For our second anniversary, my wife and I decided to journey up to Sonoma for a weekend of wine and relaxation. Unfortunately, we made the decision a bit too late and were unable to stay at any of the more intimate B&Bs in the area. However, we were able to find a room at the Sheraton Sonoma County Petaluma. This nautical style hotel may be in Sonoma County, but it's certainly not in the heart of wine country.

When we made the reservation, we specified both our SPG Gold number and the fact that this was our anniversary. Upon check-in, we were greeted by a friendly staff and placed on the club floor, but they said nothing regarding the anniversary, which means they either don't receive comments made during web reservations or they simply didn't deem it important enough to mention. I wasn't expecting red carpets and chilled Dom, but I was curious to see if any subtle niceties would be made.

After getting my keys, I proceeded to ask the front desk for good dinner recommendations. What followed was a pitch for either tasty mexican or a good pizza joint in town. When pressed for something a bit more upscale, the staff member paused and eventually circled back to a really good burrito place. Sigh.

Unsure of our evening plans, we went up to the room to freshen up. It was clean and spacious, no surprises. The typical executive desk was present along with internet, which was not free. After some quick showers, we hopped on down to the club level lounge. At 5:30PM on a Sunday, the lounge was empty. We treated ourselves to some cheese and wine and sat out on the balcony overlooking a marina, and just beyond, highway 101.

We never figured out the marina. After looking at a map, it appears that one could navigate southward to the bay, but we're not sure. It was nice to overlook the boats and water, but it seemed a bit out of place considering we were nowhere near any large body of water.

After paging through a guide book from the room, we decided to limit our dinner options to Petaluma. Surely we can find a nice, romantic venue... after all, we are in wine country, right? After our appetizers, we made our way down to the car, stopping one last time for a dinner recommendation. Burritos and pizza were brought up again (this should have been a harbinger of things to come), and only after mention of an anniversary did the lights come on and an italian restaurant jumped to the top of the list.

Sounds good. They even called and made a reservation for us. After receiving directions from the Sheraton staff, we were off...

It's a good thing I have a decent sense of direction, or else we may have never made dinner. We took a right turn, as instructed, and drove for 5 minutes or so before concluding that with each passing yard, any hope of a nice italian restaurant was quickly fleeting. We turned around and headed back towards town. Had we taken a left instead of that right, we would have immediately seen the restaurant.

Dinner was mediocre at best. I don't know if Petaluma is that starved of fine cuisine or if the Sheraton is that troubled with restaurant recommendations. I will likely never know...

After dinner, we returned back to the hotel and decided to hit the lounge for a celebratory bottle of brut. Service was fantastic, and we enjoyed a nice soufflé-esque dessert and a party/bar snack mix until it was time to retire to the room. One interesting thing to note was the art decorating the walls. Each piece was for sale and priced in the neighborhood of $10,000. I hope the artist has a day job.

We checked out the next morning and headed up to the Dry Creek Valley for a beautiful day of wine tasting and relaxation. Check-out was easy, and the staff was again friendly.

Overall, it was neither a fantastic stay nor an abysmal stay. When we return to Sonoma, we'll make our plans far enough in advance to stay at a B&B or somewhere more central to actual wine country. If you're looking for a reasonably-priced option that's in the neighborhood, this may not be a bad choice. Just don't go looking for anything fancy in town!

Review by JH.

Posted at June 28, 2006 6:25 PM