Day 6 San Francisco to Sonoma

  Sonoma, California, United States
Thursday, May 22, 2008

Woke up 0800, didn't feel well :) Took headache tablets, tin of coke and went back to sleep. Eventually surfaced at 0930 and we went down to Sears Fine foods and had another Al's special and the never ending cup of coffee. Started feeling human again! 
I had hoped that Hertz would pick us up from the hotel but when we phoned they said they cannot do that from the O'Farrell location as it's single manned. So, we checked out, and got a taxi to Hertz.
The car was a Ford Focus but a lot larger version that what we have in the UK, more than big enough for us. Catriona did a walk around the car pointing out damage to the Manager but all he said was "we don't usually bother noting any of that over here, we're not as strict". Yeah right, until you go back and suddenly its "oh you have to pay for this, you have to pay for that". 

Inverness

I set up the Tom Tom in the car (I had already set it all up with all the destinations we were going to) and off we braved driving on the wrong side of the road with an automatic car in the middle of a city where drivers give you 0.1 of a second after the lights turn Green before beeping their horns at you - with a hangover.

Luckily the Tom Tom did its thing and we were soon over the Golden Gate Bridge and heading towards our first destination, Inverness. 

We just wanted to go there purely because of the name (Inverness is the main city of the Highlands of Scotland and where we usually go for our main shopping). It was a windy road along past Muir Woods through Point Reyes National Park and shoreline. Then it was onwards through Petaluma, along Highway 116 to Sonoma. 

El Pueblo Inn

We were booked into the El Pueblo Inn and got there 3.5 hours after leaving San Francisco. We got checked in and dumped all our stuff and drove down to Sonoma Square

The hotel is right on the corner at the west end of West Napa street. It has 32 standard rooms, 16 larger rooms and 4 very large rooms. It has a pool and spa but it is located right beside the busy road so is not particularly quiet. I can see why some people on TripAdvisor have complained about traffic noise. We were in 238 which was upstairs on the inside so did not experience any noise. The room is a good size with two double beds and nice toiletries. It has a fridge for you to keep your own drinks etc. in. Unfortunately, it has no safe nor are there any safety deposit boxes at reception. It has several free WiFi cells that cover the site well.

In Sonoma Square I parked myself in the Sunflower Cafe with an Iced Mocca and used their free WiFi  to update the blog and photos.

Sonoma Square, our hire car in centre

We then drove back to the Inn via The Girl & The Fig and The Generals Daughter to book meals for Thursday and Friday nights. There is also a Jazz Festival on in Sonoma this weekend with artists such as Kool and the Gang, Bonnie Rait and Diana Krall.

In the evening we went back to the Square and visited Murphy's Irish Bar for dinner and a pub quiz!
Unfortunately, we were late for the start and missed the first round. The place was packed with 29 teams taking part. We had two chances of winning - slim and none! Some of the teams had only dropped 4 points after 4 rounds. As usual we had no clue on most of the American questions. Dinner was Hot wings, a Steak & Ale Pasty with chips and a humungous sandwich. We abaondoned the quiz as it was getting embarrassing and headed back to the hotel for an early night as we have our wine tour tomorrow.