The last leg of our tour of Northern California took us to the wine country. The Petaluma KOA was a nice resort and a good base for exploring the area.
Though we saw signs of Corona everywhere (sorry for the dad joke! :-), everyone was masked up and many restaurants were open with outdoor seating.
One close to us was Lombardi’s BBQ Deli, with a large lawn filled with picnic tables packed with guests.
We stocked up on vegetables at Green String Farm. Everything they sell is grown onsite, and they had a great variety of greens, herbs, and vegetables. They even have an educational program to teach others how to grow organically.
The Petaluma Adobe, headquarters of the Vallejo Rancho, was nearby, but closed for the pandemic. We will have to catch it on our next trip to the area.
We did, however, visit another local icon, the Petaluma Creamery for some locally made organic cheese and delicious ice cream.
To work off some of the ice cream calories, I enjoyed several bike rides. One took me on local streets to Sanoma State University.
I also rode the Joe Rodota Regional Trail, a Rails to Trails Conservancy project.
The trail cuts through 4 towns. I rode from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa and back, about 16 miles.
It was refreshing to bicycle through tree canopies and open fields. The blackberries that lined the trail needed more time to ripen.
Petaluma also has a bit of a quirky side, if you look close. Where else can you find a giant chair, electric plug, and a “bug”. 🙂
Probably our favorite activity was visiting the Living Hope Chapel in Sanoma, pastored by my cousin Jonathan. We had a great time at their outdoor and socially distanced service. It was awesome to worship together with others after experiencing online only church services since March.
While in Sonoma we also visited the town square for some coffee and also the mission, which was closed. Mission San Francisco Salano was the most northern of the missions and the last to be built.
Train Town was also closed, but it was fun to take my daughter there when she was small and ride on the small trains.
What about the wineries, you might ask? There are many many good ones in the area which are thoroughly covered by other blogs, such as winetastingbliss.com, so I thought I’d write about different things we saw and liked in the area.
However, four days was not enough time to visit, even during the pandemic. Soon we were off for home and thinking about our next trip to the Pacific Northwest.
MobileMosers.com 
Looks like you had a great time.