{"id":20,"date":"2014-09-01T11:36:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T18:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forallevents.info\/calistoga\/?p=20"},"modified":"2025-08-01T09:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:18:20","slug":"day2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/day2\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Petaluma + Santa Rosa RR Square<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
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8:30 am<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0breakfast in\u00a0<\/span>Hampton Inn Petaluma<\/a><\/strong>
\nOnce the dying facility of the Silk Mill, the dining room with 14\u2019 ceiling and long windows define an old elegance in a new setting. Many breakfast choices: yogurt, fresh fruit, juices, eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal (hot and cold), make your own waffle station, sweet rolls, bagels, bread for toasting, coffee\/tea. We take our leisure with the breakfast but have much to see and tight schedule, so do not linger.<\/p>\n

10:30 am\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>walking tour<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Petaluma Historical Museum<\/a>
\nFree Petaluma History Tour starts at Petaluma\u2019s Historical Library & Museum. \u2028Carnegie library, built in 1904, boasts Northern California\u2019s largest free-standing leaded glass dome, and exhibits on the area\u2019s poultry, dairy, and Miwok Indian history from the 1850\u2019s. Many artifacts, tools, furniture and photos of those times fascinate us while we wait for the tour to begin. Soon enough, a costumed docent introduces herself (embodying the style and personality of the early citizen who shaped the community), leads our small group out the door. For the next hour and a half we walk about 15 blocks around this beautiful historic downtown following our guide who is delivering a running history narrative as we stroll. She points out various important buildings, noting special points in the design, talks about the evolution of the town over time. Her Petaluma pride brims over making our experience feel very authentic.<\/p>\n

Built on bedrock, Petaluma was one of the few North Bay communities not damaged in the 1906 earthquake therefore the downtown area has many original Victorian-era homes and historic buildings. Many are now converted to new uses: boutiques, antique shops, specialty stores, and restaurants.<\/p>\n

Petaluma boasts of many unique antique, thrift and consignment stores. Copperfield Books, an independent bookstore, has 10,000 square feet of book titles, a children\u2019s area and magazine section. Into Comics? There\u2019s a stash of popular comics, rare and original issues at Brian\u2019s Comics. Great 90 minute tour. Reluctantly, we have to leave a little early to catch our train.
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SMART train <\/span><\/strong>Petaluma to Santa Rosa (RR square)<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong>12:23 pm\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>leave Petaluma station\u00a0<\/span><\/span>12:52 pm<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0arrive downtown Santa Rosa (RR square) station
\n<\/span><\/span>Walk briskly toward the SMART train station to catch a ride to Santa Rosa. Day is bright and sunny, almost too warm. On arrival at the Santa Rosa station the gorgeous 1904 train depot building comes into view. It now houses the Santa Rosa Visitor Center \/California Welcome Center<\/a>. We visit a while here but can\u2019t stay long as we have tickets for a 6th Street Playhouse matinee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> 15 miles \/ 24 km \/ 29 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

We sightsee in RR square on our short walk to the theater.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2 pm<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0attend play\u00a06th St. Playhouse<\/a><\/span><\/strong>
\nThe 107-year-old Del Monte cannery was converted into the 6th Street Playhouse in 2004-05. The building houses two stages and a rich, inclusive education program for ages 7\u2013adult. This non-profit professional theatre creates artistic, inspirational, enriching and entertaining programs, routinely receiving awards for its high-level artistry and its approach to new and old works. In the past we’ve seen many excellent performances here. Today, its a musical comedy which we greatly enjoy. (Perhaps 6th Street’s\u00a0new pitch should be “Take the train to a play”.)<\/span><\/p>\n

5 pm<\/span><\/strong> dinner Stark’s Steak & Seafood<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Awesome experience!\u00a0<\/span>After the show we amble to this great steak & seafood restaurant. Happy hour in progress in a lively bar. A lager and a Moscow Mule to accompany calamari with orange\/chili cremolatta should hold us until our dinner reservation. Yum. About Stark\u2019s –\u00a0Independently owned, but part of a group of 5 unique restaurants, each with individual identity. Dining room ambiance: subdued lighting, tables set with lots of space between, romantic, elegant, somewhat Speakeasyish, especially in the \u201ccellar\u201d where private events are held.<\/p>\n

Our table is set in a \u201cchoice\u201d location near the fireplace. Service is careful and unobtrusive. We\u2019re at first seating and the room is full of early diners like us. The exquisite meal which we shared: Surf & Turf \u2013 a petit filet (with 3 sauces) and shrimp, Butterfish served with caramelized Royal Trumpet mushrooms, melted leeks, ginger vinaigrette, broccolini with toasted pine nuts and golden raisins. Dessert: Meyer Lemon Pudding cake with roasted blueberries and vanilla cr\u00e8me fraiche. Wine list is deep, arranged by maker, varietal and place. Many spirits and after dinner drinks on the list.<\/p>\n

A special place to which we will return many more times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SMART train <\/span><\/strong>Petaluma to Santa Rosa (RR square)\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong>7:30 pm\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>leave downtown Santa Rosa (RR square)\u00a0<\/span><\/span>7:59 pm<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0arrive Petaluma
\n<\/span><\/span>Back on the train to Petaluma to the south. Tonight we have reservations at the Big Easy for an evening of music and dance with contemporary popular local musicians.<\/p>\n

walk<\/span><\/strong> to downtown<\/span><\/p>\n

8:30 pm<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0entertainment <\/span>The Big Easy<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/strong>Unpretentious underground venue off a short alley, Big Easy reminds us of gin joints and jazz clubs with low ceilings, concrete floors, and a simple d\u00e9cor. It has a real ‘speakeasy’ vibe with a Hammond organ, small dance floor, comfortable layout, bar with 24 taps and stage large enough for 13 pieces. The lighting is warm and the sound really good for such a small space. Food is available from Speakeasy (across the alley). We get very laid back, meet lots of interesting people — have a great time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

short\u00a0walk<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0back to hotel<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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stay <\/span>Hampton Inn Petaluma<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>
\nNow reeling with exhaustion we slowly saunter our way back to the Hampton Inn. They left a light on for us.<\/p>\n

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Petaluma + Santa Rosa RR Square\u00a0 8:30 am\u00a0breakfast in\u00a0Hampton Inn Petaluma Once the dying facility of the Silk Mill, the dining room with 14\u2019 ceiling and long windows define an old elegance in a new setting. Many breakfast choices: yogurt, fresh fruit, juices, eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal (hot and cold), make your own waffle station, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-day-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5794,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/5794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funoftravel.com\/petaluma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}