Monday, January 4, 2010

Marin County, Sonoma County and Santa Rosa

The four of us went to Santa Rosa for a few days over New Years and had a good time hanging out with friends and family and hiking along the Armstrong Woods Coastal Redwood Grove near Guerneville.

I have been to Santa Rosa at least a dozen times over the past 15 years but with this last trip I realized something.....Santa Rosa is a really great town. In fact pretty much the whole area from directly north of the Golden Gate bridge is nice. Maybe its living in our semi arid desert here in So Cal with its dry climate, but it was a nice change to be shrouded in a mist world. The area is very green and very misty...everything is cool about it except the fact that it kicks up Tasha's asthma and allergies into the red zone. Santa Rosa has a cool downtown area, and like Santa Clarita is the perfect size town (150K) and serves as a fully self contained community although it is 40 miles away from SF and Santa Clarita of course is 25 miles to Hollywood. It is like the Pacific Northwest but maybe not quite as rainy.....Most all the area around SR is cool....(Sebastapool, Bodega Bay, The Redwood Grove, tons of wineries) Don't worry though folks we are not leaving Santa Clarita anytime soon...we love living here.

P.S. It has been over a year since I last descended into the San Joaquin Valley and when we were coming down the Grapevine the view almost made me sick! (Yes we lived in Bakers Hell for 2 years)

4 comments:

Brett said...

Wait.... it rains in the Pacific Northwest?

Sailing Vessel Serenity NOW said...

So glad you all had a great visit with Tasha's family and friends. Sounds like a beautiful area with alot to offer. I would definitely enjoy the cooler weather that Northern Calif. has as opposed to So. Calif which is dryer and warmer. However, we like you all will not be moving any time soon. Know what you mean about the lovely (not) view coming down the grapevine into the muck of the valley. All the years we have been going to Kings Canyon and the years we visited you all in Bakersfield I cannot ever remember it being clear. YUK, so glad you don't live in Bakersfield anymore.

Love you all, Susan

dole2obama said...

"I heard that Bakersfield is full of trash and glass."

Sandy said...

So glad you had such a great trip. I do love Northern Calif. There is so much to do up here and the cooler weather is wonderful.
Love, Sandy