Petaluma

The river that built Petaluma still runs past one of California's best-preserved Victorian downtowns: a working city of dairy and grit with a serious table and a long memory. This is where Highway 101 first feels like wine country, yet the coast lies thirty minutes west and the city thirty south. Sleep in a landmark hotel, dine where the chefs take it seriously, and wander a streetscape that hasn't lost its 19th-century bones. Every block carries the flavor of history.