Work has been particularly busy these past few weeks, but last Saturday morning J and I found ourselves in the unusual position of not needing to spend the entire weekend in front of our laptops. We sat around aimlessly for a bit, and then wandered out around the block to get some coffee. We were greeted by the setting-up of the Fillmore Jazz Festival and early hardcore festival-goers. Fillmore St. was blocked off from Jackson Street (top of the hill) down to south of Geary...many blocks! Three stages, lots of crafty booths and, even at that hour of the morning, delicious-smelling grilled things (oysters!). We took a spin partway down the hill and back and realized our neighborhood was going to quickly become a madhouse. While I tend to enjoy street-festival-chaos... Jae, not so much. So we moved on to Plan B: getting out of town. J got out the map (google maps, that is) and decided our destination would be Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, about 2 hours north, in Guerneville, near the Russian River.

The park is very quiet and peaceful, and a few degrees cooler once you walk into the shade. The trails are soft, padded with woodchips/sawdust; I like to think it was natural, but its possibly some very attentive grooming by the park service. It makes for a nice walk...

You can't really tell from the photos, but this looked *very much* like the backdrop for the Ewok planet in Return of the Jedi. We had a disagreement about how much power George Lucas really has, and if he could wield his checkbook and bring a massive camera crew into the park. Later we discovered that he actually filmed in a *private* redwood forest somewhere not too far away. (Who has a private redwood forest?)

As we found ourselves in the Russian River Valley (quite inadvertantly), we decided to stop at one of the many wineries in the area. Easier said than done, my friend! For the better part of an hour, every sign and arrow we followed led us in circles, through twisting backroads, passing field after field of vines that all started to look like one big green picturesque blur. Good thing that was *before* the wine tasting. After a particularly twisty and disorienting span of road, we landed at the driveway of the Joseph Swan winery. A very small operation... pretty much four guys and some grapes. Awesome.

Our busy afternoon of nature and scenery wound down, and we spent the night in nearby Santa Rosa. One of their claims to fame is being the birthplace of Charles Schultz, which I didn't know (the very large statues of Snoopy littered around Railroad Square didn't immediately tip me off). The next day we headed back to the city, where we spent the better part of an hour trying to find parking within a mile of our neighborhood. A very successful 24 hour adventure, I'd say.