A 70 mile drive in Northern California is an adventure through cities, large expanses of rural areas and about 3 different types of vegetation all seamlessly woven together. I’ve spent my entire life here, yet it never fails to astonish me just how beautiful it is. Daddy has never seen anything like it back east. For starters, much of the vegetation here isn’t to be seen in Massachusetts.

We drove out to see my SIL on Monday. What a lovely day we had!!!! The drive was 70 miles each direction. As we drove through the south eastern end of Sonoma county there were miles and miles of ranches. Ranches and vineyards are scattered throughout the entire county even in the midst of our biggest cities. It’s normal here. Seeing one huge ranch after another was a fun sight. Daddy had never seen so much ranch territory in His life. I giggled and told Him we’d have to go over to Napa one day and drive through the wine country. Vineyards as far as the eye can see with nothing else.

My little jumps out when I see farm animals. Big herds of cows and sheep at every turn. A few horse ranches thrown in, too. Ruffi and Grumpy came with us sitting tall in my lap. I can’t help but MOOOOOO at the cows. *giggles* Grumpy looks at me confused every time followed by his unending attempts at licking my lips. Daddy smiles and laughs. He makes the BAHHHH’s and NAAAAAAYYYYs at the sheep and horses.

Once we past the vast ranches we headed farther inland entering our 2nd of 3 counties. There was a huge wild life preserve which we drove along the edge of for quite some time. The highway runs through marshlands. Ducks, geese, birds, all kinds of odd looking grasses amidst the pockets of mud. Daddy likes the marshes far better than I do. I was excited when I saw a family of deer. A Mama deer and 2 yearlings. Daddy made me sniggle when He sang “A Deer, a doe, a female deer”.

We spent the rest of our drive among the rolling hills. So much beautiful undeveloped land. Green and lush from the recent rains. From the landscape changes it felt like we were far, far away. It only took an 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach our destination.

Our visit was wonderful. The journey getting there rivaled the purpose of our destination.