My Perfect Fall Day

Moving across the county to a place where you know absolutely no one in your late 20s is a little jarring (to say the least).  We moved to California from Illinois two years ago and have lived in our current city a little over a year now. Exploring a new city can be fun, but also very overwhelming. What to do on a beautiful weekday morning or the ever elusive 'parents night out'? Where to start? Luckily in this age, we have the convince of technology and social media. Yelp has been a saving grace on days we can't be in the house any longer. But you can only go to the same places so many times. Que... Eventbrite. Eventbrite offers tons of options for creating and promoting events (if interested use their event management and planning page), but I love it for finding events! It's super easy to search for things that are going on in your area; good for planned day trips or impromptu nights out. I usually check it once a week and save events based on our schedule. We don't always make them, but I love knowing it is always there if we need something to do.   

As a somewhat newbie to the area, I thought it would be interesting to use this prompt from Eventbrite and share with you some of the awesome things we have found in Petaluma.

 One of the best things about visiting or moving to any new place it checking out the food! Mark and I pride ourselves on being (very) amateur local food connoisseurs. We make it a point to try to never eat the same place twice for our weekly date night. Out of all the places we've ate here in Petaluma, I have my top favorites for each meal. So, of course, I am starting out the day with: 

.Breakfast.  

Wishbone Ranch Food

This place... there are no words, really.. I don't know how food critics write! The owners have their own farm and purchase from other local farmers to create amazing dishes with homegrown taste. The menu changes with seasons, but never disappoints! If you do anything in Petaluma go here.. and just stay for all 3 meals!

.Shopping.

After the fulfilling meal, a walk downtown is a must. The streets are lined with locally owned quaint shops of many varieties. Downtown offers something for everyone (literally) with boutiques, toy stores, tons of resale, craft stores, coffee joints, salons all intermixed with parks and a river view. My two favorite places to stop are Copperfield's Bookstore and Powell's Sweet Shoppe. 

Copperfield's is a regional chain bookstore. They have about 7 locations in Sonoma County. I used to be a Barnes & Noble kinda gal, but when we moved I discovered the closest one was about 25 minutes away. So I thought I'd give this place a try. I have to say my favorite part about this store is the customer service. I would go as far as saying it is the best customer service I have had in a store ever. The staff is so knowledgeable, but not condescending. It is very laid back and inviting, with that corner bookstore feel. And for being just a local bookstore, they get a huge variety of nationally known authors to do events regularly. You could most definitely spend hours in this place and you should!

Powell's is a franchised candy shop with about 15 locations (mostly in California). I'm a bit of a candy freak (although I don't eat it much anymore because of sensitive teeth), so I have been to my fair share of candy stores. NOTHING compares to this place. They have everything you could ever want and more. Candies, old and new, sodas, specialty chocolates, and to-die-for gelato. My son loves picking out a couple of his own candies (he likes the gummies) and I have an affinity for the raspberry chocolate sorbeto mixed with the white chocolate strawberry gelato.  When I took my out-of-town parents here, I saw both of their faces light-up as they relived their childhoods' through their favorite old time candies. I'm not even joking when I say this is one of my favorites parts of living in Petaluma! 

.Winery.

After a couple hours of shopping, take a break and enjoy the beauty that is wine country. I'm not a big drinker, but being that Sonoma County is wine country, I have to add a winery into the list. Even if you aren't into drinking, experiencing a winery is a must in Petaluma and Kastania Vineyards is the one to experience. They offer tours and wine tasting on weekends and allow you to bring a lunch (grab sandwiches from Lucchesi's Deli) while you enjoy the views and test out wines. I love that it is family owned; their commitment and hard work is definitely shown in the quality of their wine.

.Dinner.

By now you should be ready for dinner and if you're not, just one whiff of the smells coming from Sauced will get you ready for your newest addiction. If you know me, you know that I was super hesitant about going to this place. That is because I don't like barbecue. I have just never liked my meat drowned in sauce; way too overwhelming for me. So when we decided to give it a try, I wasn't expecting much; even reading the menu didn't change my mind. I just wasn't sure how the meat would be with all the sauce on it. BUT the awesome thing about this place is the meat comes dry and you put the sauce on it. They have 4 homemade sauces on the table and you choose what and how much to put on your meat. Oh and the meat.... sooo darn good! The chicken is so juicy you don't even need sauce and brisket is mouth-watering. And the sides are even better; the corn bread and sweet potato casserole are the best I've ever had by far. We've been to this place more times than any other in Petaluma and we have brought every out-of-town guest here as well. 
They also have a really fun event calendar with trivia, bingo, and live music on Fridays and Saturdays.

 Take it from a non-barbecue lover, go here; this place will change you! 

.After Hours.

End the night at the famous Lagunitas Brewing Company. This place has an awesome history here in Petaluma and recently opened another facility in Chicago. You get to hear the whole story when you take a free brewery TASTING tour. Like I said earlier, I am not a big drinker, but the tour alone is well worth the visit. When we moved here, Lagunitas was always the first suggestion everyone gave us when we asked for things to do. It has such a fun atmosphere with live music everyday and some unique special events throughout the year. 

It is the perfect place for a day date or end to your night. You are sure to leave with happy taste buds and a greater appreciation for the art of craft brewing.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my perfect Fall day in Petaluma. If it sparked your interest... good, come visit us!!!! 

***I'm talking to you family and friends!***

Halloween 2014: Decor, Pumpkins, Treating, and MORE!

Well... I guess I missed the boat on sharing our Halloween yesterday! But I am still recovering from the weekend and that time change is killing me for some reason! I absolutely love Halloween (even more so now that I have Myles) so yesterday was my favorite blog reading day of the year so far! I loved seeing all the little ones' costumes and the festive things you all did!

I got out the decor a while ago but never shared because it wasn't much but I figured I'd show a bit here today:

 Entry table with paper spider, skulls, glitter pumpkins, and lots of spiderwebs!

 We have this area on the wall when you first walk in that is like a little ledge that comes down from the vaulted ceilings. I haven't done anything with it yet, so I thought why not put some Halloween decor up there. Myles LOVED it and talked about all the decorations all day long, so it was a success in my book. 

Moving on to pumpkin time! I love carving pumpkins, but I have to be honest with myself and the world... I'm no good at it. As much as I want to consider myself a creative person, sometimes I fall short and pumpkin carving is one of those times. I just used an outline from a book for mine. I got everything set up before dinner Wednesday and while I was cooking Myles played:

After dinner we went out and tried to do what we could before it got too dark. Myles painted his small pumpkins and then got messy with the guts.

We only got two done before it got too dark. The next day we just put a sticker cat face on the third one. I got a kit from the Dollar Tree with 4 different faces made form foam stickers. They are actually good quality; such a good deal. 

Our set-up outside:

Last year Halloween night was pretty awesome, so I wasn't sure if this year would compare... especially since Myles decided he no longer wanted to wear the Spider-man costume that he picked out! He had been telling me he wanted to be Spider-man for weeks so that's what I bought. He wore it around the house a couple times, and then as actual Halloween got closer and closer he wanted nothing to do with it... like meltdown city style. So I returned it and started brainstorming a plan b. I could only gather that what he didn't like about the costume was the puffy muscle part and I already knew that he wouldn't go for anything on his face. I went to Target to see if I could find something that was like pajamas, but could still be seen as a costume... no such luck. Then I went to the Spirit store and found a Ninja Turtle onesie that was just like normal clothes. Myles picked out the Raphael one and I was very hopeful this one would work out! It took a little coaxing and explaining but we had success!

We went a couple places Tricking or Treating before the actual night (two outdoor malls that had trick or treating at the stores), so Myles had a little practice. Both times we went, he liked the getting candy part, but was so shy and wouldn't say anything to anyone. I figured that night would be the same and I wasn't sure how it was going to go. We got him all dressed, grabbed his big stuffed Leo and hopped on his bike:

We used this bike last year for Halloween and it worked out so well that I thought we would give it a try this year too. It was so perfect again; Myles put his Leo in the back and his bucket on the handle bars. I was able to push him when we had longer distances to go and he would walk when he wanted to. Since we just moved to this city we weren't too sure where to go, but we randomly decided to just walk across the street to a neighborhood behind us, and we hit the jackpot! Within just a couple blocks there were tons of houses all decked out and not too many other kids. Myles was really good at going up to each door and picking out his candy. He was so into it and I could tell he was having a great time. Of course his favorite part was all of the decorations. He asked me to take his picture with this pumpkin, but his favorite one was a blow up pumpkin and ghosts that were made to look like Pac-Man and the ghosts. 

We were out for about 1 1/2 and then headed home to see if we could hand any candy out. Our street looked completely empty so I figured we weren't getting any... but right before bed we got two groups! I really wanted Myles to get to hand some out so I was super excited. He was so proud of himself for helping and even shacked a little boy's hand :) 

Not sure what we are going to do with all of this.. Myles doesn't like chocolate and I don't need any of it! But it was so worth stopping at every house to see his cute little butt walking around like a big boy! Perfect Halloween!

I hope you all had as great of a time as we did!
 How was your holiday weekend?

I am linking up today with the lovely Elizabeth from Chasin' Mason and Desiree from Macke Monologues for their Fall Family Bucket List.

{Fall Family Bucket List}: Pumpkin Patch vol. 2

So by the title of this post it may be concluded that I have a problem... and normally I would try to justify this problem with some sort of excuse about how our first pumpkin patch was in Illinois so I had to go to another patch out here in California, but let's be real here people.. I have a thing for pumpkin patches and I also have a Type-A thing that makes me have to check out every single patch, museum, festival, park, etc. in existence. So here I am today sharing with you guys our second pumpkin patch experience (first in California). And if I am being completely forthcoming, I have even since taken Myles to a third pumpkin patch! I'll spare you a third post though and just get to this one! I am also linking up again with two of my favorite blogging buddies: Elizabeth from Chasin' Mason and Desiree from Macke Monologues for their Fall Family Bucket List.

All in all, this patch was pretty cool as far as activities goes... but we didn't have that great of an experience because of the weather. It was just so dang hot, and while Myles seemed to not be bothered by it, I was miserable. Thinking that it was finally starting to cool down a bit, I dressed us both in pants and t-shirts. The weather here is so different than what I am used to so I am always dressing wrong. It will be a cool and cloudy 60 degrees in the morning and then by noon it's clear skies and blazing hot. I haven't figured it out yet, so it was my mommy fail on this one!  Shorts would have made the trip a lot more enjoyable, but we hung in there and did the best we could.

Straw maze: I was super surprised that Myles spent tons of time in this maze. I didn't think he would even walk through it, but he was running around, crawling through holes like a regular farm boy!

I'm not really sure why, but they had a reptile show going on in the barn that day. There were tables lined with snakes, spiders, scorpions, and other creepy crawlers.

Myles touched this snake a couple of times. At first he touched the tail and I missed the picture so I asked him to touch it again. Then he reached for its head (this picture was taken right between him touching the tail and then going for the head), the lady jerked back, and Myles got a little freaked out. I guess she wasn't expected that as most people know not to go for the head, but Myles really had no idea and was scared by her reaction. After that he was done with the snakes.

They also had some aquatic life to touch like this sea star. I love that Myles is so willing to touch things, check them out, and not be scared. It makes everything much more interesting and fun.

They had a little area with animals that we checked out (really dirty though) and tons of crafts that we bypassed. We did grab a really good lemonade though before we headed to the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.  

View on the hayride:

While on the wagon, I asked Myles if he wanted to hold my hand, greatest feeling in the world right there:

And then we finally made it to the patch!

He found a ladybug on one of the pumpkins:

He searched for a while and finally found the perfect pumpkin...

... coming to show me the winner...

Slightly deformed, still partly green, and rotted out... but it was perfect!

Have you spent the day at the pumpkin patch yet?

{Fall Bucket List} Pumpkin Patch

You guys.. I posted twice last week!! And I have two posts scheduled for this week! Although I still haven't finished any old posts chillin out in my drafts, I feel like I am kind of getting back into my happy place! And today I am linking up again with two of my favorite blogging buddies: Elizabeth from Chasin' Mason and Desiree from Macke Monologues for their Fall Family Bucket List.

Last week I posted about our trip to the Apple Orchard with grandma and grandpa when we went back home to Illinois at the end of last month. On that same day, we also visited the pumpkin patch. I had to take Myles here because it is the same pumpkin patch I went to every year as a child and they have a lot of the same things there. It brings back tons of fond memories and hopefully it will for Myles now too!

Grandpa and Myles:

Trying (unsuccessfully) for a mommy and son picture:

Pumpkin man high-five:

Train inflatable obstacle course:

Tractor fun:

They have a dozen or so of these all around the patch and they are still the same ones they had when I went there as a kid. I even have some pictures with my cousins and I in them!

Myles loved this vampire tunnel. He wanted everyone to walk through it with him.. over and over and over!

They also had an exotic animal show with a turtle, bird, skunk, snake, porcupine, and more. Myles even touched the snake!

We ended with Myles' favorite part: animals! He, of course, thought the turkey was hungry and needed to eat sticks. This kid has a way with animals :)

And on our way out we had to give Oscar some love!

We didn't actually pick up any pumpkins because we wouldn't be carving there. We have since got up some back in California at the pumpkin patches here. 
I will be sharing that soon :)

Have you gotten your pumpkins and decorated for Halloween yet?