Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa (a.k.a "AHHHHHH HEAVEN")

Sonoma, California is a little historic town near Napa that features sprawling vineyards, orchards of every kind and rolling green hills of pasture land for dairy cows. However mostly, Sonoma is a quaint and romantic vacation spot catering to vacationers from the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. It's only about 90 minutes from Elk Grove so it was a perfect spot for a quick three day get away for Mike and I when he got home. We picked the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa for a few fabulous days of pampering, relaxing, reading, sleeping and eating. It was magical from the weather (laying out by the pool in January!!!) to the food to the massages to the beautiful room and kind people who made this trip so very special. I always wanted to stay at the Sonoma Mission Inn since I was an Account Executive for Chase Manhattan and had clients in Sonoma. The town is charming and full of fabulous bistros and restaurants, cute bed and breakfast inns, spas and wellness centers, the amazing rolling hills of grapes and some of the prettiest scenery I've ever seen. It looks like the pictures my Mom and Dad brought back of the Italian countryside outside of Rome and Tuscany. If you get a chance and would like a special weekend away, I could not recommend any place more than Sonoma. Here's the pictures from our trip. Sorry there are so many but we really had a GREAT time.

(Above) Mike chills out in the sunshine near his second love of his life, his WRX which we named Silver Bullet. My dumb minivan is named Silver because it's Silver and my girls are original like that. So Mike's car is named Silver Bullet because he drives it (way too) fast. He loves this car. It was fun to take on the country roads with the sunroof and the turbo and the new performance tires we put on before Mike got home. We blared classic rock and wore our sunglasses and sang at the top of our lungs. In this picture we stopped at an olive orchard to sample and buy olive oil and dipping oil. (Below) When the Sonoma Mission Inn found out we were coming for a romantic getaway when Mike got home from deployment, they upgraded us from the standard room (which I'm sure was very nice) to the nicest suite they had on the property. Good gravy it was nice. Here is the four poster king bed and the living room. They had a fireplace where they supplied fire stuff in a little sack with a bow and all you had to do was light the sack on fire and it made the perfect 3 hour long fire.

(Above) Mike is showing you the ginormous jacuzzi tub in our room. It was in the middle of this huge arch and you could draw the curtains around it for privacy or soak and watch TV or the fire. We both agreed that we gotta get us this tub for our house someday. It was awesome. (Below) The inn is historic. It used to be an actual California mission. This building is one of the original out buildings and is now the spa. It is like three stories and has like seven different pools of varying temperatures, full spa facilities, meditation areas, exercise facilities, shops, restaurant etc etc etc. Inside all the walls are hand painted with murals or have inset fountains and ponds. You felt like you were in some sort of Tuscan castle but it was also like a really beautiful church. It was automatic to relax and center yourself and just go to your happy place.

(Above) Just some scenery from the property. I loved how everything was arched. And the ivy climbing up the walls would be beautiful in the spring and summer. I also like how it all looked in winter. The vines bare and twisting. The vineyards looked the same. Empty but beautiful and easy to see how they will explode with green in the Spring and heavy with fruit in the late summer. (Below) Mike the first night at dinner. He had a great meal of a big veal chop with five different kinds of mushrooms that grow in this region of California. He loved it. I ordered the penne with house made sausage and a pear tomato sort of cream sauce. The ultimate comfort food. Such a great little place that made you feel like you were dining in someones home.

(Above) My cousin Susan recommended this little place to us and we are so glad she did! Her awesome in laws have a home in Sonoma and have gone to this place a number of times. We were so happy she recommended it. It was so good and quaint and authentic. If you are ever in Sonoma - don't miss out on Della Santina's. And be sure to get dessert! (Below) Mike is soaking in the jet tub. He is a rookie at taking bubble baths. I poured in what I thought would be the right amount of bubble bath. But I forgot about two things. First the jets cause the bubbles to continue to foam up. Second, he is a rookie and doesn't know how to control his bubbles by squishing them down as to not overflow the tub with bubbles. Shortly after this picture was taken, he was overcome with bubbles and did not know what to do. I had to show him how you pop them so they stay controlled. Rookies.

(Above) Mike's favorite part of everyday is breakfast. We had breakfast in bed included in our package. But Mike doesn't believe in ordering breakfast in bed at hotels. His theory is as follows. "Breakfast includes foods that have got to be eaten while hot. Eggs, bacon, pancakes etc. do not taste good if they are not hot. When you order room service, they have to travel with your food over long distances. You lose critical minutes in which eggs go from delicious to gross. The window of time in which breakfast must be consumed is much shorter than say lunch which might include a turkey sandwich, a salad or even soup. All of these things can afford to sit for a short period and still taste as good." Sooooooo... we had to go down to the restaurant every morning to order breakfast and eat it while it was hot. This was not new information to me. After 16 years of marriage I knew enough to ask if we could eat in the dining room and still have it included in our package instead of ordering it up to our room. (Below) It appears that while Mike ingested TWO breakfasts (one order of Belgian waffles and 3 eggs, potatoes, bacon and toast breakfast) I read my book, sipped my herbal tea and waited for my perfect sourdough french toast cooked in browned butter and topped with strawberries, powdered sugar and whipped cream. I read every place we went. Some might think this is not romantic and I should have been visiting with my husband who had just returned from the desert. But what those people don't know is that Mike was reading as well. And we were so very happy to be reading and not talking. If we had something to say we said it, the other put down the book, we talked then went right back to our books. Oh the joy!!!

(Above) We asked where we could go for great seafood and we kept getting directed to Meritage. This was equal to the place the previous night. We had crab and lobster yanked (sorry guys) fresh from two different tanks. The crab was perfect. Fresh, sweet and cooked perfectly. We are so lucky to have Dungeness crab so available here in Northern California. We also had gnocchi with pancetta, cream, white truffle oil and shaved black truffles. We had gone to the spa all day earlier. We felt like it was the perfect day. Spa all day. New President inaugurated. Perfect dinner. Soaking in our jacuzzi tub. Reading our books. Fire in the fireplace. A brownie sundae ordered at midnight from the hotel. Yep, it doesn't get better than that day. It just doesn't. (Below) Mike in the lobby of the inn. This shows maybe 1/3 of the lobby. It was huge and it was all done in faded coastal/napa colors like greyish blue, sea green, yellow, wheat and oatmeal and sand colors. It had beautiful artwork and sculptures. There were gigantic baskets and bowls of fresh fruit everywhere. And everyone stays in their spa robes while on the property. So everywhere you go, even the lobby and restaurants, people are in their white fluffy robes and have their flip flops on. I told you, this place is the best place ever to be created on earth.

(Above) This is just one of ten pools on the property. Seven are housed in the spa area. Then there are three others. At night they turn the pools into fountains. They are all lit up and the sound of the water is hypnotic. Surrounding the pool areas there are campfire like fire places where guests can sit on big couches or lounge chairs under blankets and roast marshmallows or drink hot cocoa which is provided complimentary by the inn. Because our room had a fireplace, we could have our own marshmallow roasting party so we didn't hang out at the other fireplaces. But they were sure cool looking. (Below) Just some more scenery. This was the view of our pathway leading away from our building. I took this from our balcony.

(Above & Below) Our big fluffy white robes. We wore these all over the property. Mike thought it looked like a monastery when we first got there because everyone is in the white robes and sandals. By the time we left, we both thought that every hotel should make it a policy that guests had to wear robes at all times. In fact, we think it should be a mandatory dress code at work too. All robes and flip flops all the time. World peace wouldn't even be an issue if we all wore big white fluffy robes and went to a magical place where they pampered you with massages, facials, hot tubs, toxin cleansing treatments, fresh fruit and spring water infused with cucumber and limes. We would all be so happy that we would hug our enemies and invite them to sit by the fire, roast marshmallows, hold hands and sing campfire songs. I think President Obama should have the next Peace Summit at the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa.

(Above) Me and Mike - together at last! Man I missed that kid. We stayed up super late talking and talking and talking about all we missed out on in the past months and about our girls and stories and jokes. We got hungry at midnight and ordered ice cream and then talked for a few more hours. I love LOVE LOOOOOVVVVEEEE this man. He is the very best there is for me. (Below) Me at dinner. I only inlcuded this because I like my earrings.

(Above) Mike was reading on one of the benches. He was reading Twilight in case you were wondering. I love having a husband who is a guy and goes off to war and can do tough stuff but who will go to a spa with me, read a silly vampire teen romance book because I told him it was a great read and will literally laugh and talk with me for like 3 solid days. In case I didn't say it before....BAAAAA we had the best time!