After the kids left for work, Steve and I headed home via a different route- SR 12 which took us directly through Sonoma, a town incredibly rich in history.  After a quick stop at the Visitors Center for maps, we became tourists.

The town began in 1823 when missionary Jose Altimira declared it the best site he had seen for a new (and final) mission.  We stood in the Plaza, the largest in California.  Its eight acres and the surrounding street grid were laid out by General Mariano Vallejo in 1836, turning Sonoma from a mission town to a Mexican-style pueblo.  This man deserves a study which we plan to do.  City Hall, behind us, dates back to 1908.

The last home of Vallejo, Sonoma's founder, is Lachryma Montis ("mountain tear"). In 1851-52, the two story, wood frame house was designed and built on the east coast, shipped by sail around Cape Horn and then assembled at the present site.  One of the first pre-fab homes-ever.

This was the location of the Bear Flag Revolt (1846).  U.S. Army Major John C. Frémont arrived in California and began encouraging a rebellion among the Anglo-American settlers. As a result, local residents, assisted by volunteers from among the American settlers and Vaqueros from the many haciendas in the Sacramento River valley, captured the Mexican garrison of Sonoma and raised a homemade flag with a bear and star to symbolize their taking control. The words "California Republic" appeared on the flag (the pattern for our current State flag).

While in Sonoma, Frémont stayed at the Blue Wing Inn (1840).  Additional visitors included future Civil War generals, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Hooker, Major Philip Kearney, and Captains Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, as well as legendary Joaquin Murrieta (the man Zorro was patterned from).

The Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma,was founded on July 4, 1823 and is the last and most northern of the 21 Franciscan missions along the California Coast.

Most times when we pass the Sunflowers of Dixon, we are in a hurry to go here or there, but today we made time to stop and be amongst them.

Just off Highway 50/80 at exit 69, these acres of glorious, living sunshine are the stuff of Van Gogh paintings and my own personal glee.