Skip to main content

San Francisco to Sonoma

Image
By

We touched down in a sunny San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon feeling very fortunate to be setting out on another great holiday in the USA. We overnighted in a hotel close to the airport so that we could pick up our car on Wednesday morning and begin our road trip.
Our Jeep Compass
We hit the road and headed north towards the Golden Gate Bridge which due to the weather was partially covered in mist.


A misty Golden Gate Bridge from our Jeep

MThe weather improved as we left San Francisco and when we reached Sonoma the sun was shining to welcome us. 
The historic picturesque town of Sonoma is home to Sonoma State Historic Park - site of the northernmost Franciscan mission in California and birthplace of the California State Bear Flag. Located in the heart of the beautiful wine country between Napa and Santa Rosa the town surrounds a central plaza (the largest of its kind in California), filled with charming shops and restaurants. The town centre also has many 
historic sites including the Mission San Francisco Solano and the Sonoma Barracks. 
The striking basalt stone City Hall is located in the town plaza in the heart of Sonoma. 


Sonoma City Hall


Sylvia chatting with One of the locals
Our hotel was just one block from the plaza so we were very close to the main sites and some great restaurants including the widely acclaimed Girl and the Fig where we had a 
beautiful meal on the Friday evening. 



The area is filled with wineries and we visited the Bartholomew Park Winery and had a picnic lunch overlooking the acres of vines but sadly our Jeep Compass no to vino so it was healthy fruit and veggie smoothies. 

A Californian picnic
Local vines


We also visited Napa which is much bigger than Sonoma but not as picturesque in our minds. 
We left Sonoma on the Saturday morning and headed to Stockton for an overnight stay before heading to Yosemite. 



Comments

  1. On the Road with T and S18 September 2017 at 06:51

    Very informative with great pictures. Looking forward to the next episode.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holbrook, AZ to Peach Springs, AZ

By
We left Holbrook in bright sunshine and continued our drive along Rte 66 which once again had us driving on the Interstate at times. Our first stop was in Winslow made famous when The Eagles recorded "Take It Easy" whose second verse starts with "Standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona". We then drove on to Flagstaff but didn't stop in the city. Flagstaff has a beautiful forested location high up on the Colorado Plateau and it was a change to be driving on roads lined with tall ponderosa pine trees. We had a picnic lunch off the beaten track in Buckskinner Park, Williams, AZ. We followed a dirt trail to the picnic area which really tested our car's tyres.  They survived, thankfully. We soon found ourselves in Seligman (pronounced Sligman), a sleepy town which maintains a lot of its historic character together with a few unexpected twists - eg Santa in a Chevvy outside the wacky Snow Cap Drive-in. Our destination for the night was th
2 comments
Read more

Seattle, WA

By
  We left Everett on Sunday morning and headed south to Seattle, our final stop on this trip. We drove to our hotel and dropped off our cases before we headed to SeaTac to return our car.  After the brief stop at the hotel we drove to Kubota Garden, a 20-acre Japanese garden in one of Seattle’s southern neighbourhoods. It was started in 1927 by Fijitaro Kubota, a Japanese immigrant. It is an urban oasis  with Japanese and native trees and plants, ponds and waterfalls. It was beautiful with its fall colours.  The following morning we headed down to the waterfront to the historic Pike Place Market where Starbucks first opened its doors to the public in 1971.  Then we wandered through the market which opened in 1907 and strolled by the numerous stalls of seafood, fresh produce, crafts and flowers.  On Tuesday we took the monorail, which was the first commercial monorail in the USA and built in 1962 as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair. It still uses the original cars.  The monorail
3 comments
Read more

Volcanic Country

By
  On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we headed back to the airport to pick up our car. We got a very nice car, a Ford Edge, fairly large for what is described as a small SUV. Then it was off on the road trip part of the holiday. Our first stop was in a cabin in Ashford, a very small town near the entrance to the Mount Rainier National Park.  Thursday morning saw us head to Mount Rainier NP. Mount Rainier at 14,410 ft is the tallest mountain in Washington State. It is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. We drove up to Paradise which at an elevation of 5,420 ft. is famous for its stunning views.  We then walked to Myrtle Falls and the views all round us were just stunning.  After lunch we drove to Reflection Lakes along a road with hairpin bends and precipitous drops to the side.  While in Ashford, we ate at the quaint Copper Creek Restaurant which opened in 1946 and is the oldest, continuously operating restaurant in Washington State. 
9 comments
Read more