Super-fantastic Journeys

Located in the rolling hills of far north Texas, 4R Ranch provides a beautiful location to relax and enjoy great food and wine while enjoying the fantastic views.  Located near Muenster, Texas, the winery sits in a unique geographic location that provides rolling hills and rocky terranean near the Red River, the border between Texas and Oklahoma. 1473 Co Rd 477 Muenster, TX 76252 940-736-3370 Website Reservation Needed: Yes (as of September 2021) Tasting Cost: $10.00 Wines:  Rose, Roussanne, Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Red Blend, Hausfray Hooch Service : 4 Atmosphere:  5 Wines Tasted:  8 Wines: 3 .5 Make sure that you have the winery loaded up in your maps app before you leave Muenster. The drive to the winery takes you along several county roads, both paved and unpaved, with some twists and turns, and even a u-turn for us because we through one of the roads must have been a driveway.  Once you arrive at the gate, you know that the drive was meant to bring

 We have visited San Francisco a couple of times, but we had never been out to Alcatraz Island, so we wanted to prioritize this.  The island is part of the National Park Services, and its notorious history as a prison sitting in the middle of the San Francisco bay is legendary.  Alcatraz housed some of the nation's worst criminals, and "The Rock" has been the subject of many movies over the years.   To visit the island, you take a ferry from Pier 33 on the San Francisco harbor.  This requires advanced reservations that you want to make sure you schedule well before our trip.  The ferry is operated by Alcatraz City Cruises .  The ticket was running $41 for adults and $25 for children when we visited.  This is an inclusive ticket price, and there are no additional park service fees collected.  The ticket will ask you to arrive at Pier 33 early for your scheduled departure.  I recommend following this suggestion as there are many people on each boat and you do not want to mi

 Sedona is a place where you can step into another world that allows you to self-center and remember everything you enjoy most. Whether it is time to sit in nature and renew your energy, enjoy great food and drinks with friends, or get your adventure on and explore the miles of trails and canyons, Sedona will have what you are looking for. Sedona is about 60 minutes south of Flagstaff, Arizona, and about 2 hours north of Phoenix.  You can take multiple routes to get to Sedona, each of them being designated as a scenic byway. Where we Stayed: We stayed in a very nice townhome that we found on Airbnb, located within walking distance of the downtown Sedona area.  It was ideal to leave the car parked and easily walk down to the Sedona Beer company or hit many restaurants and shopping.  The accommodations were very comfortable, and working with the management company was easy.  The unit was immaculate and well maintained, so we felt good about our stay.  The kitchen was also well stocked wi

  We were traveling in the Napa Valley and San Francisco area for a week, and Seven Hills is the best restaurant of our entire trip, and we have enjoyed some pretty amazing places to eat. If you are a local and have not been to Seven Hills, you have to go because you will fall in love with it and have a new favorite spot yourself. The next time I come to San Francisco, I will make my reservation weeks ahead to make sure I can get a table. The restaurant is located on the corner of Hyde and Green. Hyde is on the Cable Car line, so imagine being able to ride the cable car directly to this amazing Italian restaurant from Ghirardelli square; this would make the ultimate romantic experience. The cable cars were not running, so Uber dropped us off at the front door. When we arrived for an 8:00 reservation Alex, the owner, greeted us at the door. We were a few minutes early, so he set us up with a wine list and encouraged us to look it over. We asked a question about an Italian wine tha

 While visiting the Cowgirl Creamery Barn Store in Point Reyes Station, I learned bout the California Cheese Trail from a brochure.  I love the idea of any type of food or beverage trail, so I grabbed the brochures and started looking at them.  I was surprised to learn how many different creameries there were in the state of California.  I enjoy visiting cheese factories and buying cheese directly from the factory where you find many different varieties of cheese that you will not find in stores because they are done in small batches.  We were only able to visit one of the creameries while we were on our trip.  We could have done a lot more if we had known about the cheese trail ahead of time. We visited the Cowgirl Creamery .  I am looking forward to our next trip to California with this map of locations in hand to visit many more of the state's cheesemakers.     For more on the California Cheese Trail, visit https://cheesetrail.org/ .  They also have an app for your phone tha

When you travel the end of the Point Reyes Headlands to visit the Point Reyes Lighthouse, you want to make sure to take a little extra time to head out to Elephant Seal Overlook.  Drakes Bay on the south side of Point Reyes National Seashore Headlands provides a protected area for the Northern Elephant Seal to raise their young.  The first breeding pair came to the area in 1981, and the population of these animals has been growing ever since.  The largest number of seals can be found here from December until March, which is the birthing season, and then into the spring, the females and juveniles will be on the beach for molting. We visited in June, and there were still many elephant seals on the beach, but not like in February when there can be up to 600 animals on this section of beach. The Elephant Seal Overlook trial is a short half-mile round trip trail that takes you out to a viewpoint where you can watch these animals interact with each other.  The trail is flat and easy to walk,

2430 South Interstate 35E #172 Denton, TX 76205 940-383-2431 Website Service: ✮✮✮✮✮ Food: ✮✮✮✮✮ Cleanliness: ✮ ✮✮ ✮ I learned about R G Burgers & Grill because they participated in Burger Week for Denton County,  and I am now a big fan because they make a really great burger.  There are 17 different burgers on their standard menu, and they even have a burger of the month that changes and brings new flavors to the table. The patty itself is nearly an inch thick, and we are not talking just about any old burger; this is some awesome meat. I would love to know what kind of meat they are using.  It is expertly seasoned, and there are many wonderful options on how they finish it.   The featured burger for burger week was the "Big Daddy."  It was definitely big. Those first few bites were a real challenge to get your mouth around.  This burger is served on a brioche bun that was fresh and soft.  It then had spicy mustard, pickles, the gigantic burger patty, swiss cheese, bacon,

The New River Gorge became a National Park in December of 2020.  It is a spot that definitely deserves this designation and I am thankful to have had multiple opportunities to explore this area over the last two years on a number of occasions.  One of the many recreational opportunities in the New River Gorge is hiking.  There is a wide range of trails for you to choose from with varying levels of difficulty.  Hiking trails along the rim of the gorge tend to be fairly easy and provide you with great views of the river below.  If you are looking for something a little more difficult pick one of the trails that goes below the rim and you will quickly drop in elevation, knowing that you will soon be climbing back up to get back to your trailhead. I have hiked here in the winter and summer months, and I have to say that winter is actually my favorite.  The foliage here is so dense that in the summer months, the trees will block most of the view. So if you want big vistas try and pick a tim