Northern CA Roadtrip 2026 – Sonoma and Napa

Old Faithful

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

For breakfast, we went to Sax’s, a 1950s-style diner. I really loved the place. It was filled with memorabilia, the service was friendly, the food was delicious, and the portions were generous. I had a feeling we would be back.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel before starting another GuideAlong tour, this time through Napa and Sonoma, which was about a half hour from Petaluma.

When we got to the starting point, our GuideAlong guide said we were about to see where the most viewed photo in the world had been taken. I was intrigued. How do we know it is the most viewed photo in the world?

We were driving along Route 12, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards. As we rounded a bend, I suddenly recognized it: the Windows XP home screen. Only now, the grassy hills had been planted with vineyards.

I wish there had been a place to pull over. Being in IT, I cannot imagine the hundreds, if not thousands, of hours I spent staring at that screen. I was always fascinated by that picture. It was such a simple landscape, but it was beautiful.

As expected, we passed a lot of wineries, and GuideAlong gave some history behind several of the more famous ones. Wine tasting used to be fun, but over time people took advantage of the free wine and treated wine tasting like a free buzz. Today, most places require reservations and often charge $30 to $50 for a tasting. I am not about to pay $50 just to discover I do not like the wine — especially when I still have to drive.

We made a couple of fun but somewhat disappointing stops. One was a geyser called “Old Faithful,” not to be confused with the massive Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Then there was the Petrified Forest. I am not sure I would call it a forest; there were a few trees that had been petrified.

Although it was not part of the GuideAlong tour, this foodie wanted to stop at the original Williams Sonoma store in Sonoma. We also wanted to stop at the Rancho Gordo store to stock up on beans.

After visiting Rancho Gordo, I looked for a place to eat. Biscuit BBQ came up on Yelp, and I am so glad it did because it turned out to be the highlight of the day.

I had seen recipes for Alabama white BBQ sauce before and thought it sounded interesting, but I had never made it because I wanted a point of reference first. At Biscuit BBQ, they had an Alabama chicken sandwich with white BBQ sauce, so that was an easy choice. I loved it. I also thought the people working there were incredibly personable and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing.