California Wine Country Vacation

“I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”  H. Belloc, writer/historian

Can you tell me,  have you wandered or have you travelled, where and why?

I’ve talked about Lagunitas Brewery before, it’s just right down the street from the Quality Inn. But last week the NY Times had an article on domestically made pale ales and Lagunitas was rated - not at the top but it got on the list. Here’s the link:http://nyti.ms/93YmDD

On Easter weekend, we took my mother in-law on Saturday to Macy’s on Union Square in SF to view their annual spring flower show. The flower arrangements were lush and colorful and an uplifting symbol to entering spring. Afterward, we mosied over to Grant Ave and walked into Chinatown where my brother in-law wanted to try out a tea tasting shop that had just reopened as a clean, bright, modern hole in the wall place set among the t-shirt shops and the busy main street of Chinatown - Red Blossom Tea Company, www.redblossomtea.com. In the past few years that tea has become the new coffee, I’ve passed over being lured into these shops but because we were with my brother in-law this was an opportunity to see how the tea tasting process worked. Much like wine tasting, you are able to select from a wall of tea containers any number of teas you want to taste. I pot is brewed with the precise temperature of water and you taste until you find your cup of tea. The proprietor told us that many wine enthusiasts are tea enthusiasts, tea leaves taste are affected by region, weather, elevation, oxidation etc. Pricing, well it’s not your mother’s pricing - leaves can start from $4 per ounce up to whatever for that one of a kind leaf that they only carry one time and only have 7lbs of. A person could quickly become a tea snob - just like I know that I’m a decaf nonfat Mocha, no whip fan, I now know I’m a Formosa Oolong Tung Ting fan - who da thought.

Proust

” The real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”  from good ol’ Proust

It’s time to not take people, places and things for granted

“What is this life if, full of care, we have not time to stop and stare?

- W.H. Davis, Poet and Writer

The weather this morning sucked - drizzle and a howling wind - but I ran any way and it felt good. But most people cringe if they thought they had to run or even worse, run in the rain. So here’s a little tidbit on what to do this Sunday that has nothing to do with rain - hopefully it doesn’t - and nothing to do with drinking - maybe afterwards.

Point Reyes. Over Valentines/President’s weekend that’s where the nature lovers went. It wasn’t too crowded but people were out because it was very “spring-like” weather. We started at the Visitors Center and walked the Earthquake Trail. It was beautifully quiet and educational at the same time.  Then we drove over to the beach, sat and watched the waves crash. It was so misty from the churning water but it wasn’t too cold. By then we were hungry and stopped in Inverness at Pricilla’s Pizza and Cafe for a tasty lunch before driving off to our last stop, what use to be Johnson’s Oyster Farm, and we bought two dozen medium, briny, bivalve molluscs - yum, yum.

Sometimes we forget what we have in our own backyard.  

The waves were churning and spray was every where.

Heirloom seeds! Petaluma’s newest retail store at the corner of Petaluma Blvd. North and E. Washington Street is Baker Creek Seed Bank. Fittingly housed in the historic Sonoma County National Bank building, the seed bank sells heirloom veggie, fruit, flower and herb seeds that your Grandmother or your Grandmother’s mother use to plant. Baker’s main store is located in Mansfield Missouri and this is their 1st store in the West.

In a time where Marion Nestle and Michael Pollen are making us aware of what we eat, many of us are looking at trying our hand at growing the fruits or vegtables our grandparents grew or ate when they were growing up. This is the seed store to visit.

Baker Creek Seed Bank - 199 Petaluma Blvd. North, closed on Saturdays, www.rareseeds.com

Here we are sliding towards the end of October and the annual pumpkin patch/corn maze off Hwy 101 at the north end of Petaluma is causing its yearly traffic jam.  Drive up for breakfast at Della Frattoria and stop over at the pumpkin patch for your Halloween delight.

Yesterday was the Autumunal Exquinox, which simply means it was the first day of Fall. Wow, where has the year gone - let’s not dwell on it - need an idea about what to do this coming weekend? The Sunday Chronicle had a great little article about pick-your-own apples and pumpkins, which just so happens to be up in our neck of the woods. The illusive Gravenstein apple, with a short season, is available right now. Click onto the link and start planning . . .

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/20/PK1Q19KNFT.DTL

yummy Gravenstein apples

For those of you who didn’t know, the Lagunitas IPA you’ve been drinking is manufactured in our little town of Petaluma. Yep, right here just down from our Quality Inn about a block or so. And they’ve just opened  their TapRoom and Beer Sanctuary, closed Monday and Tuesday, with live music. So forget about winetasting too foo foo, come check-out the brewskis, take a tour, have a bite to eat. Yo ho ho and a bottle of Pale Ale. . .

www.lagunitas.com

Lagunitas Brewing Company