Movie star lifestyle and the T-bird.

These down days in California…..we actually stayed in one spot for a couple of weeks….were very welcome. It doesn’t take long to learn your way around, correct highway exit for the campground or grocery store and back road home from there, or just being in the correct lane to make that turn without trauma in the endless congestion.

We did a rare ‘divide and conquer’ day where Scott drove in to SF to meet up with an old university pal…..and I stayed in Sonoma and spent the day touring wineries in Paul’s 1957 baby blue Thunderbird convertible. I know….you feel bad for me…..!!! (Editor, her ladyship slipped very easily into the movie star lifestyle, while I trekked around Downtown SF with Derek. Hit all the tourist spots and ended up in the ‘Tenderloin’ district, only scary if you didn’t grow up in Fife.)

Paul has always been an automotive enthusiast…..but he has collected some real gems. There’s the restored 1943 Ford GPW, very similar to a Willys Jeep……which is an experience….( Scott got to drive….I didn’t dare…..)…..and the T-bird which is truly a thing of beauty.

Both vehicles arouse the same kind of response from other drivers on the road….and pedestrians in the town……they turn heads and illicit many smiles and waves. Reminded me of driving my Mini or pulling the Airstream, People just love to see these icons.

It was great fun…..and a terrific excuse to go for ice-cream in the town square where we were joined by one of Paul’s vintage car friends ….with her rather supercool car for a bit more head turning….

…..and in truth…the winery trips were on foot. Paul, very conveniently, lives 10 minutes walk from two very acceptable California vineyards. I’m not actually sure there are any I would turn down.

All very civilised I have to say….!!!

Our next trip out in Sonoma was a gem of a trail up through the grounds of the old Sanitorium, the “Sonoma Developmental Center” which closed in ~2018. Its original name when it was founded in the late 1800s was the somewhat non-PC “California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children”.

After an epic effort by an army of volunteers the grounds of this former centre were cleaned up after many years of neglect and added to the neighbouring Jack London Historic State park in Jan of 2024.

The trail through the grounds reveals a more compassionate approach to care than the name of the place might suggest. Play areas, outdoor activity areas….and wilderness camp areas for both residents and staff. Not all residential care was cruel and inhumane.

It was a lovely afternoon hike/walk….mostly shaded..and through some big ( if not giant) redwoods….always such impressive trees. There were many which had burned out in the past and several new trunks were emerging from the old root stock.