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Get to know Petaluma

Petaluma is a riverfront city along the Highway 101 corridor, a little north of Novato, a bit south of Santa Rosa and west of Sonoma. Chartered in 1858, it was an agricultural center during the Gold Rush and prospered thanks to its namesake waterway, which kept it reachable by steamships that paddled up from San Francisco Bay. Sunset magazine described Petaluma' downtown area as a “well-watered, well-fertilized, mature Main Street USA, and it’s not hard to see why. The core area, which survived the 1906 earthquake relatively unscathed, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with 65 additional sites in town. SMART trains stop smack in its center, conveniently close to its many breweries and biergartens. Hometown pride takes form in frequent fairs and festivals like the Butter & Egg Days Parade, an unconventional yet highly entertaining event that attracts some 3,000 each year.

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Living in Wine Country

At the 1976 Judgment of Paris, Napa Valley wines won out their French counterparts in every single category, catapulting the region’s wine to global celebrity. But that pivotal blind tasting merely marked a moment 150 years in fermentation. Early settlers were quick to uncork the growing potential of the area’s fair-weathered Provençal landscape, with the earliest vines planted by fur traders at Fort Ross in 1817. Commercial winemaking here took hold by the Gold Rush, and today you’ll find hundreds of vineyards from the Silverado Trail to the rugged, redwood-fringed Pacific coast. Together, Napa and Sonoma counties comprise the largest viticulture region in the United States and the epicenter of all things culinary. You’ll find a series of small towns blending Nantucket-level charm with a maverick, wild west edge, filled to the rim with quaint boutiques, artisanal mercantiles, cheesemongers, and Michelin-starred restaurants. When you’re not swishing your glass, there’s world-class recreation, hot air balloons and plenty else.