Adam and I woke up at 6am so we could leave the Yosemite area as early as possible as the wildfires continued to spread. We let the girls sleep while we got ready, hitched and broke down camp. We were pulling out of the campground at 7:45am. Route 140 was still closed so we would need to drive into Yosemite and exit the park further north to get to our next destination in Petaluma, CA. Unlike every other leg of this trip we were now uncertain what we might encounter on this new drive such as low clearances, weight restrictions and gas station locations. One thing we knew for sure is that we would need to go through the tight tunnel at the entrance to Yosemite that had no clearance information.
When we got to the entrance we asked once more about getting through the narrow, triangular tunnel. This Ranger was somewhat hesitant and went to get another Ranger. They both thought we'd be fine because tour buses frequently pass through but if we had a problem they could close the exit road so we could go around it. Their parting words to us were you should be fine but we will listen for the sound of metal scraping rock and come running when we hear it. Adam and I looked at each other, took a deep breath and off we went. As we approached the tunnel I got out of the truck and walked in front so I could guide Adam through. Seeing it from this view point I felt better because I could see we would definitely be ok. Adam took his time and slowly drove through, thankfully without making the sound of metal scraping rock.
This route took us through the winding mountainside within Yellowstone. There were two low clearance tunnels that were signed (unlike the entrance gate). The lowest was 10' and we are 13'6" at the highest point. The ranger at the gate warned us about this but said these are arched tunnels and it is only 10' at the edge so hug the center line. Adam took his advice and had no problem. We could visibly see the smoke in the air as we drove. It took some time before we were finally in clear air again.
After exiting Yosemite we were clearly in almond country. We started passing many groves of almond trees and roadside produce stands. We couldn't resist stopping at one to buy locally grown strawberries and almonds.
When we finally arrived at our next campsite, the KOA in Petaluma, check in did not go as smoothly or quickly as it should have. The person at the desk tried to tell Adam we didn’t have a reservation. Thankfully, Adam was very organized and had the email correspondence containing our reservation information (confirmation number and dates staying) in hand. The person at the desk was insistent that our reservation was to have started yesterday and when we didn’t show they cancelled it. Adam ended up getting a manager involved and he worked with him to move other reservations around so we could get the site we needed and reserved in the first place. Nobody had any answers for how their system contained the incorrect information. After a lot of lost time we got to our site. There was a great playground in the campground directly across from our site. The girls played in it while we quickly unhitched and setup camp.
Our plan all along for this day was to go to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and we knew they closed at 5pm. We all were really looking forward to this so we still decided to go even though it was already 3:00. The museum was in Santa Rosa, CA not too far from the campground. We pulled up around 3:30 and figured ninety minutes was better than nothing. As we walked up to the entranceway there was a lifesize, full color Charlie brown statue in one section and snoopy laying on his dog house in another.
Inside the museum lobby was another statue of Woodstock taking a shower in his birdbath.
The girls were given a scavenger hunt to complete and turn in for a prize. I ran to the restroom and loved how there was a strip of comic tiles throughout.
The museum itself was relatively small but filled with information about Schulz’s life and fun things to see and do. The girls loved reading in the book nook they had created.
Then just past that along the wall sat two typewriters. Ella was fascinated by this and could have sat there and typed stories all day long. Lily found this shortly after Ella did and jumped right in.
Then in back of the typewriters was a shadow box to go inside. We all took a turn with this.
In the back of this section were two comfy orange sofas and a colorful Peanuts comic strip painted on the wall. These colorful Peanuts comics were displayed in several other locations too.
Throughout the museum there was some incredible Peanuts artwork made by various artists. One artist selected the layout of 3,588 tiles very carefully to form an iconic image of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.
There was a snoopy statue made out of crystal and an incredible piece of art done in wood of snoopy.
As we noticed the time ticking we had to pull ourselves away from the first floor and go on to the second. The girls noticed the education room right away and went in to check it out. There was a worker in there who helped them to make origami versions of snoopy’s dog house. Adam went in with them at first and I went to check out the replica of Schulz’s home art studio. Then I went in with the girls and Adam took a turn.
With about 10 minutes to spare we ran out to the courtyard. There was some more incredible artwork out here. In one of the large trees they had a sculpture of Charlie Brown’s kite.
They very nicely kicked us out of here because it was closing time. The girls really wanted to get a penny from the machine in the lobby for their collections but we weren’t able to do this either. The worker in the lobby could tell we weren’t quite ready to leave so she suggested we go across the street to the Snoopy's Home Ice an ice rink on the Schulz campus. She said there was more to check out over there and they stayed open a little later. As we walked over there was a photo op set up to have it look like you were crossing the street with the Peanuts characters.
There was a snoopy topiary and a few other life-size colorful statues like the ones at the entrance to the museum.
The girls really had a good time at Lucy’s psychiatrist booth.
There was a gift shop and peanuts art collection in this section too and we went in to see. We bypassed the gift section and went up the ramp to the art. My favorite part over here was the wall with a mural made solely out of carpet. I have never seen anything like this. The peanuts characters were depicted in different scenes, all made out of different colors of carpet.
I really liked the snoopy stained glass piece in here. There was a beautiful, extremely colorful Charlie Brown sculpture. The Lucy sculpture was covered in quotes. Adam and I chuckled at the framed Mona Lucy.
Once we finished checking everything out we headed back to the truck. It was dinner time and Adam and I both noticed a Vietnamese restaurant we had passed on our way in so we decided that would work out great. It was a nice little restaurant and we all enjoyed it. We went right back to the campsite after dinner. There was so much to do at this campsite and we wanted to do a few of these since we would not have time tomorrow. There was a pillow jump and a rock wall for the kids. We spent most of our time petting the goats at the small petting zoo. Then the girls played in the playground located close to our site for the rest of the evening.
