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Trip Out Weekend: Napa & Sonoma

A three-day weekend is the perfect length of time for a quick trip to California's wine country: get sauced, eat amazing food, look at some nature, spend some money, and you're on your way home. It would be silly to try to list the must-see wineries in Sonoma and Napa valleys (just wander down any road, you'll be in a tasting room before you know it), but here are some of the off-vineyard highlights.

Ad Hoc: Thomas Keller has more famous, more wildly expensive restaurants, but I'm going ahead and calling this one the best. Partly due to the gorgeous setting (take a wander through the garden), but also for the relaxed atmosphere and the family-style, prix-fixe, absolutely stunning food. You've never had fried chicken, flank steak, tarts, etc., this elegant.

Ad Hoc, 6476 Washington St., Yountville, 707-944-2487

Santa Rosa Farmers' Market: The eating continues at this big twice-weekly market filled with plenty of produce and meat stalls. But you're on vacation, so you'll get a fig pizza and rosemary lemonade from Rosso Pizzeria's mobile oven, or Dungeness crab cooked on-site from Santa Rosa seafood. Absolutely do not leave without purchasing a quite expensive, completely worth it hunk of their smoasted salmon. It's a religious experience.

Santa Rosa Farmers' Market, Lot 1351, Maple Ave., Santa Rosa, Wednesdays and Saturdays 8:30am to noon

Beltane Ranch: This New Orleans-style guesthouse on a rural rolling meadow may or may not have been a brothel at one point. It's certainly romantic now (though you can hear just about all the other rooms through the walls), and definitely rustic, with limited amenities and a filling communal breakfast. There are tennis courts, but it's more fun to wander through the fields.

Beltane Ranch, 11776 Sonoma Hwy., Glen Ellen, 707-996-6501

La Belle Epoque: This B&B is possessed of the same vintage charm as Beltane (though it's Queen Anne rather than plantation style), but it's right in the middle of the Napa action. Attend the evening wine tastings with other guests, or stroll the block or two into town and take your pick of the world-class restaurants there.

La Belle Epoque, 1386 Calistoga Ave., Napa, 707-257-2161

Carneros Inn: This might be the area's ultimate splurge. Even if you don't stay in one of the resort's perfect cottages, you should come for a glass of wine and a round of bocce. Even better, get an absurdly expensive treatment at the spa: $85 for half an hour in a goat's milk bath, $125 for 45 minutes of grape seed body scrubbing. Honestly, it's probably worth it for the experience.

Carneros Inn, 4048 Sonoma Hwy., Napa, 707-299-4900

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