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.
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