Date: Jan. 1, 2007
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Why is Sonoma County great? 

Some think it’s because Sonoma County is about 40 minutes from San Francisco, more if any more than three cars are on 101 traveling south, but that’s a general idea. The City is about 55 minutes from Santa Rosa.

San Francisco weather is almost is perfect in the winter. There is wind on the coast, so anything that skirts the Bay, and that includes sights like the Embarcadero, the ferry building walk, Fisherman’s Wharf, Crissy field, the beach, will all be windy and chilly. Oh, the bridge, the bridge is very windy in the winter, but it’s windy and cold in the summer as well. Bundle up, make the kids walk it anyway. 

But in December and January the sky clears, the sun is low in the sky and the views from every angle in the city are bright and white. This is the time for pictures in San Francisco. You don’t have to explain to your family back home that you took the beautiful photos wearing a ski parka and almost dropped the camera because you were shivering so hard from the chill. Take a photograph of the palms swaying up and down the Embarcadero walk way.    

Walk in a few blocks and you’re out of the wind and can sit outside at a café on Chestnut Street and enjoy the people watching.

We just explored The Farmer’s Market in the Ferry building. The renovation  is charming and organized, it’s not like the wild markets in Adelaide or in Kyoto or even Pike’s Market. But the building is easy to navigate and charming with many products for sale from Sonoma and Marin. See them here then think about visiting them in situ. The farmer’s market brings up the activity level by quite a bit, the crowds are thicker and more persistent, but we viewed the site off season, so to speak and so our exploring was pleasant and easy. to wander.

But exploring the Ferry Building does not use up a whole morning. So you have to have plan B at the ready. So walk around the little shops of cheese, wine and fungus then look around for a nice lunch spot. Now you have the afternoon -  then move on, either for a hike on Crissy field next to the water, or shop  on Union Square or just sit in cafés  along the Marina. 

My mother remembers when the Embarcadero didn’t have the freeway, when it was covered by the freeway, and when God became angry with the freeway and knocked it back down  again, full circle in the space of only fifty years.  

 

Visit San Francisco now. Take a trip for a day and appreciate that you can walk in the full sun in the middle of winter.

Because that’s what California is all about.