Saratoga Wine Trail with New Friends

So, I have a new friend!  We met at the Mountain View Running Club's Thursday night run.  We ran together for a bit, hit it off and realized that since we lived near each other and ran about the same pace, we should become running buddies.

We met up for our first run together near the Steven's Creek Trail entrance.  We started running and everything was going smoothly.  She pointed out the three mile marker and I thought to myself, "Sweet!  Time to head back home!"  

As I pivoted around, she said, "Oh, uh, actually I run 10 miles in the morning."  

Sagoy!  Who does this!?  10 miles on a workday/weekday morning.  That is insane!  But I was trapped.  We were on a semi-dark trail since the sun hadn't even risen yet and I didn't want to ditch her.  Besides, I was feeling pretty good so I decided that I could hang and run 10 miles.  And I did!  I haven't run that far in awhile but we kept up a good pace and it was nice to add some distance, albeit accidentally. 

So, we met up on Wednesday and did the same thing.  My legs are a little stiff and achy but overall, I'm exciting about upping my mileage.  We decided we wanted to hang out and introduce our husbands to each other so we decided to go wine-tasting on Saturday.

27Strings at Garard Estate

It was an amazing time!  We hung out with several of J and A's friends at two local wineries along the Saratoga Wine Trail.  Our first winery was the Cooper-Garard Estate.  They have a nice tasting room adjacent to a large equestrian area.  We found a spot to sit and spread out our picnic offerings, which was basically a highlight reel of all things delicious at Trader Joe's.  We ended up having a big group and we were siting right in front of the bluegrass band that played for about an hour.  We had to stay quieter than we would have liked since there were people behind us that were really into their bluegrass but eventually, the band stopped and we got to socialize more.  Don't get me wrong, the band was great but I was also excited to talk to our new friends!

View from R&W

The winery is in the Santa Cruz Mountains and SMS and I stayed for a bit with a couple who had arrived late.  They were fun to talk to but eventually, we parted ways from Garard and headed to R&W winery.  When we arrived, SMS and I instantly wished we had left Garard earlier because the view from R&W is absolutely spectacular.  All of Silicon Valley is laid out before you and it is really a very impressive site.  We saw the Apple building construction site, Moffett Field and really the whole area from South of San Jose all the way to the Bay Bridge.  SMS and I spoke with Bill, one of the co-owners for awhile and he was a really interesting person.  The conversation was pretty wide-ranging and we had a lot of fun.

Then, we went to Jack Rose in Los Gatos, which was a cool tavern with a good food menu.  SMS and I shared a pizza and then we felt pretty done for the day.  We headed home and were really happy to have met so many nice couple friends.

The next day, SMS and I had a pretty mellow day.  I went to the Farmer's Market and SMS went bouldering, which he's been more into lately.  It was a great weekend with a mellow Sunday which was nice since we had several plans for the work week.