The weather is cloudy, rainy and gloomy…. Yes, we’re grateful for the rain – all of it!  However, if you’re in need of some fun, the next two weekends are just what the doctor ordered!

Get out of the house and enjoy the 32nd Annual Wine Road Barrel Tasting here in Sonoma County. This is your chance to sample wines still in the barrel, buy “futures” and meet winemakers.

For maps, ticket information, an introduction to wine tasting, and much more visit www.wineroad.com. Don’t forget to check out the list of wineries that will also be pouring on both Fridays. You’ll find it at the bottom of this page.

Just one more thing that makes Sonoma County special!

If you go:

BARREL TASTING – TWO WEEKENDS
March 6-7 & 13-14, 2010
11:00 am – 4:00 pm each day

Posted by:Beth Urban-Purtell

Mark your calendars for this Saturday, November 28, because Santa Claus is coming to our town! At noon, prepare to see Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Turning Basin in Downtown Petaluma as they arrive via riverboat. We’re pretty sure his sleigh is fine, but why not arrive via one of Petaluma’s treasures—our river. Parents and kids will delight when the Claus’ disembark and stroll through downtown greeting all with Holiday wishes and candy.

Santa’s arrival is just one of the many holiday events coming up in Petaluma. The 2009 Petaluma Holiday Events calendar has been published and features a comprehensive list of upcoming holiday fun. You can pick up a copy of the calendar from any of the major sponsors and contributors in town, including Haus Fortuna, Petaluma Visitor’s Center, Petaluma Yacht Club, Vine and Barrel, as well as many others. Of course the most up-to-date information can always be found at www.visitpetaluma.com.

December is right around the corner and many holiday events are scheduled. There’s the City of Lights Driving Tour, a self-guided tour of participating homes and businesses decorated for the holidays, which can be viewed throughout the month. Stop by the Visitors’ Center for a map of homes. One of my very favorite events is the Lighted Boat Parade on December 5. The flotilla of decorated boats will be on parade up the river and arriving at the Turning Basin at approximately 6:30 PM. It’s fabulous and festive and definitely fun!

So don’t miss the holidays in historic downtown Petaluma. Stuff your stockings with local cheer! And experience the charm of small town holidays.

Posted by:Martha O’Hayer

As I mentioned in my previous post, Petaluma celebrates El Dia De Los Muertos in a big way and the festivities continue through this weekend. The altars are everywhere in shop windows, right on the counters next to cash registers and scattered about town. I highly recommend that you take a minute to explore Petaluma and see how families celebrate their deceased. Really, it’s a wonderful way to look at death as a part of life. Photos, favorite candy wrappers, flowers—each ‘ofrenda’—or altar is as unique as the person being celebrated.

The events culminate this weekend and a highlight for me is Friday’s candlelight procession. You can view a complete list of activities presented by the Petaluma Arts Council here. In addition, here is a list of altar locations, but you won’t really need it. Just take a walkabout in historic Downtown Petaluma and you’ll see the altars everywhere. You can also become a Facebook friend.

See you there! And if you attend, send me an e-mail at mohayer@fhallen.com. I’d love to hear about your experience.

Posted by:Martha O’Hayer

What a wonderful way to celebrate the dead. I remember hearing of ‘All Saints Day’ as a child. I’m sure I knew lots about it as a young Catholic School child, but it didn’t stick with me. When I moved to Petaluma 9 years ago, I remember quite distinctly seeing the ‘ofrendas’ or altars set up in a few scattered spots downtown. I was curious and a bit proud that our town would embrace this lovely tradition although I admit, I knew little about it. Each year the event has grown larger, I’ve learned more and now the downtown is chock full of ofrendas and events surrounding this celebration.

Our little celebration is all grown up. Beginning October 17 and continuing through November 2, this town will be buzzing with a jam packed calendar of events surrounding El Dia de Los Muertos. This is a family event, a time for celebrating with a family reunion – the living and the dead. It is believed that the dead return to visit their families once a year and this celebration is neither somber nor macabre. Rather a time for festivities and community.

During the celebration, you can view the altars made by locals to honor their dead. Families make altars and place ‘ofrendas’ (offerings) of food, fruit, candles, yellow marigolds and photos of the deceased. Each of these is a work of art. Wonderful and unique – some quite plain, and some so incredibly elaborate you will think they’ve been working on them all year – you may be right! There will be over 50 altars in shop windows, building walkways and tucked away in unusual spots. You can find a list of the altars in numerous locations downtown or at the Petaluma Arts Council. Spend some time on the Art and Altar Walk and I assure you you’ll want to be part of this incredible event.

The Art and Altar Walk is a stroll you can do anytime during the two week period. Other events include family workshops, poetry readings, folk dancing, and the culmination on October 30th with the traditional Candlelight procession with music dancing and Giant Puppets. This candlelight procession is worth a trip to Petaluma on Friday October 30 – you will be delighted, I assure you. The event will be on the river this year and it’s always a treat for the senses. Become a facebook friend and you won’t miss a single minute.

Or just head to downtown Petaluma and take in all that this unique and wonderful event has to offer. Just another reason to love our unique and wonderful place to live – Petaluma!

Posted by:Martha O’Hayer

My good friend Mark recently asked me to recommend what he could do with friends coming to visit in Petaluma. Mark and I have known each other for nearly 30 years and both of us were city dwellers prior to moving to Petaluma. You could stay in San Francisco for weeks and never lack for things to do. But, he wondered, is there enough to do in Petaluma for someone visiting? Or will we need to send them out to greater Sonoma County?

Mark, I believe Petaluma can offer plenty of play!

Petaluma, California is located in Sonoma County, just 38 miles north of San Francisco. It is the first town you encounter after crossing the Sonoma County Line —The Gateway to Sonoma Wine Country. Our weather is beautiful and our community has grown up quite a bit in the past decade.

Here are a few must-dos on my list when visitors venture this way. Young or old, there’s an activity for everyone.

Take a Hike (or a walk if you will)

Petaluma is full of parks and walking paths. One of my favorite Petaluma parks is Shollenberger Park , a 165-acre park popular among hikers, bikers, bird-watchers and dog walkers. There, along the park’s levee trail, you can get an up-close look at wetlands wildlife – including over 150 species of birds – and the river flowing past with its collection of ramshackle, high-tech and human-powered boats. Saturday mornings, I have a standing date with my friend Sara for a walk, talk and gawk. There’s so much ground covered in our four mile walk that we hardly notice that we’re exercising at the same time. A new path recently opened that extends the path for several more miles and leads to the Ellis Creek Water Treatment Plant, which puts you at eye level with otters and other wildlife. Though I haven’t ventured down the new trail yet, this blogger had an amazing visit and I can’t wait to explore it this weekend.

Other favorite parks include the Oak Hill Park located at Oak and Howard Streets which includes a great playground, an off-leash dog park, Petanque courts as well as a labyrinth. Petanque in Petaluma? You bet. Now where else can you find all that in one park? Helen Putnam Regional Park also makes for a great outdoor experience, offering hiking with great views. (There may be a parking fee at Helen Putnam depending on how you enter the park.)

For a complete list of parks, go to the Visit Petaluma website and check out one that looks good to you.

Take a Tour

Winery tours, including our very own Petaluma Gap Wineries, offer a great way to spend the day. Look here for tours and times. Most are by appointment only.

Not only do we feature Sonoma County fine wines here in Petaluma, but our beers are notable as well. Lagunitas Brewing Company has grown into a major player in the brew market and they offer weekly tours. They also boast a Taproom and Beer Sanctuary, which is very impressive and relaxing with great live music and people watching. Open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 3-9 and weekends from 1-7, the Taproom and Sanctuary is a great place to land after a tour or a long day exploring Petaluma. Get directions to the Brewery here.

If you’re looking for something savory, McEvoy Olive Oil Company gives tours at different times during the year and Cowgirl Creamery’s newest facility is located in downtown Petaluma. The Creamery is a production-only facility, which means no retail here, but you can check out the amazing array of award-winning cheeses produced right here in Petaluma. More information about their tours can be found here.

For the kids, you can check out Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Factory. The 110,000-square-foot corporate headquarters with 90 employees features the world’s only sticker factory tour.

There are dozens of other tours in town – garden tours, Victorian home tours and walking tours; you can view a great list of additional tours here.

Take a Taste

I don’t think you’ll find a better restaurant selection in a city the size of Petaluma – our chefs come from all over and offer an array of menu types, from Himalayan to Thai, Italian to California Cuisine, you name it, it’s here. Award-winning, charming and delicious, some of our restaurants have even caught the eye of the prestigious Michelin Guide. Cucina Paradiso, Risibisi and Hiro’s are among those mentioned.

Our Visitor Center website, www.visitpetaluma.com, offers a great dining guide, which can be viewed here. It is also a great place to start when planning outings that will suit your guests’ interests. For now at least, the program is still funded by the City of Petaluma so the website is quite accurate and up to date.

I’m glad to report there’s plenty to do right here in Petaluma, Mark! With all of our food, wine, art, cultural and recreational activities, you could easily fill a day or two or three.

Do you have favorite day-trips around town? I’d love to hear about them. Comment to this post or email me at mohayer@fhallen.com.

Posted by:Martha O’Hayer

This week marked the official changing of the season and as each day of fall brings us closer to Thanksgiving, it has me thinking about the wonderful bounty Sonoma County has to offer, and the generous nature of my friends and neighbors. My husband and I live in Petaluma and each year we shoot to have a productive garden, as do most of our friends. It’s late September and all of the gardens I have seen in the past few weeks are producing amazing crops and everyone seems eager to share in the bounty.

On a recent Saturday morning, Cody, my neighbor’s dog and I, were out for a walk and stopped by a friend’s home. She was busy with a huge batch of tomatoes that had just been dropped off by another friend and was in the midst of whipping up a monster batch of gazpacho that she would take to two different feasts to be enjoyed by 50 or more people. Way to share the bounty.

Shortly afterward, on the same walkabout, I stopped by David’s, another friend and neighbor. He was making a white bean salad he’d seen in Gourmet Magazine and needed some colorful tomatoes. Though not quite done with my walk, I went right home, picked all of the ripe sun gold cherry tomatoes I had in my garden, returned to David’s, and a short time later was savoring a most amazing and delicious salad.

Around town, I have also spotted several other examples of the giving spirit of our delightful community. These neighbors just put out their excess and invite you to help yourself!

        

This generous nature is just one of the many qualities I relish about the area. I see it firsthand so often and I recently learned of an organized group that epitomizes this spirit, Petaluma Bounty. This community-based nonprofit operates on a 5-acre parcel within a mile of downtown. I spoke to the farm manager last week and she told me that an elderly neighbor whose home abuts the property donated the land for the purpose of a farm.

The work they do there is truly incredible and they offer several programs, including: Bounty Hunters – a food-gleaning program that collects fresh, surplus food from backyard gardens, farms and businesses and distributes it to food pantries and senior centers; Bounty Box Food Club – weekly boxes of organic fruits and vegetables are sold at wholesale prices to low-income families; and the Bounty Mobile Market – organic fruits and vegetables sold at wholesale prices for those on limited budgets, and at retail prices to those who can afford it. A new location, at the Mail Depot at 4th and C streets each Wednesday from 9-noon, is just one of many dispensaries. A full schedule can be found here.

The Petaluma Bounty has an active volunteer program including ‘the food posse’, a group that will harvest fruit from local backyards or farms to sell from their mobile markets or at the farm stand. The Petaluma Bounty would like you to join them to help spread the word about how to bring healthy food to everyone—become a ‘vigilante’ and share the bounty!

Let me know if you have an innovative community group you’d like more folks to hear about. Contact me at mohayer@fhallen.com.

Posted by:Martha O’Hayer

It’s not exactly the New York City big apple or the Napa Valley, yet. Sonoma County’s biggest city is about to get its own, however, much like the national attention for long distance running events reserved for marathons from Maui, to San Francisco, and to Chicago.

Santa Rosa, California is home of the biggest city in the Sonoma wine making region. The first marathon and half-marathon event set to launch here takes place on August 30th, 2009. The design and passion behind the upcoming event originated with Arthur Webb, a 67 year old veteran distance runner who has finished the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon 10 times over, 9 times within the 60 hour race time limit.

The race welcomes beginners, intermediate runners, and advanced competitive athletes. A 12 week training program for the full marathon can be found by clicking here. For a 12 week training program for the half marathon, click here. To register for the race, please visit the Santa Rosa Marathon site.

Posted by:Ernie Basoco

Last Saturday, I spent some of my day standing in the rain at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts at the Finish of the Wine Country Century, a showcase ride of northwest Sonoma County put on each year by the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. My fellow cycling aficionado and I were promoting the return of the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC) (premier professional cycling race in USA) to the City of Santa Rosa. Anyone who has lived in Sonoma County in the past 4 years has had the awesome and amazing opportunity to see the best cyclists in the world, both men and women, race to the Finish line in downtown Santa Rosa one day in February – it’s an honor, a privilege and a heck of a good time!

Each year, in preparation for the ATOC, the City of Santa Rosa “bids” to hold a Stage Start, Finish or both, committing approximately $175,000 to the event. Because City coffers are stretched beyond their limits this year providing essential services, a group of us under the direction of Mo McElroy (Visitors and Convention Bureau) have committed to raising the $175,000 needed to bring the Tour back in 2010! Visit www.keepthetour.com to donate and stay informed. We’ve just learned that in 2010, the Tour of California will be held May 16 – 23!

Cycling enthusiasts have long recognized Sonoma County as a premier destination – it’s hard to beat the combination of spectacular scenery, back roads, variable terrain, and a public that is becoming more conscious and respectful. The cycling community is a dynamic one attracting people, businesses, low-impact use of the environment, creating a health-conscious and highly social subculture.

There is a superb article in the Press Democrat, Section B, Sunday, May 3, 2009, about “joys of riding in Sonoma County.” Whether you’re out for a ride with the kids on the Prince Greenway (Santa Rosa), challenging yourself to reach the top of Pine Flat (Healdsburg), taking a quick hour of exercise in a loop around Oakmont, riding from home to work and back each day, here for “spring training” with your team, or cheering for your favorite hometown elite cycling hero, Levi Leipheimer, at the TOC Finish or, Yes!, raising money in the rain, cycling is one more spectacular reason I treasure living in Sonoma County.

Call me (707-481-3390) for suggestions about riding in Sonoma County.

Posted By: Carolyn Metz

It’s all true, everything you have imagined and dreamed about the ultimate getaway can be found at our very own Kenwood Inn and Spa, right here in Kenwood, California. The Mediterranean-style villas of the Inn are tucked away in Sonoma County’s Valley of the Moon.

The readers of Conde Nast Traveler have recently named the Kenwood Inn and Spa the Top Resort in Mainland USA in the magazine’s 21st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards. In addition to this distinction, The Conde Nast Readers’ Poll of April 2009 named The Spa at Kenwood one of the top 3 Resort Spas in the United States.

The Spa uniquely utilizes the power of the grape. Based on oils extracted from grape seeds, penetrating and protective qualities of topical treatments are used for a variety of Spa treatments. Vinotherapy is incorporated by the Spa with custom made products, including red wine extracts, Chardonnay and Riesling oils, and formulated elements to promote healing, revitalization, and relaxation.

The restaurant at the Kenwood Inn & Spa offers yet another undeniable indulgence as it is available only to in-house guests. Italian-born Maestro della Cucina, Chef Renzo Veronese shops local farms and farmer’s markets, supplying the kitchen with in-season organics and fresh ingredients to create a rustic Italian, a la carte menu focused on house made pastas with meats and fish that incorporate estate grown fruit.

If you desire the special qualities of our wine making region for relaxation and outdoor scenic beauty, you don’t have to look much further for a world class Spa, Resort and Restaurant.

Posted by:Ernie Basoco

While driving up north of Santa Rosa and listing a short sale for $299,000 in Windsor, I continued further to preview some of the 35 properties that are available in Santa Rosa that have from 5 to 100 acres. For clients with animals, a wonderful place to settle is towards Safari West in northern eastern Sonoma County, our version of Africa in the Wine Country.

Hillsides of wheat colored grasses surrounded by ranches and vineyards leads one to the exotic world of Nancy and Peter Lang, with the sights and sounds of the Serengeti of Santa Rosa. This inspirational African style oasis is a delight to adults and children.

I have my birthday luncheon here annually with my family. The grandkids enjoy it and I don’t have to clean up.

This is a delightful area to visit with wonderful opportunities to share with the family.

Posted by:Judy Freedman

This weekend was the Dry Creek Valley Passport wine tasting. 45 wineries opened their doors for the annual event highlighting the magic of the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County. We tasted old vintages, component, and barrel tastings at Amphora Winery, De LaMontanya, Family Wineries, Kokomo Wines, Papapietro Perry, Passalacqua Winery, Peterson Winery and A. Rafanelli Winery.

The wine country was looking its best on this beautiful warm spring day. The views from many of the wineries across the Dry Creek Valley were exquisite especially from the decks of the Passalacqua Winery which featured the wood oven pizza fired up by caterers serving the famous 4 minute wood fired pizza with homemade toppings.

The De LaMontonya Winery featured DeVines Pizza catering, wonderful wines, and music from the 60’s with a hippie look.

A. Rafanelli Winery included a bountiful spread, their wonderful wines and many happy wine tasters.

Before coming to the Dry Creek Valley, of course, I was previewing the many short sales, foreclosures and priced right real estate in Santa Rosa and surrounding areas. This is a great time to buy property in Sonoma County and move yourself into the wine country.

Feel free to email me at jfreedman@fhallen.com or call me at 707.972.5596.

Posted By: Judy Freedman

With the local food movement’s growing popularity many people are discovering what Sonoma County residents have known for a long time – Sonoma County has fresh local produce, cheese, seafood and meat all year long. In fact, Santa Rosa’s Farmer’s Market is twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday, rain or shine, at the Veteran’s Building east parking lot.

Sonoma’s love of local food runs deep and you will find it proudly adhered to in many local restaurants and grocery stores. For a list of all Farmer’s Markets in Sonoma County go to Sonoma County Farm Trails website by clicking here.

Bon Appetite!

Posted By: Jen Phillips

It is officially Spring and gardens are popping up everywhere in Sonoma County. Trees are blooming, vines are budding and daffodils are shiny bright. It’s time for the summer gardeners to start weeding, tilling and planning their season’s fruits and vegetables. I say summer gardeners because the serious gardeners had their plans set in motion long ago and have been working their gardens all winter. The rest of us seem to start from scratch each year, figuring out how many tomatoes to plant and what other fruits and vegetables might be good to go along with them, or more accurately, what the kids might be enticed to eat. No matter which camp you are in this year it is a virtual bonanza for gardening. The White House is doing it, San Francisco City Hall is doing it, the neighborhood school is doing it, growing your own food is not only economical and environmentally friendly, it is now cool.
Luckily, Sonoma County makes it easy. As the home of the famed horticulturist, Luther Burbank, Sonoma County is renowned as a gardening hotspot. Check out the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens website for more details on Luther Burbank’s contributions to Sonoma County. Although gardening maybe cool and trendy now, Sonoma County residents have long been hooked on its alluring powers. Whether you are an expert or novice, Sonoma County provides the seasons and seasoned expertise to make it easy.

Posted By: Jen Phillips