Muir Woods & The Sulavers

Doug and I left this morning for our 10:30 AM reservation at Muir Woods. We had never been and were extremely excited about visiting the national park. We arrived an hour early and were thankful that they let us in right away. The entire two-mile walk was absolutely beautiful. The cold weather and the rain did not deter us from enjoying our hike at all. It was so beautiful to see the redwoods, and it was fun knowing that we were standing on the spot where Vertigo was filmed and one of the first United Nations meetings was held. Besides a lot of pictures, I also made sure to get a national park stamp and sticker from the gift shop for Cameron‘s national park book that we bought in the Everglades two years ago.  On our drive out of the mountains that housed Muir Woods, we found an In and Out Burger for lunch.  Neither Doug nor I had ever been there and were happy to finally find out what all of the buzz was about.  

Since we were so close to San Francisco, Doug and i decided to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and stop by the Full House house on our way to San Jose. The last time we were in California, the home was under renovation, so it was neat to see it without all the scaffolding up. We made it to Aunt Rosie‘s house by 3 PM. They were ready for us, and we were super excited to visit with them. Uncle Mike wanted us to go with him to a Korean War monument on top of Mount Umunhum. The weather was perfect at the bottom, but once we made it to the top of the almost 3500-foot-high mountain, the weather had changed drastically from sunny and warm to cloudy, rainy, windy and cold. The views that we hoped to see were nonexistent, and even the monument was hard to spot just a few feet from us. We didn’t mind, however, as we had so much fun on our afternoon adventure.

Our last stop of the day was BJ’s Brewhouse. It was one of Mike and Rosie‘s favorite places to go for happy hour. They had great recommendations for beer to try and several food specials on the menu. Both Doug and I enjoyed listening to all that they had been up to in the past six years since we last visited. It is rare that we get to spend time with anyone in the Heinisch family outside of Uncle Dan and Uncle Phil, so it was very special to us. They had lots of great memories to share making for a wonderful day in Silicon Valley.

Petaluma, Jim and Ernie's Tin Bar

Doug and I started our day at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma for 9 a.m. mass.  The church was beautiful and the service was wonderful, especially the homily.  Afterward, Doug and I walked through downtown Petaluma checking out all of the antique stores.  There were some great pieces, but we only window shopped today.  We had just gotten to the Petaluma Historic Library when Jim called to let us know that he was at our hotel.  I was excited to see him, but a little nervous as well as we hadn't spent time together in person for twenty-five years.

Thankfully, time melted away in all of thirty seconds.  The three of us spent the day laughing, sharing stories, and exploring the area along the way.  We first toured the library where we learned how Petaluma was founded.  We also saw several antiques in the library that Doug and I had owned in our home.  We found the old-fashioned egg washer fascinating, but only Doug checked out the de-beaker.  While we were there, we also discovered that American Graffiti had been filmed in downtown Petaluma as well.  After the library, we walked to the river before heading to Sonoma.

Jim had chosen downtown Sonoma for lunch, but on the way there, Doug noticed that we were passing "Ernie's Tin Bar."  Dan had told him that if we were ever in Sonoma that we should check it out.  Jim was all for it as he had passed it many times and always thought about stopping.  The guys tried a few beers, and we all enjoyed the roadside atmosphere very much.

Downtown Sonoma was very nice.  We parked on the square and walked through the area looking at all of the stores and restaurants before finally settling on a bistro for lunch.  The weather was gorgeous, so we sat outside for our late afternoon meal.  I spotted a chocolate shop close by, and we headed there for a sampling of their truffles. Before we left town, we checked out their center park and stopped to smell a few roses along the way.  

Our last stop of the night was the distillery beside our hotel.  Doug and I had visited it last night and took home a piece of their carrot cake.  I had raved about it to Jim, so he wanted to try it as well.  Doug ordered the same and I chose the spicy chocolate cake which had actually habanero seasoning in the frosting.  It was very good and a great way to celebrate a wonderful day catching up with a dear friend. 

 

Petaluma and Charles Schulz

Since Doug slept the majority of our trip out to California, he had no problem driving an hour north to Petaluma last night.  I had found a hotel close to town that would be a great starting point for our day today.  I also felt more comfortable getting out of Oakland as Jim had told me that there were some parts of the city that weren't safe and I didn't want to navigate that at midnight last night.  The hotel was perfect for a one-night stay and even had breakfast for us in the morning.   After being awake for twenty-four straight hours, I was thankful for a good night's sleep.

Our plans for the day included checking out the Egg and Butter festival in downtown Petaluma.  We drove their first and decided that we would wait and go to it later in the day.  The crowds were already gathering for the parade even though it wasn't scheduled to start for two hours and trying to find a parking spot was almost impossible.  We didn't mind postponing our plans as that gave us plenty of time to go to the Charles Schulz museum in Santa Rosa.  We had wanted to visit it on our last trip to California, but our return flight got cancelled and we had to leave a day early.  I was so glad that we finally got to go today as we both loved it.

The museum was dedicated to Schulz's writing career and most importantly his creation of the Peanuts cartoons.  The exhibits were filled with Peanuts comics, large character displays, murals and the history of his life with Charlie Brown.  It was fascinating to see the evolution of the cartoons and the explosion of their popularity.  After the museum, we walked to the ice rink that Schulz created.  He was a huge fan of the ice skating and hockey.  We were surprised by how popular the rink was in Santa Rosa as we had never thought of California as an ice-skating area.  Schulz had hosted senior ice hockey tournaments, ice pageants and had many Olympic skaters visit over the years.  Attached to it was The Warm Puppy Cafe.  It was adorable and extremely busy with the lunchtime crowd.  Our last stop on the property was the gift shop.  It was not only filled with Peanuts merchandise but had a lot of memorabilia in it as well.  Both Doug and I were thrilled with our visit this morning.  We not only learned a lot but felt as though we were taking a step back into the fun parts of our childhood.

Since we were in Sonoma County, we decided to pick out a winery to visit next.  Paradise Ridge was absolutely beautiful, and we loved sitting out on their veranda looking at the hills around us. Doug is the wine connoisseur in our family, but I did enjoy the one he picked out for me to try.  That along with the cheese plate they served was perfect for lunch.  While we were there, we even saw a few wild turkeys walking through the vineyards.  

Doug and I made it back to Petaluma well after the parade ended.  Our hotel was situated downtown in a prime location.  We could park our car and easily walk to the festival.  We stopped at a few places along our walk, amazed at all of the people in town.  We found a nice place on the river for dinner and enjoyed dessert at the distillery next to our hotel making for a wonderful end to our first day in California.  

A Long Day of Travel

Today was definitely one of the longest I had spent in recent memory.  I was up at 4:30 a.m. to go to Longwood with Doug.  We didn’t want to have to drive both cars back when we return from California, so it was the best option.  While he was working, I hung out at Meg’s catching up on my shows, talking to several of my children, and resting for our long trip to come.  

I picked Doug up at 1 p.m. from work.  It had been a quiet day for him with most people out of the office for a meeting.  We left the Accord at Meg’s and took a Lyft to the airport.  It was a lot cheaper than paying for parking for eight days and our driver was super helpful.  There was a long line at check-in, but security was short, so we had plenty of time to eat an early dinner.  In the end, I was very glad that we did as we wouldn’t have much to eat the rest of the day.

Our flight was delayed at the gate for a mechanical issue which made us twenty minutes late getting into San Diego.  I was really worried about that as we had to catch our flight to Oakland 40 minutes after our original plane was supposed to arrive.  Thankfully, our Oakland flight was delayed as well.  It was the easiest flight of the two as it was only an hour long and the wi-fi worked on it.  That wasn’t the case on the first flight, which made it feel a lot longer than the five hours we were on the plane.  Doug slept almost the entirety of that flight, so he really didn’t notice.  I did start the series on Apple TV called Pluribus.  It was good, just not as much as Severance.  

With all of the delays, we had very little time to get our luggage and catch the shuttle to the rental car lot before it closed.  Thankfully, everything was in our favor.  Ours were the first bags off of the plane and we were the last ones on the shuttle bus.  We pulled out of the parking lot at 11:45 p.m. just as they were starting to shut down for the night.  It was a long day of traveling, but worth it as now our vacation could begin.

Life Changer

Over the past two weeks I have had a lot of time to reflect on the conversation that I had with my gastroenterologist and the session that I had with my therapist.  One item that was causing a lot of stress in my life came to light during those appointments.  I was spending almost all of my time and energy making sure that no one had to deal with the natural consequences of their actions.  For years, I had been anticipating every bad outcome that could occur from a decision that someone in our family made and sometimes even trying to guess all of the different decisions that they could make beforehand so I could prevent anything negative from happening. It made sense to me why I was doing this, but realistically it wasn’t really helping anyone.  People learn best from dealing with the consequences of their choices, good or bad.  By preventing that from happening, they weren’t learning anything and I was destroying my health.  I had taken steps last July to step back from this behavior, but until the doctor explained exactly how doing this was a direct physical cause of pain for me, I knew that I had to stop completely.  

Because of this, I have let go of the guilt of not going the extra mile for others and instead have started to focus on myself.  For the past two weeks, I have exercised daily, watched what and how I ate, put my interests first and set boundaries.  The difference has been amazing.  I have only experience severe pain a few times in the past two weeks.  I have lost weight.  I sleep better and I am happier.  I wish that I would have understood that this behavior was making me sick a long time ago, but am thankful that I understand it now.  It has definitely been a life changer.  

Surgery Success

My dad's surgery to remove the sarcoma in his right bicep was yesterday and I was happy to hear that it went very well.  There were multiple outcomes that could have occurred including amputation, nerve damage or loss of the use of his hand.  The surgeon was very pleased to relay to my dad that none of those had happened.  Instead, my dad got the best-case scenario, removal of the tumor and muscle without disturbing the vascular or nervous system.  He was obviously extremely relieved to hear that news.

I really appreciated that Aunt Susie and Uncle Dean were able to take him yesterday and pick him up this afternoon.  It was very nice to have a family member there who was positive and could let us know what was happening before my dad woke up.  Hopefully, now my dad can focus on healing and recovering.  It will take some work in rehab and several follow-up appointments, but thankfully, the worst is behind him now.

The Hidden King

Since we finished the book of Isaiah during the Lenten season, our Bible study leader suggested that we spend three weeks studying Saint Joseph.  I was very excited about that as I didn't know a lot about him besides being a carpenter and Jesus' father.  The video that we were using for our studies was divided in three parts and was titled The Hidden King. I thought that was very interesting as I had most often heard of him as The Forgotten Saint.  We listened to the first part last week which focused on the lineage of Joseph and his relationship to King David.  There was also a lot of discussion regarding Herod who was the king of Jerusalem.  He was a horrible person and was responsible for killing all male Jews under the age of two after he found out about Jesus' birth. It was very difficult to listen to at times because of Herod's cruelty.

This week's lesson focused on the story of Joseph and Mary's betrothal and marriage as well as Jesus' conception.  It was absolutely fascinating.  It not only gave us information about relationships during that time period but also gave Biblical verses that supported the Catholic Church's beliefs surrounding the lives of Joseph and Mary. There were verses that showed that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, it dated Joseph's age and it explained perfectly the question about Jesus' "brothers."  I thoroughly enjoyed the video and the discussion that followed.  I will miss the last session next week but should be able to finish on my own later.  If not, I am so happy with what I learned today.  It was truly enlightening.