Hitz Adventures: California Dreamin’ on Such a Winter’s Day: Sonoma (Part 3 of 4)

Walked Max up the hill early to catch sunrise.

We came back, had breakfast, cleaned all the new ticks off of the dog and headed out for a picnic lunch. I took Amy up to the Umbrella tree hike I did a few days ago. We settled in a spot overlooking the valley to read and have lunch. I promptly fell asleep

That evening we watched the Super Bowl. We had to get the hosts in to get the TV to work, but it didn’t really matter as I think I was asleep by halftime.

We drove into Santa Rosa today and hiked Taylor Mountain

It was a good workout to get to the top. We saw a lady changing her baby’s diapers up there. Most impressive to tackle this hike, with a baby and a dog to boot.

At this point Amy was fighting the ticks at all times. She decided to shave Max like a Lion to make it easier to find the ticks and because he would let us near his face in order to even it out.

It was a decent day and we decided to head out to the Pacific coast for the first time and hike the Kortum Trail. It ran along the sea cliff north from the seaside town of Bodega Bay up to The Russian River. You could do small chucks of the trail or do the whole thing coming out at 8 miles or 16 round trip. We decided to start at the beginning and found a cool campsite right on the ocean. I am sure it is booked up solid year-round.

Amy really enjoyed the views and made me stop every 5 minutes to take her picture

I will not subject you to all of them.

We continued on and had to climb a big hill before descending onto the beach

We stopped her for lunch before making the hike back to the car. It was a little cool at the start of the hike but it warmed up and turned out to be a perfect day

We took a different way home, following the Russian River. It had little towns like Monte Cristo and Guerneville and fishing outfitters dotting the banks of the river. Seemed like a perfect place for a vacation. Calm floats down the river right into the Pacific Ocean. Stopped at a shake shack for milkshakes. I got Oreo and it tasted like cardboard. How can you screw up a milkshake?

We had a few days of rain where we hung around the property and did some loop hikes from the driveway over to the Sonoma Mtn Parking lot and then following the main road back to our mountain road. About 3 miles in total.

On our first clear day we decided, instead of driving over to Jack London SP and the town of Glen Ellen, we would hike over the Mtn and see if we could Uber home. Worst case scenario we had to hike all the way back home along the road adding 6 miles to a roughly 7 mile plan.

We began the march from our doorstep up onto the Sonoma Mtn Trail and after about an hour we entered into London Park

It was all downhill from here. We walked by many of the attractions we saw on our first visit

We continued out of the parking lot and took the road the couple miles into town at the bottom of the valley

We ended up at the Jack London Saloon for lunch

Amy was less than thrilled with her burger as it looked like it had been seared for about 3 seconds a side, and otherwise raw. We were fortunate to pick up Internet service and catch an Uber home. I must say the Uber driver was plenty pissed. He drove 20 minutes out into the middle of nowhere and then had to drive us only 6 miles on this rough road back to our gate. I tried to appreciate his displeasure and left him a good tip, but he could have done better hiding his frustration. Not every ride can be a moneymaker.

It was Saturday and that meant laundry day. We skipped Petaluma this time and went for the closer laundromats of Santa Rosa. This one was a little sketchier, so we opted to stay put while the clothes were spinning. After all was complete we stayed in this mexicantown area and hit up the food trucks. We skipped the popular ones and found one out of the way with no customers.

They treated us like kings. They gave us all this free food and catered to our every need

Since we were not local I think they thought we were some Instagram influencers who would post the food and send all our rich white followers to try this new truck. Regardless, we ate up all the hospitality and amazing food and left a good tip. We also discovered these dorado tacos dipped in some sauce that was to become our undoing.

We finally got a good weather day and decided to head into San Francisco. We stopped for the obligatory shot of the bridge on the way into town

And then on the opposite side as well to see where some old long guns were placed during WWII to protect in the event of a Japanese invasion

The weather was fairly dreary and the city was pretty dirty. I think during the pandemic a lot of services were shut down. They got hit pretty hard at the beginning of the outbreak and were taking no chances these days. The mask wearing here was the most intense of any of our stops. All bikers had masks on and solo hikers would also don them. Once while driving down from the hill at Golden Gate Park we passed a lady walking and she put her mask on as our car went by. That is hardcore.

Our love of all things Japan had us stopping at a Japanese Garden

We continued on to Mission district, Haight Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf, Three Sisters and Chinatown. Parking was crazy and there really was not anything that looked that enticing to leave the car. We closed out the afternoon at Ghirardelli’s Store where Amy could score a sundae to relive one of her last visits here