Our travel plan for the day was pretty straightforward. Get
fuel. Hop on US-101 and head north. Bypass San Francisco by taking I-880 along
the East Bay to Oakland (past the Oakland A’s stadium), then merge onto I-80
for a bit before taking I-580 across the Richmond Bridge, back to US-101 into
Petaluma.
It worked out just as expected on a beautiful driving day.
Notice that I said “expected” not “perfect”. We expected to run into some
traffic on “getaway day” for the Independence Day holiday, and we did. Once we
merged onto I-80, the combination of 9 lanes merging to 5 and people trying to
escape San Francisco brought everything to a halt for a while. But, we expected
as much (actually, I expected worse) and we were soon paying our $25 toll to
cross the Bay.
After a quick wave to the inmates at San Quentin, we were
back on US-101 heading north. After another slow down just past Novato in a
“permanent construction zone” (it’s been like this for years), we crossed into
Sonoma County and were soon parked at the Petaluma Elks Lodge.
This Lodge has done a nice job of upgrading all their sites
to 50 Amp service and full hookups, although the spaces aren’t quite as level
as we’d like and they are a bit narrow. On the plus side, they are one of the
few Lodges that has a reservation system in place, and an online one at that,
so we knew where we were parking and were all paid in advance. Before the end
of the day, we were sipping a “cold one” in the lounge.
The weather was pretty nice during our stay, with some
morning fog and low clouds that generally burned off quickly. We continued our
relaxing ways for the most part, doing some shopping to replenish supplies and
puttering around. We hade a trip to the Home Depot in Rohnert Park, about 10
miles north for some lumber to make blocks for under the front wheels; yes the
sites slope that much.
Independence Day was pretty calm. Over the years, the dogs
have learned to hate thunder and fireworks, so we approached the holiday with a
little trepidation. The (sort of) good news for Merlin is that, as he’s gotten
older, he can’t hear as well so fireworks, as long as it’s not too close,
doesn’t bother him any more. Maya, on the other hand, gets frantic.
I’ve seen online where other dog owners have had success
with a product called a “ThunderShirt”, which looks an awful lot like some of
their sweaters and rain gear but costs twice as much. We’d picked one up before
we left Arizona and, wouldn’t you know, the darn thing worked! As soon as we
heard the fireworks start, we put it on her and she calmed right down. Best $39
spent so far on this trip!
On Saturday, we headed over to the Lodge for their annual
“picnic”. It wasn’t exactly what we expected, since it was all indoor seating,
but we enjoyed the barbecued chicken that we’d smelled cooking all morning.
On Sunday, we headed for San Francisco. We didn’t have much
of a plan except to check out the shops at the Ferry Building on the
Embarcadero and that was probably a good thin, since we basically spent the day
there. We hit all of our favorite shops (Sur la Table for kitchen gadgets, Far
West Fungi for mushrooms and a summer truffle, the Italian place for some
fregola and other over-priced imports,
and the wine shop for a couple of glasses of red. We had lunch at Boccalone, an
outpost of one of those TV celebrity chefs who specializes in cured meats
(“Pancetta and guanciale? Yes, please”.)
Tuesday we took a trip to the local Farmer’s Market and to a
new “home improvement” store, Friedman’s. A local chain, they have opened an
expanded “superstore” in Petaluma that puts Home Depot and Lowe’s to shame. Of
course, that are very proud of their merchandise, with prices 10-20% higher
than the national chains, so you have to shop carefully. Geri was quite
impressed with the “living walls” that they have constructed outside the
entrance so we had to have a photo opp. Nearby workers just smiled and said
“That happens a lot”.
On Wednesday, we made the trek over to Napa (the city,
specifically) and the Oxbow Market. Smaller than the Ferry Building
marketplace, it’s still among our favorite places to visit with several unique
shops. Our timing was impeccable [pats self on back] as we arrived just as we
were thinking about lunch. We went directly to the Hog Island Oyster Company
counter and were soon enjoying two plates of bivalves with glasses of house
bubbly. Geri had two different kinds of cooked oysters (Rockefeller and Bagna
Caulda – garlic) and we shared a half-dozen on the half shell. Awesome!
Once we knew we wouldn’t collapse from hunger, we poked
around the shops, looking at some of the unique things available. Exotic
spices, every type and color of salt known to man, specialty teas – oh, wait. A
distillery? With tasting flights? You betcha! After tasting 6 spirits and
cocktails, we decided that it was time for lunch proper, so we shuffled next
door to Gott’s Roadside. A little less rustic than the original in St. Helena,
we still enjoyed excellent burgers and a nice bottle of Napa wine. To top it
all off, we stopped in The Fatted Calf butcher shop and loaded up, strangely
enough, on pork products to shoehorn into the freezer. Foodie paradise…
So, we wrapped up another great visit to wine country
without actually buying and wine. Good thing we’ll probably stop back in the
fall on our way south!
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