Sonoma trip, day 4

Today is the day I get to go the the Charles M Schulz Museum. It's one of those things that would be on my bucket list if I had one. I love the Peanuts characters and I am so glad that I get to see the museum. We got there when it opened at 10 and stayed for two hours. It's not very large, but it was pretty interesting to me. The first floor was dedicated to the history of Schulz and his comics and the other half was about the history of all comics. So there was more to see besides just good ol' Charlie Brown. The second floor of the museum was a hands on cartoon design lab and Charles M Schulz's office was moved into the space. There was also a section on the different toys made from the characters over the years. Outside there was a yard with a kite eating tree, and various life-sized characters. After we went through the gift shop we walked over to the Warm Puppy Cafe where there was an ice rink that Schulz just loved.

It was a good clean fun way to spend the morning before an afternoon of more wine tasting. We drove to the Francis Ford Coppola Winery for our first tasting. It was pretty cool in the tasting room because there were 5 Oscars on a shelf above the wines. We bought more wine then took some time to eat the sandwiches we packed that we bought at the deli last night. We drove from town to town and stopped at Simi Winery. They staff was a little pushy but we did find one bottle worth purchasing before we high-tailed it out of there. From there we stopped at Wine Country Chocolates, then BR Cohn Winery. BR Cohn is the manager of the Doobie Brothers so of course he had a line called Doobie Reds. They were quite pricey at $480 for the 12-bottle collection. I suppose when you divide it up by the 12 bottles it's not that bad considering we paid $50 for some wines. BR Cohn also had a line of vinegars and oils that we tried and ended up purchasing. After that, we stopped at Vella Cheese factory for some California cheeses to take home.

We ended the day with a stop at Johnny Garlic's which is one of Guy Fieri's restaurants. The place was filled with tourists and surprisingly, the food was pretty good. I expected it to be something like that awful TGIF that Fieri hawks on television commercials but it was much better than that.

Sonoma trip, day 3

We had some coffee and scones at the hotel before we hopped in the car for a ride back to San Francisco. This time crossing the Golden Gate bridge meant a $6 toll. The view was worth it. We parked at Fisherman's Wharf, got tickets to Alcatraz and immediately got on the ferry to the island. The day was overcast and chilly and on the island the weather seems much more intense so the first thing to do was get Jeff a hat. There was no reason for him to be uncomfortably cold while we were touring the prison. It is cold and dank in there on a nice day so it was definitely a necessary purchase.


We took the walk up to the top of the hill where the tour started. The staff does warn you that it's equivalent to walking up 13 flights of steps so we did have to stop so Jeff could catch his breath, even in good health his heart disease is sometimes apparent. We got our headphones and started through the tour. There is so much history on this one little island and it is such an interesting story that a few hours go by pretty rapidly. We finished the walking tour then took a walk through the part of the island that is normally closed. Since we were there off season, the birds were not migrating to the island so they could open up many of the paths that were normally closed to the public.

After Alcatraz we took the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf for a late lunch at Alioto's Fish Grotto. Jeff was in seafood heaven. As we sat at our table, we watched the seal frolick in the water right outside of our window. Another first, I had never seen seals outside of a zoo before. They were beautiful creatures.

It was raining making it tough to walk the piers so we stopped at the Harley Davidson store and bought some San Francisco patches, then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe so I could add another guitar pin to my collection. We got out of San Francisco a little late so we got stuck in some rush hour traffic making the trek back to Rohnert Park somewhat longer. Since we were both exhausted from another day outdoors, we stopped at the Pacfic Market for some deli sandwiches and snacks to finish out the day.

Sonoma trip, day 2

The first thing to do this morning was to get coffee and get the football picks in. So I logged on to espn.com for the line and weather.com to check the temperature back home. It was 9 in Milwaukee and 46 in Santa Rosa. I'll take the 46. We got off the computer and headed in to downtown Santa Rosa for breakfast. We walked Main Street until we found a cute little place called Arrigoni's Deli. The staff was so friendly and the breakfast was good. We lingered over coffed then took a walk past Tex Wasabi's and a bunch of shops that had life sized Snoopys. They were all over town - it reminded me of the beasties that were placed all over downtown Milwaukee a few years back.

After the walk we headed to Bodega Bay. It was a gorgeous ride along the Russian River. The landscape was filled with charming little homes nestled between large vineyards and wineries. The trees were still full of green leaves, no sign of Wisconsin winter conditions here. Even though the local people thought it was unseasonably cold, it was very pleasant to us. As we rode the highway, I saw lemon trees loaded with ripe lemons. I've seen many orange trees when I stayed with my brother in Phoenix and the tropical fruit trees in Cancun and Maui but this is the first time I saw a lemon tree up close and in person. It was beautiful. We stopped at the Bodega travel booth for more information then drove back up the coast to the location where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. We stopped and took some photos before we got back into the car.

Heading out of Bodega, we stopped where the Russian River meets the Pacific. The scenery was gorgeous no matter which direction we were heading. Jeff mentioned how wonderful the ride would be on a motorcycle. Between the hills and the winding roads, it would be pretty incredible but considering the cool temperature, I was happy enough to be in a car today.
We kept driving until we got to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

We parked and took a nice walk through the redwoods. The size of these trees was amazing. It was a nice day to take a walk and we were really glad we took the time to see it.

After the scenic drive, we stopped at a few wineries along the way. We started at La Crema where we found some really good Pinot Noir. Then we headed to Kendall-Jackson and tried the exclusive wines they had. We bought more wine there. We learned the best way to transport wine back home so we bought an empty case to fill along the trip. We will check the box as luggage and mark it as fragile. The 15 dollar bag fee from the airline for all the wine is much more economical than shipping at each winery. So the nice people at Kendall-Jackson put our La Crema in the case and loaded it into our car for us.

After a long day on the road we went back to the hotel to relax a little then we walked over to the bar across the parking lot to watch the football game. We had forgotten that the time change would have an effect so getting to the bar at 8 meant the game was in the last quarter! Oh well, we still ordered a drink and appetizer and sat back until the game was over. It was a nice way to finish the day.

Sonoma trip, day 1

After all the commotion of getting out of town before the blizzard, I'm feeling pretty relaxed. As the plane came in over the San Francisco bay it was pretty easy to leave everything behind, especially the weather. I already had a great sense of accomplishment because I finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance during the flight. I've been trying to finish the book since summer. Even though it was a good book, it was a long and complicated book so I took my time.

We got off the plane, grabbed our luggage and took the tram to get to our rental car. We hooked up the GPS and headed to Pier 39 for a nice seafood lunch. We passed Candlestick Park, AT&T Park, the Embarcadero, and many other cool San Francisco landmarks on the ride. Parking was a little difficult but we found a spot, put 5 bucks in the meter (yes $5) and walked from pier to pier. We stopped at Pier 39 and perused the shops along the way. We checked out a few menus posted in front of different restaurants before we chose the Pier 39 Seafood Market. It seemed like a perfect location to start our vacation. We were seated at a table by the windows and ordered Anchor Steam beer, a local brew they had on tap. It was pretty amazing looking out the windows over the water thinking about how we left blizzard conditions just a few hours earlier.

Lunch was very good and relaxing and we took our time. Since the meter was probably close to expiration after lunch we got in the car and headed to our hotel in Rohnert Park. We drove over the Golden Gate bridge on our way out of San Francisco and that was pretty cool.
We checked into our room and unpacked our luggage. Jeff read through most of our touristy, travel materials and had some ideas for things to do. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up so the first order of business was to go get a new one. I opted to head to a Wal Mart where I could get a nice compact Canon reasonably priced and if something went wrong with it, I could still return it when I got back home. So we bought a few snacky things while we were there to take with us on our rides through wine country. At the end of the day, we were pretty tired so we stopped at the In N Out burger to try one. It wasn't bad, but I doubt that I will ever go back. Check that off the to-do list.

Mother Nature is in control

The snow is coming, a blizzard in fact. Of course it is supposed to start tonight and keep coming until noon tomorrow. My flight leaves at 8:45 tomorrow morning, I hope. Everyone is freaking out over the weather which I don't understand. It's winter in Wisconsin and it is always like this. Year after year, it doesn't change. And the people who freak out over it every year don't change either. It's like a bad boring habit to discuss the weather.

A coworker did email the boss this morning from Albuquerque to say his flight back to Milwaukee was already cancelled even before the snow starts coming. Things are not looking good.

No one understands why I am so calm. Why not stay calm? I can't change it or fix it - mother nature is going to do what she does no matter what I think so why worry? I do check the airline regularly throughout the day and the flight is still on although the airport status says check your flight before heading out. By the afternoon the airline is asking if I want to reschedule but the flight is still on. I will wait.

By the end of the workday I decided that if the flight gets cancelled, it's ok. After all, we were feeling bad about missing a funeral that we really should attend this Saturday. We tried to get out of the trip but we would lose almost all the money we put into it. If it was the weather's fault we could reschedule without an extra charge.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You Want but Wouldn't Buy for Yourself:

1. A pedicure (I usually get spa gift certificates for Mother's Day and that's how I get pedicures).
2. TV series DVDs.
3. A cappucino maker.
4. A new gas grill.
5. More Wii games.
6. Bose iPod dock.
7. Ceramic bowls.
8. Boots.
9. Professional hair coloring.
10. Acrylic nails.

http://www.yanowhatimean.com/tuesday/