Santa Rosa to Benicia, California.
Colette went out for a run in the morning and then when she returned, we packed up and went over to the Starbucks across the parking lot for coffee. But, they were jammed up ten deep so we bailed on that and drove into downtown Santa Rosa and had a second look around and a cup of coffee. After coffee, we drove up and down in the old section and checked it out. Beautiful old houses there.
We dropped into the small town of Cotati next where my friend, Gertraude, lives and dropped a card and a note at her door wishing her a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
From there, we went onto Petaluma and again sought out the old downtown area to explore. That seems to us to be the part of town that best represents the whole.
We stayed and had a sandwich at a deli and then it was time to scoot over to Dave’s place in Benicia. I took a quick look at the map services on my iPhone while we were in the deli’s WiFi cloud and then we were off. And, true to previous experiences, having the route planned made it all so easy. We drove straight to his house.
Dave lives in a beautiful house in a nice town, Benicia. It was a pleasure to find him extending a warm welcome to us there. And the prospect of several days of relaxed ‘downtime’ in the same place is very appealing, as well.
Colette had planned a meal to make on Christmas day before we’d arrived. So, once settled in, we all went down to Dave’s local market and bought the materials for our Christmas afternoon meal.
After that, it was some laying around, some clothes washing and some visiting. All good fun.
And the weather? Clear and dry. Mount Diablo, which we all went up in November and couldn’t see anything from the summit because of clouds, was visible in the distance clear as a bell.
dennis