Sara took the car for her canoe trip with Sandy and the ladies, leaving John Haley and me to walk around Guerneville. We’re about a half a mile down the highway from exciting downtown Guerneville and I didn’t realize at first that I could follow Old River Road (a much less busy side road) all the way downtown. So instead, after John Haley woke up from his morning nap, I pushed the stroller down the side of the busy highway. I stopped in at an info center where a friendly person told me about a local playground that was a little hard to get to (we had to walk right next to a construction site) but very nice. At the playground, we ate some boiled potatoes that Sara had prepared for us, played on the swing and the slide, and saw some other little kids. The high point of the playground trip was when some guys were testing out their car stereo in a nearby parking lot. John Haley started bopping to the norteño music (I think it was Los Tigres del Norte) as he does to just about any music and sometimes to no music at all.

We went back to the motel so I could put him down for his second nap — surprisingly, he went down with almost no fuss at all, even without his mommy. When he got up, we went back to downtown Guerneville so I could get some lunch and some beer for the evening. At the liquor store I actually got carded. When the woman at the counter asked me how old I was, at first I didn’t understand what she was saying. Then I thought she was asking how old John Haley was, so I said, “fourteen months.” Slowly it dawned on me that she was asking how old I was. “I’m thirty five,” I replied. “Am I being carded? I’m almost thirty six. Do you want to see my license? Here.” I was flattered.

Today there was a beer festival going on in Guerneville; I might have enjoyed it but it looked a little too rowdy for babies.

Guerneville is an interesting place and I’m sure there’s lots of fun outdoorsy stuff to do in the Russian River area. However, as a tourist town (and a place to hang around carless with a small child), it’s a little rough. For one thing, I think it’s too dominated by the highway. There’s no place to escape road noise and people drive fast and aggressively. Pedestrians feel like they might be in danger. I found myself longing for the peace, quiet, and walkable streets of my neighborhood in the city of San Francisco.