I recently went on a girl's weekend to San Francisco with my aunts & a few cousins on my mom's side. My mom has a lot of siblings/sisters and it's become a bit of a tradition that when one of the sisters turns *a certain age which I will get in trouble for specifying*, they go on a trip together and cousins are invited as well. Although we've learned that we get the invite purely so we can take photos of them and handle ordering Ubers.
Our weekend kicked off strolling through the streets of San Francisco on a particularly sunny day, although that infamous fog definitely caught up to us!
We had brunch across the bridge in Sausalito one morning - which was gorgeous but I wasn't a massive fan of the shops. It's a bummer because they looked SO cute from the outside, but the insides were filled with kitschy tourist souvenirs and t-shirts. But it was definitely worth a trip for brunch on the water and a ferry ride home! Next time I visit I definitely want to explore the Marin Highlands which is on the same side of the bridge.
The highlight of the trip was definitely our day spent out in wine country. We opted for Sonoma over Napa, although I would definitely want to do another trip spent entirely in wine country alone. Renting a limo and hopping from winery to winery in the sunshine was an absolute blast and the California countryside was just stunning.
Matanzas Creek Winery was our first stop of the day which was perfect, as we nearly had the whole place to ourselves - lavender fields and all!
We had a reservation at the Kunde Family Winery for their "Mountain Top Tastings" which at $50 a head was a steal. The visit included a tour of their wine caves, a ride up the mountain with stops amongst the grapes and relaxing at the top of the mountain taking in the stunning views (and snacks!). And of course, lots and lots of wine.
We ended up visiting about 5 wineries in total, concluding with our day at Gundlach Bundschu, which had a lot of lovely picnic table seating overlooking a large pond and plenty of wildflowers. If renting a limo for this day was the first great idea, going on a Friday was definitely the runner up, as none of the places we went to were very crowded.
Although my trip to California wasn't my "traditional" travel pace - i.e. see as much as possible from sun up to sun down even if my feet get blisters stopping at a coffee shop every 30 minutes, I loved spending a weekend with my family outside of a traditional holiday - something that definitely doesn't get to happen too often with so many crazy schedules!
I feel lucky to have grown up in such a strong female family, so much so that when I was a teen I turned my nose up at the whole idea of "feminism" because it didn't make sense to me. All I was ever surrounded by were strong, intelligent, successful women: kick-ass engineers, accountants, athletes, nurses, moms, designers, scientists, and so forth. What I didn't see when I was younger is how hard these women in my life had to work in order to be where they are, and to be seen equally. My cousin with a PhD in Cancer Biology still receives letters in the mail to this day with the "Dr." title automatically attached to her husband's name. Urgh. When I tell people just how many girls are on this side of my family, I typically get a response along the lines of "Wow! So many girls! I bet there's so much drama!" Eye. Roll. Forever.
#GirlPower
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