Sonoma wine country, White Fang, and Yeti

Saturday, 22 September.  We began our visit in this part of the country by driving over to Citrus Heights (population about 80,000) and the lovely home of my brother, Laren, and his wife Teena. I always look forward to visits with my brother, since we don't often have the chance to get together.  I left home to join the Air Force (AF) when I was 21 and Laren was entering his junior year in high school.  While growing up in Yakima, Washington, we were close as brothers; however, once I left home and began my globe hopping from one AF assignment to another, Laren and I starting drifting apart, not staying in touch as often as I think we both would have liked.  Over the past several years I believe we've tired to change that pattern. Actually we both have very similar interests.  We both have history degrees and have studied languages.  I was a Romanian and German linguist during my early AF career, and even picked up a few hundred specialized vocabulary words of Russian tactical air terminology while stationed in Berlin in the early '70's.  Laren studed Chinese Mandarian in college, later spent an intensive semester at the University of Washington studying Japanese, and then spent two years in the Peace Corps assigned to Korea, which meant he also studied the Korean language.  He still returns to Korea every few years to travel and visit Korean friends, and is in the last stages of writing a book on Korean temples associated with that country's Shamanism.  Today Laren is the Deputy State Archivist at California's State Archives, and even met his wife, Teena - also an archivist and history buff - while at the Archives.  Teena is a joy to have along when we visit and sightsee any of California's historic sites throughout this part of the state.   Anyway, I am looking forward to some quality time with the only brother.   For this first evening together, Laren grilled some beef Tri-Tip and Teena fixed a wonderful dinner. A great ending to our first day's visit to the Sacramento area.

Sunday, 23 September – Went over to Laren and Teena’s about 9:30am. Lynette and Teena took off for a Citrus Heights Sunday Fun Day, an annual community activity; Teena had invited Lynette to help her man a both for the day-long event.  With the ladies off doing their own thing,  Laren and his son, Ryan, and I took off for an amusement park over in Roseville to play some miniature golf. While this was entirely a "friendly" match, the loser was obligated to buy lunch at a nearby Irish pub.  While the competition was hot and heated at times, with much poking of fun, youth won out in the end and Ryan soundly defeated his dad and uncle.   And, oh yes, I manged to sink a couple more pressure-packed putts and narrowly defeated my dear brother.  We ended this manly outing over a delicious lunch and brews, while watching the Niners lose to the Vikings.  What a terrible loss for San Francisco.  But, oh man, did that food taste great, Laren!

We returned home just in time to see the ladies also returning.  Guess the Sunday Fun Day went just fine, although per Teena, the turnout was a bit less than last year.  We ended the day with another great meal - Italian, this time - prepared by our hosts, and continued to enjoy the opportunity to visit and catch-up with family.

Monday, 24 September – We headed out from Citrus Heights on I-80 to find the Sonoma wine country to see if we couldn't find some wine tasting.  We ended up initially in the heart of one of the world’s premier wine producing regions in Sonoma (population 9,500), a quaint little town with a rich cultural heritage. The adjacent scenic hills – literally dotted with grape vines – and the agricultural Sonoma valley provide a setting of unparalleled natural beauty. Located near the town's central Plaza is the Mission San Francisco de Solano and several other historic buildings, including the Sonoma barracks. We wandered around the grounds of both these historic sites, with Teena acting as our guide. 

 

 

Lynette & I posing at the Mission grounds

 

Ditto Laren & Teena

San Francisco de Solano was the only mission built under Mexican rule and was the last to be built under Alta California (Upper California), a province and territory of New Spain and later Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming. The territory passed to American control after the Mexican–American War and ceased to exist when California became a state in 1850. 

Alta California 

After touring “historic” downtown Sonoma, we hit a couple wine tasting spots, a chocolate tasting shop, and a cheese tasting factory before finding an open picnic table under some shade trees in the central Plaza.  Teena had fixed us a wonderful lunch, and along with a chilled bottle of Sonoma chardonnay, we feasted on ham, crackers, several types of cheese, apples, peaches, and veggies.  Once we were refreshed, we left Sonoma behind and drove further into the valley, looking for the Valley of the Moon winery, which turned out to have a beautiful building, landscaping, gift shop, etc., but only so-so wines. 

 

Valley of the Moon grapes ripe for picking

 

Lynette & I with those same grapes

So we continued on to Glen Ellen – population 784 – the home of Jack London State Historic Park, and began looking for potential eating establishments for dinner.  Jack London (one of my favorite books is White Fang) lived in Glen Ellen for a number of years until his death in 1916, devoting much of his time to developing his ranch (now home to the Jack London State Historic Park) and building his mansion. Many of his novels and stories, notably The Iron Heel and The Valley of the Moon mention Glen Ellen and Sonoma County.  BTW, The Valley of the Moon is a translation of Sonoma Valley's name given by the Native American tribes that lived in this region of California.  While in Glen Ellen, we also discovered the Yeti Restaurant that serves up a fusion of Indian Tandoori, Himalayan/Nepalese, and Pakistani dishes. In hindsight, we probably should have checked out the restaurant a little bit better, but the whole scene was pretty weird - actually it was very spooky.  We saw very few people around the immediate area (actually three, to be exact), several businesses were closed, but the doors were left ajar.  It was all a wee bit strange for our taste, just a tad too unnerving, so we left.  Like I said, maybe we missed trying out a good eating establishment; guess we’ll never know.  From there we headed to Napa city, still looking for a place to get dinner.  We ended up in the heart of downtown Napa at the Oxbow Public Market (OPM). This is a one-of-a-kind, not-to-be-missed place. Whether you’re looking for a great “take-out”, fabulous meal provisions, a bottle of wine, or a unique shopping experience, OPM mostly likely has something for everyone – and for almost every taste.  We all ended up ordering savory crepes from a French-themed eatery.

Once we sated our appetites, we headed back to the Sacramento area.  Another great day spent touring this part of California and enjoying the visit with family.  More to come.....