Goodbye CA coast, Welcome Wine Country

I didn't write anything yesterday because Doug and I were really tired by the end of the day.  Hwy 1 is really a scenic highway, but it also has tons of curves.  Have you ever driven the road to Hana on Maui?  Well, Hwy 1 is pretty close and much longer.  Yesterday we drove about 135 miles and it took us 5 hours.  Of course, we stopped at a couple beaches, but most of the driving was an average of 30 mph.  So, when we reached Bodega Bay (where we thought we were going to spend the night) we turned inland and ended up in Santa Rosa.

Here is a photo from one of the beaches along Hwy 1.  Doug and I walked this beach.  It was a quiet, gorgeous morning, and we found tracks of a sea turtle.  Pretty cool.

We decided to stay two nights in Santa Rosa.  This was a good decision.  We were getting kind of tired moving from hotel to hotel each night.  Today we didn't have to pack up.  We just packed a lunch and headed out to explore the wine country.

The first stop was in Healdsburg, just north of Santa Rosa.  It is a really cute little town; definitely caters to the wine tasters, but also a community with an identity of it's own.  Here is a picture of the downtown area.

Of course we had to find a coffee shop for Doug.  They had pretty good scones, too.

In looking through the local visitor center's brochure, we found we could take walking tours of some of the local wineries.  Doug and I don't really like wine that well, so we're not interested in tasting wine.  But, as you all know, wineries are such beautiful places and it just seemed wrong to not see at least a few wineries.  The first place we visited, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, was a real surprise.  It is huge and has fantastic grounds.  Visitors have the choice of wine tasting, dining, swimming, playing bocce ball, exploring their dispalys, or just enjoying the view.  Here are some views of the winery:

Doug was drooling when we found the original Tucker car used in the movie, Tucker.

A little more exploring and we realized Francis Ford Coppola was a film director who won quite a few Oscars for movies such as the 3 Godfather movies, Tucker, Marie Antionette, etc.  Here is a photo of the desk used in the Godfather.

We sat outside, drank a glass of wine, and enjoyed the view and sunshine.  Unfortunately, I was so enthralled I forgot to take a picture of the view from the winery.

This afternoon/evening we explored downtown Santa Rosa.  They have a unique historic railroad district, which is where we ate dinner.  We explored their greenway walk and looked around downtown.  Santa Rosa is a pretty nice city.  Weather is wonderful!  We are having a wonderful time and feeling really blessed.

Santa Roas has a Charles Schultz museum and there are Peanuts statues all over downtown.  Here we are with Lucy in the historic railroad district.

Oh, almost forgot, we skyped with Nate and our grandsons last night.  What a kick.  I really appreciate Nate taking the time for us to do this.  It was so comical watching our grandsons literally crawling over Nate to get their faces right in the camera.  To occupy Seth, Nate gave him his phone.  So, Seth proceeded to take a photo of our pictures on skype.  What a character.  We miss our family, but are so thankful for skype and blogging so we can stay in touch.