More California

Our next adventure was at Sonoma Lake in Sonoma Valley, CA. When Jeff was stationed at the Presidio he used to come up here with his ski boat. So, off we went and told the kids we were renting a ski boat for the day. Brody promptly asked, "Oh, you mean the old, broken down red boat in our garage?". Ummm, no.

The lake and scenery were gorgeous and we had a great day, Brody had a blast driving and both kids loved the boat ride and swimming off the back. We haven't used our boat since Brody was 19 months old and it is time we get it out of the garage! Ya, he is 7 now, but on the plus side the boat still looks brand new!

The campground was also located at Lake Sonoma up in the hills. There were about 3 other campers in the entire campground, it was another gorgeous campsite location. Our wildlife finds were lizards and wild turkeys, interesting combo. Again, beautiful weather. So far there have been no rainy days and only a couple of hot days, it was incredible how many sunny and 75-80 degree days we have had on this trip.

Back on the road we headed over to Petaluma US Coast Guard Training Station, this was a nice 5 night campsite with a playground right outside our door. Not bad for a total of $100! ( The military has saved us a ton of money on this trip, as well as Kiley's National Park Access Pass, sometimes we only pay $6 a night!) The town of Petaluma had everything we needed including a nice lady to do my laundry chore :). Life of luxury for me that day, hard part was dragging the 25 pounds of laundry into the shop. So, what we saved on the lodging we spent on laundry, it all works out in the wash, haha.

Petaluma is a hop, skip and jump from Mill Valley, location of a favorite store for Sabra, after a couple hour shopping spree at Title Nine I walked out with a new wardrobe, again, California is working out well for me :), thinking strongly about not leaving, but then I might have to get a job...

Headed up coastal Route 101 for ANOTHER stomach turning ride! We landed at a restaurant called Lucas Wharf in Bodega Bay, picturesque and pretty good food, too.

Since we were staying so long in Petaluma we rented a car for all this which allowed us to go into San Francisco and we got to visit my bestie, Jennifer Hayes. It was great to see her, although too short a time! We did a double decker bus tour of the city and had a snack at Ghiradelli. San Francisco is an awesome city and I need to go back again soon! We actually had really good weather here too, amazing. The kids (and Jeff) loved the aquarium on Pier 39.

We took the kids to Traintown in Sonoma, this was a small amusement park and it was great! The kids loved it and we rode on a small scale train through the park, as well as get them on some fun rides.

Petaluma amimal sightings: Deer everywhere, I mean like at least 3-4 in multiple locations constantly on base. Weird. It's a no hunting sort of place.

Jackrabbits also on base. Couldn't get a good pic of them, but I didn't even know what they were at first!

Next stop...Lake Tahoe!