The Travel Monkeys

I realize us Travel Monkeys sort of fell off the radar since our arrival in California. I considered writing a blog entry on several occasions, but I decided against it because I was worried that our readers would not enjoy the content. I had this fear because many of you are in colder climates at the moment. There is probably rain and snow and your local forecasts use vocabulary such as “blustery” and “wintry mix”. I feared that reading our blog might stir up negative emotions, and I didn’t know how to write up what we’re doing without feeling like I’m gloating about the weather in California.

I have decided to go ahead and share some of what we’ve been up to these last few months, but with a warning:

Advisory: Do not read any further if you are prone to weather envy, leisure envy, or wine envy.

After settling in to our temporary home in Rancho Solano (a.k.a Rancho Relax-o) we decided it was time to start exploring what this area has to offer. We’ve both started running again, and John is training for a marathon in northern California in May. We’ve started to work on our tennis game, we swim (in January!) and have taken up mushroom hunting. Our birdwatching has gotten fairly eventful (as far as birdwatching goes). Close encounters include the Western Scrub Jay, Stellar Jay, Spotted Towhee, California Towhee, White Crowned Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting, Lesser Goldfinch, Black Pheobe, Killdeer, California Quail, White-tailed Kite, Broad-Winged Hawk (Rare on this coast), Great Egret, Golden Crowned Sparrow (migrates from Alaska), Anna’s Hummingbird (a resisdent in our backyard), Oregon Junco, Rock Wren, American Kestrel, Western Meadowlark, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Bushtit, Oak Titmouse, Chestnut-capped Chickadee, Wild Turkey, and our most delightful new sighting – the Peregrine Falcon.

We are also successfully growing garlic, kale, and spinach in our yard, after a small setback where I had to figure out what was eating the baby leaves. It turned out to be sparrows, and lucky for me they are extremely afraid of tinsel.

We’ve started to explore the surrounding area, starting with Napa. If over 300 wineries aren’t enough reason to visit Napa Valley, then perhaps the state parks will lure you in (with a little help from the 73 degree weather on January 15, 2009). The new year began with a 12 mile hike across the Palisades in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. The trail was steep and challenging with occasional patches of mud and ice in the shady stretches.

If you’ve never hiked 12 miles, you should because it feels amazing. It is a great way to really appreciate a cup of tea, dinner, and your bed.

We also went camping (in January!) in Napa Valley State Park, which has a lovely “enchanted forest” ambiance. Here we spotted a California Slender Salamander, which is often mistaken for a worm.

Further northwest lies Sonoma County, which has even more hiking and wine to offer a wine-loving hiker. We stayed one night in Healdsburg at a great B&B called the Camellia Inn. The room was clean and cozy with a fireplace and couch. In the evening they served wine and cheese, and then later on there was chocolate port and brownies! The breakfast was creative and delicious – a baked crepe and some apple sausage. In Healdsburg we had dinner at Zin and we were fairly impressed. John had a hangar steak that was served in a big puddle of incredibly delicious sauce.

The next day we hiked to the top of Fitch Mountain, a lovely 3 hour hike where we didn’t see a single other person. Then we stopped for a tasting at one of our favorite wineries (Ridge) before heading home on the scenic 128 through Alexander Vallley.

So far we have no complaints. (Although my elbow did hurt for a couple weeks, and I couldn’t figure out if it was from too much tennis, cooking, tea-sipping, or wine-opening. I decided it was a case of “leisure-itis” and iced it until it got better.)

The reality is that the weather is pretty incredible here, and that tends to make life even better. There are foggy, wet days, and even ones with rainstorms, but even those pass quickly and leave the world glistening and green.

Yesterday, on January 26, 2009, I saw this tree near our house. Its pink blooms declare that we have survived our first California winter.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Destinations, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.