Petaluma Antique Faire and the North California Coast

Today, the family and I headed out of Sacramento and to the quaint little town of Petaluma for their bi-annual Antique Faire. Located one hour away from Sacramento and 30 minutes north of San Francisco, we planned to make a day of it. Off to a late start, we rolled into town at 9:00am. After finding a spot to park on a side street, we joined the other shoppers in beautiful historic downtown Petaluma. With close to 200 hundred vendors, there was plenty to see and buy.




Several street musicians were performing, including Petaluma Pete and his upright piano.









After a little shopping and a picnic lunch, we continued on to the ocean. We drove through the small town of Tomales, located on Hwy 1. After passing through Tomales, we headed over to

the families favorite Northern California beach destination, Dillons Beach.

In the picture below, you can just make out the trailers of Lawson's Landing situated on Tomales Bay.




My kids love the ocean. Let me repeat that, they LOVE the ocean. Jake especially. He never wants to leave. Today was kind of cool, with a constant breeze rolling in off the water.

But as you can see, it didn't stop the kids from getting knee deep in the ocean and rolling around on the sand dunes.


Never one to miss an opportunity to do some birding, I was able to catch a couple photos. Seen below is an Osprey that was gliding along the edge of the dunes before heading out over the water in search of a meal.
There were several Marbled Godwit's searching the sand for a snack.


After chasing Jake down, he decided to walk all the way down the beach looking for some tide pools, we started heading back toward home.
Along the way we stopped at a yard sale and several antique stores in Petaluma. In no real hurry to get home, we took a detour through Sonoma and Napa, but didn't stop. We just drove through and enjoyed the view of all those vineyard's and grape vines that line the road as you wind your way along Hwy 121. Sorry no pics, I was too busy enjoying the scenery.


TVH