Northern California to San Francisco

Sunday July 6
We left Petaluma and moved on to Greenbrae and the Marin RV Park (this is just north of San Francisco). Once checked in we drove to Tiberon, got a bit of a sunburn walking by the ocean. We really enjoyed out walk in this sleepy little tourist town - big trees and many flowers lined the street with the Arks.






We drove on to Sausilito. It started getting cool there. We walked lots on the main drag finding nothing more interesting than fish and chips for supper. Checking out the restaurant where we discovered "happy hour" only to find out it wasn't on that day we decided to leave.

We drove on to Mill Valley and liked it lots! Many trees cute little shops. Ken saw a restaurant that served $85.00 a plate dinners but didn't say what it was including in the meal.


Saturday July 5
We got up about 8:30 because we didn't hear the Ipod Touch go off (maybe it didn't). We went to garage sales which Ken mapped out on the IPod. No problems finding them. We only found a Buddah Bar double CD set for $1.00. The weather was very hot ... for us.

Lunch found us in Whole Foods Market, you just can't beat those Whole Foods Markets. We had samples galore, almost filled us up. We each enjoyed different but delicious meals. We shared a chewy chocolate cookie.

We drove into Marin county to a place called Tamales. Cute little rural town with a pub serving roasted oysters and a band playing loudly inside - seemed like the whole town was milling about.

We also went to Bodega Bay which was the setting for Alfred Hitchcocks "The Birds". We went in the school that was in the movie. Shortly after the movie a family bought it and restored it. Tippy Hedron (from the film) was going to be making an appearance in Bodega Bay later on this month.




Earlier in the afternoon we went on to Dillion Beach and toured a 620 square foot house listed for $400,000. It was cute but ....

We ate supper in Santa Rosa. The deli was closed where we ate before and I had the best frittata ever, it was about five inches high.


Friday July 4
We drove to Napa, through wine country, and walked around. Their main street, by the the river, was cordoned off for July 4th celebrations. We ate roasted corn, drank beer in the street and felt Canadian. One thing that stood out in my mind was Bon Bon the white chihuahua. He was up for adoption at a portable SPCA facility and was a real sweetie. If we were on the way back home he would have been mine. We talked to a real estate agent in Napa which did not impress us. Napa wasn't stellar so we moved on to Vallejo which was even drastically less desirable.
We decided to drive to Fairfax. Wonderful little place more like what we'd like in a second property. It was a treed area also in Marin county. The areas we liked Woodacres, Forest Knolls, Lagunitas and Nicosio.
We watched fireworks on a park on a hill with crowd of Petulumeans. Ken got hit by a baby stroller that rolled partly down the hill then stopped at the base of a huge tree. Luckily it was empty and Ken was unscathed.




Thursday July 3
Ken made toast on the griddle for breakfast.

We stopped and ate lunch at a well treed roadside stop. A Stellars jay entertained us. We drove a very windy, scenic highway. We saw cows on and beside the road. Once we arrived in Petaluma we paid for our KOA campsite for three nights (a long weekend here in the States). This campground has a petting zoo complete with donkeys, sheep, a crested Peking duck, baby goats, etc. It is Hilton camping with showers, a covered kitchen with electric cooktops and sinks. Funny to see America camping on their big weekend. Some campers had a full outdoor kitchen set up in the sites they occupied. Ken thought the finishing item was a garbage can in one site, complete with recycling. We walked around Petaluma in the evening. This is the city where American Graffiti was filmed.


Wednesday July 2
We woke up in the most beautiful park with huge trees (Richardson State Park, Redwood forest, same park as last year, only we found a better site). Only 4% of the old growth Redwoods remain. Seems a shame since they are centuries old and have survived so much. They do not survive humanity – what a shame. We went for a lengthy hike to a shutdown campground hoping to see wildlife, we saw crows.

We left and drove down many windy stretches of road until we arrived at Fort Bragg, CA. It is just such an artsy little town–galleries and shops. We even found a farmers market. Ate the best almond, cherry tart ever.

Went to an art/quilt shop (what a great combo). We continued on to Mendoseno, CA. – seaside, artsy town. I got to go in some of the shops this year, they were as great as I imagined. The gardens and flowers were spectacular. It was kind of chilly from the ocean breeze.





Our campsite was c-o-l-d, but scenic with a very strange California fog in the morning . There was a weird, bent down kind of evergreens behind our campsite. You had to walk through them to get to the bathroom (scary at night). Quite a few rabbits on our hike that night.