P is for Petaluma, P Town, Butter and Eggs Days and all things Sonoma County

Welcome back to the A-Z challenge blog and the world of wonderful bloggers. There are over 1500 other writers who are doing this month-long challenge to do a blog for every letter of the alphabet. As you can see, I'm a couple of days behind. But, like everything else in life, I go for the thrill of getting things done last minute. Adrenaline junkie over here. Yes, even with my writing.

Petaluma is a great little big town. This weekend is the Butter and Egg Days parade, where one year my husband dressed up as a chicken and rode on the back of a convertable, waving to the crowd, alongside a judge candidate, who lost. That probably has more to do with the costume than the candidate.

Petaluma is most recently known for its Little League team who came home winners, got a parade worthy of returning veterans, personal escorts by the Oakland A's, and a lot of good old regular folks congratulating them on a job well done. They won everyone's hearts, even though they were defeated by Japan.

Petaluma is a decent town with nice old buildings looking like Mayberry USA. American Graffiti was filmed here. Peggy Sue Got Married too (they actually filmed a scene on our front porch in Sebastopol).

Every year there is a Peggy Sue car rally that closes down the main drag (yes, when I was early married, my husband and I used to tool down Petaluma Boulevard, and 4th Street Santa Rosa, just like in American Graffiti). It is a rally that rivals some of the ones in Reno I've been to. Very few professional collectors, mostly firemen and construction workers and their kids fixing up hot rods, spending way too much money on chrome and paint, and generally having fun. The stuff of life.

I'm really lucky to be living here in beautiful Sonoma County. Petaluma

is truly one of its treasures. A city that remembers the past as it launches into the future. I mean, isn't it great that a town would give a parade to a bunch of 10 year old boys?

Maybe I'll see you there this weekend at the Butter and Egg Days parade. We'll get sunburned together.

Don't forget to catch the other A-Z Blog participants by clicking here.

R is for Ride the Back Roads

Welcome back to the A-Z Blog Hop Challenge, Letters of Gratitude. Today is the letter R for Ride the Back Roads.

We took a drive today in West Sonoma and Marin Counties. If you don't know where that is, it's 60 miles north of San Francisco, and west of Petaluma, at the coast. We traveled from Sonoma County South, into Marin County, through green cattle-grazed hills in bright sunshine. No fog, and very little wind. We have a client moving here from out of state, who is considering purchasing some acreage out there, and today was the perfect day to go check it out and send him photos.

We've had so much rain, the hills are still green. After viewing the property, we headed to south to Nick's Cove for some oysters and some chowder. We ran into a local Motorcycle Club, Iron Souls, from Oakland, California. I think there must have been about 50 beautiful Harleys there.

Overlooking the inlet, we had warm cauliflower salad, cioppino and BBQ oysters. The place was packed. Afterwards, we walked out to the Boat House. People were playing Monopoly,  cards and READING!

I think I've found a great place to hole up when the fall storms come along. At the Boat House they stoke up the fire and you can stay there well after sunset - perched over the water. Do you see the fog beginning to show itself over the trees?

We took a tour of a couple of the cabins. One is an actual boat converted to a one bedroom rental.

I'm grateful I get to live in such a beautiful spot in wine country, California. Many people come here for vacation, and I get to live here all the time. Just 30 minutes from my house, I can be on the water, overlooking clam and oyster beds Jack London used to steal from by moonlight around 100 years ago. It probably looked very similar then.