Healdsburg

We spent the long MLK weekend in Healdsburg, up in Sonoma county. I’ve been curious about it for years, but it never quite crossed the threshold into actually sparking a visit. But the long weekend seemed like a good opportunity, since we didn’t have anything pressing keeping us in town. And with the fires in Sonoma last fall, spending some money in the area seemed like a worthwhile thing to do. We stayed directly in the town, at the Harmon Goest House, roughly half a block from the main town square. It was a good location, since the area around the square is very walkable and has a bunch of shops (including two bookstores!), restaurants, and tasting rooms.

We intentionally made it a low-key weekend, poking around the town, eating some tasty food, and exploring. We did hop in the car to drive roughly 10 minutes to the parking lot for the Fitch Mountain open space preserve. The mountain is really a large hill at the eastern edge of town, but hiking up it got us a bit of exercise (useful after all the food) and provided some nice views of the Russian River and surrounding countryside. I suspect it’d be fun to raft or kayak the river in warmer weather, but that’d be balanced by the increased number of visitors you’d have to endure.