Earls and Santa Rosa, CA

We visited with Jill and Doug Earl in Santa Rosa.  We met them at the Habitat Build in Santa Fe, NM and they diid a mission project with us in Matamoros, MX last year.  They have a gorgeous farm house which they have restored and enlarged.  We really enjoy them and it was so good to spend time with them. 


The first day we toured the Napa Valley and wine country.  One winery was a castle, Castella di Amorosa, and we toured it and tasted 10 different wines.  F bought some and had them shipped to Leander.  We had a treat at the next winery, Joseph Phelps Vineyards,  because the Earl's son in law works there so our tasting was comped.  Beautiful setting and Jill had made a picnic lunch.  We enjoyed wine and food overlooking the grape fields.  After lunch their son in law, Andrew, gave us a tour of the fields and explained what the winery is attempting to do.  We were very impressed since they are trying to make it energy dynamic and have everything working together to benefit all the crops and animals at the winery, not just the grapes.  So interesting.

We visited Charles Schultz Museum.   He drew the Peanuts cartoon strips for years.  He built an ice rink in Santa Rosa for his daughters.  The museum was so intersting and showed not only how he drew the cartoons, the philosophies of each of the characters, but all Schultz had done for the Santa Rosa community.


We spent one day in San Franciso, where I had never been and F had only been once 50 years ago.  We went to Pier 39, which is filled with shops and resturants, mimes, musicians, artists.  We  took a double deckered bus tour of the town which gave a nice history and covered all the famous sights.  The Golden Gate Bridge is spectacular. We ate lunch at Chinatown and supper at an Italian resturant.  We saw Bikini that night.  It is similar to Esther's Follies in Austin and makes fun of popular political and entertainment figures.  Absolutely hilarious. 
We got to meet the Earl's 5 children and spouses, and grandchildren.  One granddaughter just graduated from college so we got to go to the party and meet everyone and enjoy great food.  Jill is a fantastic cook so needless to say we ate way too much but, boy, was it good.  We closed out most nights with dessert and playing Scattergories and laughting so hard we hurt.

The last day we traveled up the coast road and it is beautiful in Northern California.  No sandy beaches but huge cliffs with big drop offs.  The government has kept close tabs on the area and there is very little building.  So no big signs or gaudy condos to block the views.  Really nicely done.  They took us to Sea Ranch which is a group of natural looking homes available to rent where they go at least twice a year.  We ended the day by eating at The Tides, a wonderful seafood resturant..

Great stay in Santa Rosa with wonderful friends!