Wine and Seals

On Friday we went to Sonoma, one of California's well known wine producing areas. Jeanne doesn't really approve of the better known Napa Valley though we did stray over the county line by mistake.




This is a view down one of the older streets. Too many cars but it's no different from Bourton on the Water in that respect!
We spent a long time poking around Sonoma and looking at colonial-era buildings including the northernmost mission. These are spaced out a day's ride apart all the way up from Mexico. California was Spanish until the 1830s then Mexican after they got independence. The Americans took over in an 1840s Mexican-American war.



This monster Eucalyptus was on the drive leading to the house of the last Spanish/Mexican governor of Upper California. After the takeover he became a US Senator. These trees are amazing they are so huge, and you can smell them everywhere.



We took so long in Sonoma that we missed the last tour at the Beringer winery but we did have a poke around. They operate on Austrian Rudolph Steiner's 'Biodynamic' principles which is organic but more so.




All the vineyards are at low levels. The grass is kept down by a flock of 'woolly weeders' - sheep to you and me.



Spotted on the way home - Carolyn's favourite car....a '57 Chevy. I wonder how much they're asking for it.......



Yesterday we took ourselves and our Satnav to the Marin Headlands at the Northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is Jill, our English guide to a Marine Mammal Center for rescuing seals and the like. Unlike the place we visited in Cornwall this centre is a primarily a hospital, so there is no big pool where you can watch the 'patients'.



This is one of the patients on his or her very own heating pad. The electricity comes from solar panels.



This one seems happy with direct sunlight.



This is one of Carolyn's arty' shots! The one below is yet to another view of 'the bridge'.