2023 – Go West Old Gal – 4.1 Sonoma

On Wednesday morning, July 19, I bade the Mendelsons a fond farewell and pointed the Beemer towards Sonoma, with some other cruise line’s on-hold music in my ear.  My last California residence had been Fountaingrove Lodge in Santa Rosa.  There I had made a wonderful new friend, who had become my date for all the live entertainment we both liked and supported.  Pat Finot was a choreographer with a PhD in Dance, who taught it at the University level.  She had great insights as well as being a seriously amusing companion.  When she left us, last year, she willed me her pearls, for something to treasure.  In the package, her brother, Bill Remick, enclosed an invitation to come occupy their guest house, when next I came to visit Fountaingrove Lodge.  Bill is an architect, who has built a large number of high-end homes in his time, including his own, in Glen Ellen.  The first one went up in smoke in 2017, along with a fabulous art collection, I’m told by my FGL friends, who were lucky enough to be there when Pat took a group on tour. 

It has risen from the ashes and my little housie for four days was wonderful, as was its view. 

I would be very happy there, but I could not tarry, as I was expected at Fountaingrove Lodge by 4:00pm.  I just had time for a tour of the main house, which is fab, before I had to go.  I spent some time at Wine Wednesday, with a bunch of my old Lodge friends.  It was always our favorite day of the week there.  Around 5:00pm I drove Pat and Mike and Pat and Toby to Paradise Ridge Winery, which had also risen from its ashes and now hosted Wednesday sunsets, with live bands and a Mexican food truck.  We joined their new friends, Richard, Daniel, Rob and Nancy at a choice table between the band and the spectacular view.  It was yet another birthday celebration for Mike:

I begged off of everything the next day to catch up on my work and blog, now that I had a little house all to myself.  I’m very social, but even I need a bit of quiet time to recharge and get stuff done.  Like this blog.  I had made a couple of small orders on Prime Day, like the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro for $100 less, training wheels for hearing aids.  I didn’t have time to try them, and I found out why they were so cheap.  The manual was in Polish and a couple of other Cyrillic languages, all of which defeated me.  I went online, of course, which told me how to get the app, and I did that, too, but I didn’t take the time to do much with it.  I’ll get there.

It was another gastronomically delightful dinner.  I walked over to the main house to have a glass of wine with Bill and Sue and, because there’s road work on highway 12, Bill drove us over the backroads to Healdsburg.  It was a beautiful drive, but I was just as glad Bill was doing it rather than moi.  Local knowledge is a great thing on windy canyon roads.  Canyon may be an exaggeration, but it was abundantly hilly, for sure.  Our chosen restaurant was Barndiva, not quite Single Thread, which wanted me to pay three times as much, and up front, with no refunds within 48 hours.  Barndiva was more reasonable and pay as you eat, which is as it should be.  We ate in the garden, which has lights and heaters and is decked out like a leprechaun’s home, as I would imagine it.  Here are the appies:

The mains:

 And the amazing Paris Brest, with its gold-covered hazelnuts:

And, no, I didn’t do anything intelligent like get a picture of the people.  Five years from now, they’ll be a lot more important to me than the food, but not that night, while I was eating it.  I just spent twenty minutes trying to find a great picture of Bill’s sister, Pat Finot, with John Kennedy, Bill Baird and me, at Miner Winery, on one of our jazz excursions to Napa.  I thought I had a great picture filing system.  Well, I don’t.  Sorry, Bill.  If I ever come across it…..

The next day was Friday, July 21, and I went to Fountaingrove Lodge for a birthday lunch which was all very nice and reminded me what good friends I had made there.  I followed that with a nice massage from Jeff Rooney, who used to get to beat me up at least once a month.  He’s good.  The Lodge is lucky.  Early evening found me with Pat and Mike at Salt & Stone in Kenwood, having dinner with Mike Nash and Cliff Wildeman, more Lodge alumni and special friends of ours.  We ate outside on a perfect night and I don’t have any bloody pictures of them, either.  I truly do need to smarten up, but we were having such a good time…

It got even better the next day, and earlier.  Pat, Mike and I went on Safari, ten minutes from the Lodge.  The place is called Safari West and it’s a wonderful outing.  It can even be an overnight, they have Safari tents and all that stuff.   There are 1100 animals, over a hundred species and God knows how many birds.  Most of them are rescues from zoos, illegal keepers of exotic pets, you-name-it.  The owners are very devoted.  The guy sent his wife home the night of our fires, with the office computers and records, while he single-handedly fought the fire, dousing every burning bush that landed on any of the buildings.  It was written up in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. I remember reading it.  You’d never know it now.  The place looks better than ever and I guess the animals are as happy as can be, given that they are not home in Africa.  At least they’re safe, well fed and have a lot of space to relax in.  I like the ostrich:

He’s so impossible looking.  And the zebras are beautiful:

We also saw oryx, gemsboks, wildebeest, impalas, cape buffalo, waterbucks, giraffes and a bunch I didn’t write down.  But this is the little guy we came to see, Otto, the baby Rhino, born here a little over a month ago, with his mother Eusha.  Yes, he’s a 200 lb. baby.:

They keep his dad in a separate enclosure for fear of domestic violence, I guess.

It was a very nice day.  Pat took Mike back for a nap and I went to Glen Ellen to pack up, because I would be leaving straight from brunch the next day.  Dinner was at the Lodge with Pat & Mike, Leona & Norm, and John Mullen, still too dumb to take pictures. 

Sunday at FGL means Brunch and on the Lanai at FGL if possible.  Look at this setting:

Tricia Harrold came up from Silicon Valley Tom Slade was in from Canada, Mike Donigan and Kit Kurtz  came back, too, and I brought Bill and Sue from Glen Ellen.  There were a bunch more friends inside, too.  I miss that place, and its good people.  Too soon, I had to leave – North to Alaska.