Travelling Lore

Previously I had mentioned that Mendocino, California has a wonderful restaurant, MacCallum House, for fine dining.  However, if you're an East Coast-er or not a foodie like me, you might never have heard of the coastal California town of Mendocino.  Mendocino is about a 3.5 hour drive north of San Francisco.  Along the way you'll pass dozens of wineries.  I wish we had been able to stop in to one or two of them, along with Anderson Valley Brewing, but alas, we were on a time schedule so that we could get to our dinner reservation in time (we drove up from the Russian River Valley area). Mendocino, located about 9.5 miles south of Fort Bragg, gets its town name from "Cape Mendocino" as it was named by early Spanish navigators in honor of Antonio de Mendoza, who was the Viceroy of New Spain .  Mendocino's population may be on the smaller side, but it's actually on the National Register of Historic Places in Mendocino County.  The town has also been fea

When you're on your honeymoon, you have to treat yourselves to at least one fine dining experience.  We're not typically ones to spend exorbitant amounts of money on food (read: we're not big foodies, though we appreciate a good meal), but given the occasion we gave ourselves the green light. Driving north from Napa, we headed up Route 1 to Mendocino, a romantic coastal town in which time seems to have stalled.  With a population under 1,000 people, this town is built around one main street with local shops branching off the side.  We stayed in the Hill House Inn , which boasts traditional Victorian style rooms and is situated in Victorian gardens and native vegetation.  I absolutely loved this hotel and really wished we had more than one night there; I would recommend it to anyone interested in visiting the historic village of Mendocino. Mendocino is a cooler and more breezy than Napa due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean.  So we bundled up and walked from o

Yesterday we returned from a two week vacation exploring Australia, Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, and the Philippines with my husband's family.  I had previously never been to this side of the world, so it was thrilling to finally see parts of Asia, simply put.  We were supposed to return Sunday morning, but unfortunately we were grounded in the Philippines by typhoon Sarika, which postponed our travel back to the U.S. for a couple of days.  I suppose you could say we had a couple of extra days in paradise (albeit with rain and the stress of re-booking flights ;) )!  Though I still have my California honeymoon to finish recapping, here's an Instagram roundup of our vacation. Twelve Apostles off the Great Ocean Road in Australia. Our resort, Warwick Ibah, in Ubud, Bali. The Campuhan Ridge Walk next to our resort in Ubud, Bali. A rice terrace in Bali. Enjoying a Singapore Sling at Raffles, where it was invented in Singapore. The Helix bridge in Sing

Given my interest in wine and that I work part-time at a local Virginia winery, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Sonoma and Napa during our honeymoon. We drove about an hour north of San Francisco and started off first in Sonoma at Matanzas Creek Winery . We were drawn in by the beautiful pictures and description of their lavender fields on the property, which certainly didn't disappoint us upon arrival.  Despite living near a local lavender farm in Virginia, I still have yet to pay it a visit, though this certainly piqued my interest even more.  As you approach the tasting room you get to walk through the pale purple fields of lavender abuzz with plenty of happy bees. In addition to the gorgeous approach to the winery, Matanzas Creek's tasting room building can hold its own in terms of impressiveness.  We're both a big fan of buildings that incorporate hardwood and so we loved that the tasting room integrated a lot of it in to thei

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I enjoyed our honeymoon in northern California.  Since we wanted to spend most of our time north of San Francisco, we only had one day to explore the city so we made it a point to do and see the major tourist attractions. The biggest thing we had on the docket was to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Though my husband is a bicycle enthusiast, I am not and only ride a bike about once a year.  So we biked across the bridge on a tandem bicycle, which requires teamwork and communication.  We are happily still married after this experience (though in all seriousness we actually worked quite well together on a tandem bicycle). Our first morning in San Francisco started off nice and sunny with blue skies.  Perfect for some Golden Gate Bridge viewing along the bike trail.  However, don't you worry, the infamous San Francisco fog rolled in. We biked across the bridge and up to Battery Spencer on Fort Baker on the Marin Head

Wow, it sure has been a while since I last sat down to publish a travel blog post on Corking Around!  Time flies when you're busy planning your wedding, getting married, honeymooning, and meeting deadlines at work!  For those who don't know, my now husband and I got married at the end of June at a local winery with our closest family and friends.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect, the food was delicious, the wine flowed all night, and we had lovely company!  A week after we got married we jetsetted off to Northern California for our honeymoon!  I finally have some time to share my Instagram photos with you from our trip.  Don't worry, there will be more substantial posts in the future! We started off in San Francisco.  One of my "must do" activities was to finally  try a real bowl of ramen for the first time--none of this instant noodle stuff from the grocery stores!  I loved it!  And spicy sure does mean spicy! We also rented a tandem b