Labor Day weekend adventure Part 2 - Sonoma and Novato

We made it back to our hotel in Novato after our hike at Muir Beach and Valerie crashed hard. She didn't even walk most of the hike but it still wore her out! Rich and I ordered some late evening room service before they closed at 10 and enjoyed it on our little hotel balcony before we crashed too.

We had a lovely breakfast by the hotel pool on Sunday morning and then headed to Sonoma, about 20 miles away. Our first stop was at Train Town, which was Valerie's dream destination. We rode the train through the park, and it stopped halfway through at a little miniature town with goats and alpacas for the kids to feed and some little buildings to walk through. By noon it was hot, hot, hot and getting hotter in the sun. The train tracks went mostly through the shade, though, so the ride was still pleasant. Valerie loved that train.  It was probably the best train ride she's been on, and she has been on a few train rides in her day! The Cincinnati Zoo, Hogle Zoo, Danny the Dragon at Happy Hollow, EnterTrainment Junction, and Lemos Farm all come to mind, but this was such a nice ride, with waterfalls, tunnels, the stop halfway through, pretty scenery and lots of shade. And a real steam engine at the front with the conductor blowing the whistle!

Train Town!

She also got to ride the carousel, the flying airplanes and the ferris wheel, which was fun for all three of us. We were the only ones on it for a bit and we got to go zooming around several times at top speed. I can't remember the last time I rode a ferris wheel! I'm glad we got to ride it after we missed out on the one at the St. Cecilia Festival in Cincinnati because of thunderstorms.

she never figured out how to make her plane "take off" but still enjoyed the airplane ride

Once we had used up our ride tickets we headed over to Hopmonk Tavern a mile down the road for a free live show and lunch in their beer garden. It was so nice in the shady beer garden, although it did still get quite roasty in the 90ish degree heat by the end. We enjoyed their delicious beers and huge lunches of beet salad and sweet potato fries (me), a chicken naan sandwich and fries (Rich) and chicken fingers for Valerie. The live musician played Old MacDonald along with other chill songs so Valerie and I had to get up and dance a bit after we stuffed ourselves, and then we waddled to the car to make the 20-mile drive back to the hotel for a nap.

Valerie crashed from about 5-8 pm so we found what appeared to be the only place open late in Novato on Sunday nights for dinner, Moylan's Brewery. We had a flight of seven different beers and were impressed by how good they were.

Basically, we drove to Sonoma, one of the best wine regions in the world, to drink lots of beer.

They had crayons for Valerie to color so she was pretty well behaved for her late night dinner out at a brewery. 

so cute all wrapped up in her towel

That was the end of our Sunday, and Monday we got up for the hotel breakfast and then a quick dip in the pool and hot tub before we headed back south over the Golden Gate. We were relieved to find much less traffic on the way back, and decided to stop at Nick's Crispy Tacos in downtown SF for end-of-vacation lunch, or, brunch, because they had bottomless mimosas. Score!!!!!! The best thing in life for only $15!

I loved this place.  It had a really cool vibe with red walls and chandeliers all around the bar, extremely delicious mexican food (my huevos rancheros were the bomb), and most importantly, fantastic, ice cold refreshing mimosas to complete my vacation happiness. Rich had a horchata because he is a responsible dad and driver and I adore him oh so much. :)
We ordered a bean and cheese burrito for Valerie which she refused to touch, and then it was time to go back to reality, to unpacking, cleaning up the house, applying for jobs and catching up on laundry (for me) and biodesigning and weighing all his food (Rich).

All in all, a great family vacation success! I can't wait for our next weekend adventure here in pricey but beautiful California.