Dining & Wining

Next on our Tour de Bay Area was the city of Vallejo, one of the northernmost spots professing to still be part of the San Francisco/Oakland metro area. This is where Andy and I lived when we were first married (awww), and when, through my employment and his schooling, we became close with a pack of other worker bees from the California Maritime Academy. We were generously hosted for the weekend by our friend Bobbie (who has a granddaughter in the Midwest just one day younger than Alton!) and by proxy, her sister Peg, who lives nearby enough to cruise over early in the a.m. and tag team with Bobbie in making us eggs and bacon for breakfast. Yes, please! You avid Walk the Rhyne readers will remember hearing in past posts about Bobbie and Peg's camping prowess, so they were interested in hearing about our outdoor experiences thus far, and proudly acknowledged with the eyes of mentors how efficient our packing and gear stash had become. We were extremely well taken care of, especially when I came to the sinking realization that it had taken us no time at all to reacclimate to the good life. You know, with indoor plumbing.  We'd have a rude awakening when it was time to take to the "forests" once again, where I would find myself looking forward to fast food bathrooms and rest areas, where they might have hand dryers, or better yet, paper towels for the water closet patrons' use.
After we'd been foiled by the steam train on our way to Vallejo, we took a passerby's advice and investigated the Sonoma Train Town instead. Vallejo sits happily on the edge of wine country, making it an easy point of origin for tasting trips to Napa, Sonoma, Carneros, etc. We were playing a vineyard visit by ear, unsure of whether Alton would tolerate a bustling tasting room with adult-only libations, but upon hearing about Train Town, we knew we had our Saturday activity. We invited some more local friends, Jenna and Megan and their 2 & 1/2 year old train-loving son, to join us, and the overcast morning saw our sextet zooming happily toward all points rail.
Train Town was the perfect toddler haven. With a working steam train that rode you all around the heavily wooded park and petting zoo, the two little boys couldn't get enough of the train cars, the scenery (some real and some fake animals), the many bridges and tunnels on our journey, and so on.  Once back at the station, the mini amusement park had a few rides and full-size train cars to explore.
The boys climb aboard some lofted bench seats in an old passenger car--Andy thought this looked like a good candidate for their first album cover.

Alton waving hello to photographer Daddy from the carousel. 

The little pond was home to a mama duck and her seven fluffy ducklings.

After a day of fun, Jenna and Meg opened their home for a big reunion dinner to get as many friends as possible in one place. In addition to Peg and Bobbie, another girlfriend Jennifer came over with her four-year-old daughter. The three kids had a great time exploring and sharing toys and eating at the Kid Table!

Click to enlarge if you need to in order to see Alton with drumstick in one hand, cookie in the other, and mouth mid-chomp.

Minerva was in good company in baby gated dog jail with Jenna and Meg's Aussie, Scout, and fellow Lab Regatta (who belongs to our recently-transplanted friend Chris in Seattle, even though she's currently residing with Chris's mom in Cali).

Too much fun and Jenna's good chili! The next morning we were optimistic about a winery foray on our way out, and were dying to re-visit an old favorite, Cline, where Andy had purchased me a wine club membership for a Mother's Day gift. Peg and Bobbie needed very little coaxing to come along, and with Alton outnumbered by adults 4 to 1 we felt confident about our odds. 
Upon arrival, we outfitted Alton with his camping trip camera and took a restorative stroll around the grounds. Cline has beautiful lawns for special events, a guesthouse, and gardens with some native birds.
The little guy happily snapped pictures of birds along the way: Andy's protege.

We meandered over to the tasting room, where folks were two and three deep at the bar waiting their turns for reds and whites.  When I revealed myself to be a club member, however, we were pointed in the direction of the smaller, quiet clubhouse off to one side, empty in both the bar interior and the table-spotted patio exterior. Score! We had the place nearly to ourselves as we sampled, swapped glasses, deliberated over what to buy, then made our bottle selections with my 20% off discount. I have a feeling that some of these full-bodied, fortifying selections will be very comforting on rainy nights in the Oregon campgrounds to come, if only I can save them that long....
Alton took pictures, had a snack, played with sticks, and all in all performed admirably on the winetasting excursion. Not about to push our luck, we drove a bit up the road to have lunch, bid adieu to Bobbie and Peg, and shuttled our way to the highway for destination: Grammy and Grandpa's!