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Sonoma, California

August 8, 2021

It seems we're always racing through the Valley of the Moon and Sonoma, anxious to get to Santa Rosa or the River, or on the many afternoons when we were all driving back home to Sacramento after a weekend of fun. But today we had plenty of time to wander. Kathy's grandmother had lived in Glen Ellen for many years, so we spent a few hours exploring - first driving around the campus of the State's now-closed Development Center. The facility first opened in 1883 as the California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children. Some of the beautiful old buildings still stand on the property as well as a partially dismantled merry-go-round. I'm sure there are thousands of stories of the people who lived here - some good, some not so. From there, we headed up the hill to Jack London state park where we walked around the grounds to see his cottage, the gardens, hillsides full of vineyards and the remains of Wolf House, which burned before it could ever be used as the family's main house. Today, they were setting up for a Broadway concert under the stars. Sounds fun and I'm putting it on the to-do list for next year.