Not long from now we'll be on our way to the airport to begin our journey back to Florida. We'll be there until July 20. Beth's looking forward to seeing her mom and I'm looking forward to seeing my favorite Mother-in-Law. Additionally, the annual beach house festivities will be kicking off tomorrow and running for the next two weeks. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about this blog may give you a little insight.
Beach House Blog
Our time in California has been great! We enjoyed having Debbie and Cindy with us for a week, finding new places. revisiting some of our Northern California favorites and of course spending so much time with Sarah, Joey, James and Emma Joy. Much of this last week has been helping them pack and move. Same city, just a new house. They're exhausted right now, but also excited about the new house, neighborhood and the elementary school that James will be attending next year.
The Tuesday Night Market at Sonoma Plaza features live music, vendors and now....... a lot of people who are mask free!
The Organic Hummus Guy had a steady stream of customers but the non-organic corn dog booth always had a long line!
The Northern California area has so many unique and diverse places to enjoy. From the coast to the wine region, the city (San Francisco) and so much more. We've spent the better part of three months in this area over the past year. Of course Sarah, Joey, James and Emma Joy have factored very heavily into the time we've spent here.
California does a great job warning you about everything. Cars cause cancer and birth defects, every restaurant uses stuff that can cause cancer, practically every business cleans with chemicals that can cause cancer and so on and so forth...............
I'm not sure if it causes cancer, but I appreciate the warning not to drink the pool water...........
and the award for the most confusing rule (next to last rule). It's ok for folks with communicable diseases to use the pool, they just can't shower first!
After enjoying an Amy's Wicked Slush in Healdsburg, James played in the Russian River at the Healdsburg Veterans Memorial Beach.
Chilling in the shade at the Healdsburg Veterans Memorial Beach.
In the 1870's China Beach was a fishing/shrimping camp of Chinese immigrants. It grew to a community of around 500 people before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. By 1900 only a few fisherman remained. It is now a park with a small beach, picnic tables and hiking trails. There are several historic buildings (a couple are pictured above) and a small but nice museum that is now operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. We enjoyed visiting here on Father's Day afternoon with Sarah, Joey, James and Emma Joy.
While Sarah and Joey were packing and moving to the new house we enjoyed keeping James and Emma Joy. One of our outings was to Traintown, a family friendly amusement park in Sonoma. James is waiting patiently for the train ride to begin.
Emma Joy was waiting patiently as well!
James got thrown in jail for being too cute and too sweet!
Two kids and a carousel!
Flying high on the airplanes. He also loved the roller coaster and flying ships.
Traintown wore her out!
Unfortunately California is suffering from a major drought. The wildfire season is just starting. There was a small grass fire less than a mile from Sonoma Plaza. The conditions were right (dry, low humidity and windy) for this thing to spread quickly. Within 15 minutes of seeing the first firetruck respond to the fire there were at least 25-30 more trucks, several airplanes and helicopters. One plane spread a load of fire retardant, and helicopters dumped multiple loads of water from the air. Thankfully it was quickly contained. It's going to be a challenging summer for fire fighters out here.
We're not sure when we'll be back in this neck of the woods, but we know that we won't let too much time pass. There's grandkids involved..........Sarah and Joey too!
