The last several days have just been a whirlwind of activities. We made it up to Northern California unscathed from the coastal drive. Once over the Golden Gate Bridge, the 2WestwardHos separated for a couple nights. Don't worry, it was amicable and pre-planned. We both had friends to visit so in order take advantage of as many people as possible on this trip, it was better to split up.  I dropped Lisa off in Tiburon and headed up to Petaluma. I was originally headed to a hotel until a friend posted on this very blog that she wanted to host me. Honestly, it was more than a post, she practically begged me. I hated to turn down a free bed and home cooked meal, so I obliged. So, lesson to you readers, if you REALLY insist on hosting us, you only have to ask once.  As a matter of fact, we'd like to hear from some of you beginning the first week in February with names of friends and family who want 2 charming house guests for our drive back to Chicago.  Please stress the charming part. 

Petaluma is a victorian town located north of San Francisco in Sonoma County and is one of the few places in California that survived the 1906 earthquake. The town is full of architecturally beautiful and sound buildings, including many with iron fronts that can withstand fire, which is a concern to Californians. There are also several houses in the town designed by architect Julia Morgan, the same architect who designed the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Yes, that's the same Hearst Castle we didn't see a few days ago because we didn't make reservations. It's still a sore point so I'm going to move on. 

I stayed with a college friend, Arden Kwan and her 2 daughters, 2 dogs and I don't know how many friends came in and out over a 2 day period. It's a small town and nobody locks any doors so everyone is free to roam about the town.  I'm a city girl so I locked my suitcase once I got in her house. I couldn't risk someone stealing my socks as I didn't pack that many and laundry is a luxury. Anyway, I read the best way to see Petaluma was with one of the town's docents dressed in Victorian garb. Unfortunately, tours are only May-December.  I don't mean to be an ungrateful guest but I could not talk one of my hostesses into dressing the part. They offered the plain-clothes tour so I went along.  We walked all all around the downtown and gathered bits and pieces of the town's history. Strangely, when we hit certain spots there was a distinctive odor in the air.  I was reminded that in California, marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes. Seems there are a lot of sick people in Petaluma. There was even one man at the bus stop sharing his medicine with a friend. I guess that's another nice part of being in a small town. 

Arden and I went on an short wine tour of Sonoma. You could spend all day at the vineyards if you had the money for a driver. We went from the Tattinger champagne vineyard with lovely sit-down table service to running in and out of some wineries. Our final stop was Sebastiani which is a fairly big vineyard and lots of wine hosts to serve you. We lucked out and got a really friendly and knowledgeable woman to serve us.  There was a recent scandal in the newspapers about in-fighting with this particular vineyard we were dying to hear about.  She was reluctant to talk but told us the vineyard was a family owned winery for 107 years until a month ago. There was a falling out and the family ended up selling the vineyard to the Firestone family. She gave us a company line that it was a really good fit, blah blah blah.  But, all I could think of was Andrew Firestone's Polish cleaning lady bride is probably going to get a few more new outfits out of this acquisition.

Please note the 2WestwardHos reconnected as planned and Lisa will post separately about her visit with friends in San Francisco.