Nice to be home again

Travel vacations are great, but it’s so nice to come home.|

Travel vacations are great, but it’s so nice to come home.

I never get tired of the view coming into town from Four Corners, looking up Broadway toward City Hall with the hills in background.

Even on a Friday afternoon at the beginning of the July 4 weekend, traffic was light. Preparations were being made for our hometown parade, and visitors strolled around our Plaza, probably thinking that Sonoma is an exceptionally charming town.

They are right, of course.

Sonoma Market was bustling with Sonoma friends and neighbors stocking up for the holidays, and everybody appeared to be in an upbeat mood.

In many ways, Sonoma Valley looks like where we had just been – Provence. That part of France is one of the most popular vacation regions in all of Europe, and it is easy to see why. To many people, it’s the closest thing to the perfect place to live that they can imagine. But then, most of them have never been to my hometown.

On Sunday evening, having almost rid ourselves of jet lag and time zone sleep deprivation, Dottie and I drove out to Jack London State Park for Transcendence Theater’s final night of its first show of the season – “This Magic Moment.”

It was another wonderful, exhilarating, and inspiring show. How fortunate we all are to have these incredibly talented, innovative and engaging performers as part of our community. I’m grateful every season for their decision to become Sonomans and share their dreams with us.

I didn’t get to do any fishing in France this time, but when I got home, I found a report in my email from Steve Kyle, about 13 Sonomans who joined him in Loretta in late June.

Here, in Steve’s own words, is the report:

“Last week, 13 of Sonoma’s most highly trained fly fishermen descended on the small Mexican fishing village of Loreto, Baja Sur. Arriving tanned, buffed and in the high spirits provided by a two-hour layover in the bar at LAX, all were looking forward to four days of awesome fly fishing with visions of dorado, sailfish and marlin leaping across the water with a fly in its mouth.

“This being our seventh trip to Loreto, you can see why it came as a huge surprise to instead, find ourselves lowering live bait to depths of 400’ in the hopes of hooking something, anything, instead of casting to large schools of jumping dorado.

As luck would have it, there was no luck on this trip. Rumor had it that the dorado were currently swimming some 100 miles off the coast of Washington. Washington State??? “Yup, they too had read about global warming and were totally ‘adios amigo’ and went MIA in search of more hospitable conditions.

“After days of sitting for seven hours in a small open panga in 90-degree heat and no shade, it didn’t take me long to realize how slow-cooked pulled pork came about. But that’s not to say that a few guys didn’t manage to pull a few rabbits out of the hat, but for the most part, it went from being slow to DOA.

“The few exceptions were Dave Pier, who won the big fish award by hooking and landing a very large sail fish off of David Grieve’s boat. Sean Riebli won the coveted Certified Fish Whisperer Award for bringing in at least one yellowtail each day so that we were assured plenty of sashimi each night for our sunset poolside cocktail hour.

“As for yours truly, I am happy to report that I came in dead last. I hooked but three tiny fish in the four days and now stand before you a much humbled shadow of my former brilliant angling self.”

Fishing locally has been good off our coast for rock and lingcod. Capt. Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sportsfishing is bringing home limits for all on board, and still optimistic about finding some salmon. Inside the Bay, striped bass and halibut are still biting.

If you are a bike rider and an angler, plan on heading to Sonoma Raceway next Thursday, July 14, for a benefit event for Sonoma County Parks.

All cyclists will have free use of the track. There will be events for kids, live music, great food and lots of fun.

Anglers benefit from the fact that some of our regions’ best fishing, including the Russian River’s Steelhead Beach and Spring Lake are part of the county parks system.

The event starts at 5 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. Admission is $25 for adults ($30 at the gate), $10 for kids 12 and under.

Bring your bike and helmet. Tickets can be purchased at bikethetrack.brownpapertickets.com.

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