While waiting for the opportunity to reengage with travel over the past year, I have been looking through pictures of past trips to take some of the sting out of losing the ability to explore freely like during the pre-pandemic days. In all of those pictures are great memories. Some are grand experiences like seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time… some are more subtle memories of the smell or sense of a place from sitting on a park bench somewhere far away from home. While I was looking back through photos from a trip in 2008 to San Francisco and Northern California, there were lots of memories in both camps, including what I still to this day think is one of the best travel days I have ever had.

We tried to do this trip on a relative shoestring budget using points for hotels and our flights (that resulted in a very restless night trying to sleep in Pearson airport before the onward flight to San Francisco… booking with Aeroplan almost always guarantees you something like this) but we were torn as to which of two more extravagant experiences we wanted to include… a hot air balloon ride over the Sonoma valley or dinner at the French Laundry. We settled on the hot air balloon ride, and turned it into an amazing day trip from Sonoma that we still talk about to this day.

We got a confirmation phone call that the weather looked good at the crisp hour of 3:30am, loaded into our car for the drive to Santa Rosa, and as the sun came up, we waited for our balloon to inflate.

I can still remember the chill in the morning air and the feeling of excitement watching the balloon slowly fill in preparation for our flight.

I was surprised and taken with how quiet and peaceful the flight was. Floating at this height over farms and ranches, it was so quiet that we could hear a dog barking below.

The views over the valley from the balloon were spectacular. Northern California was dealing with some forest fires during our visit, but we were lucky to get a relatively clear morning for our balloon flight.

As we landed back on solid ground and the balloon began to deflate, we were pretty comfortable that we had made the right choice of this adventure over the meal at the French Laundry (though, now in hindsight, we kind of wish we splurged and chose to do both!). While the balloon ride was the centrepiece of our day trip, it was really only the start of an incredible day.

After breakfast with our balloon flight pilot and fellow passengers, we drove to Armstrong Redwoods State National Reserve to get up close to these beautiful coastal redwood trees, many of which are more than 1,000 years old.

We hiked some of the trails through part of the 800+ acre state park, and it felt like we had this forest almost all to ourselves. The size of the trees we saw was awe inspiring.

Back in the car, we headed for the coast. At this point in my life, I had never seen nor touched the Pacific Ocean. When we arrived in Jenner and took in the sights of the Pacific for the first time, I felt like I should pinch myself that this wonderful day just kept getting better.

A simple view of the ocean wouldn’t do. We parked and hiked down to the beach where I rolled up my jeans and got ready to walk into the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Since this afternoon back in 2008, I’ve walked into the Pacific a few more times – in British Columbia, north of San Diego, outside Tijuana – and it never gets old. But I always remember my first time with a special fondness.

After driving the twisty highway 1 south along the coast and taking in more spectacular ocean and mountain views, we headed for the last stop of our day trip – Benzinger Family Winery.

While we have been on a number of winery tours since then, the tour we took here remains one of the most unique due to the winery’s biodynamic farming methods, now more in vogue, but back then, very avant garde. We explored their vineyards, production facilities and underground wine cellars, and capped off our visit with a tasting of their wines. It was the perfect way to cap a day trip in Northern California before we headed back to Sonoma for a late dinner just off the town square near our quaint bed and breakfast.

All these years later, this road trip still stands up as perhaps my favourite day spent away from home, and was the catalyst for many more amazing day trips (many involving wine!) in Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Iceland and so many more countries I’ve been fortunate to visit since.