Journey To Sonoma

Today we decided to take a short road trip up to the town of Sonoma. Takes about half an hour when the roads aren't jammed with tourists. Weather was windy but otherwise perfect.

These are shots of the Cullinan Ranch Wetlands Restoration project happening around Hwy 37. In the first shot, you can see waterfowl if you click on the photo.

Decided to stop at this place just shy of Sonoma advertising itself as having "Southern BBQ"--they do have the right kind of smoker. The food was great, but it was more like a hybrid of Southern BBQ (brisket smoked briefly, no red ring, but very tender), Californian (note the French style roll), and some other cuisine being represented by the use of a brown gravy (Chicago? Cleveland?). Coleslaw was terrific. We just shared a brisket sandwich, as you couldn't order brisket by itself. Had a couple of tacos (not pictured) later at another place that were great, but again, not authentic. More like a NorCal take on tacos with awesome fresh produce.

Fiddlehead ferns & California poppies.

Sonoma.

Sebastiani Theatre on the Sonoma Plaza.

Candy fried eggs. 

There's a bidding war for this charming fixer-upper. My agent's on hold now.

Most interesting thing I saw at Sonoma Market.

Vallejo in the distance. Shot from the Sonoma/Napa County line.

Cherry tree.

Stopped at Napa Smith's Brew Pub for a pint or 3. They get a lot of their malt from Europe. Germany, France and Canada, mostly, from what I saw. Fantastic beer, and a real bargain at $5 each. Speaking of bargains, I scored one in Napa, Rosenblum for $2.99/bottle.