Exploring Sonoma

We woke up to a chilly, foggy morning and decided to do laundry after breakfast. By 11:30 it was starting to clear up so we had some lunch, grabbed the map and headed out across the Sonoma ridge. First stop - the Jack London Ranch in Glen Ellen. By taking the scenic route we planned to explore some of the countryside. However, true to form we had to take a detour after nearing the top of the ridge due to a landslide that took out the road.

So we caught another road and finally got down into the small community of Glen Ellen. The road up to the ranch almost took us back to the top of the ridge - heh, heh. We parked and started our tour with a hike out to the old house which was closed to visitors, then continued on to the big mansion which burned down leaving nothing but the foundations, walls and chimneys.

We continued on the trail past Jack London's grave and continued up to the new house built by his wife after Jack's death. We were able to go inside and tour the house and learned a lot about his life as a writer and conservationist. By this time the dogs were getting tired from all the hiking so we finished our walk back to the parking lot and went back to Glen Ellen. From here we went south on the old road to Sonoma.

We parked in downtown Sonoma and walked over to Sonoma Square which surounds the Town Hall building, a beautiful stone structure. The four streets surounding the square are lined with shops, restaurants, winery retail outlets with tasting rooms and gift shops. There are trees lining the streets and the land around city hall is a park with benches, play areas for children, water gardens and resting benches. Very similar in layout to Healdsburg. We had a nice afternoon outing and looked forward to exploring more of the area tomorrow.