dressed. I am about 85% positive that what I wore is actually supposed to be a bathing suit cover-up, but considering it was $2.99 on a JCPenny clearance rack, who cares. In my standard fashion, I did quite a bit of mix and matching price points. Adorning my worlds cheapest we’ll call it a “dress cover-up” was my green cross body Michael Kors birthday gift from my awesome mother and one of my jewelry purchases of the day. I guess when you leave the house un-accessorized you can always just grab something on the go. Thanks to Simplicity for unknowingly completing my outfit of the day. And a good day it was.
