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Weekend in Sonoma

April 22nd, 2008 by Andy

We headed to Sonoma this weekend and made Train Town our first stop. For those who are not familiar Train Town it is a station modeled after the 16st Station in Oakland from the 1930s, and is, “The Most Well Developed Scale Railroad In The Americas”. You embark from the station at $4.25 a head and ride through a nicely scaled forest of green trees and green water. Your journey will take you over five bridges and trestles. There are two tunnels, one 140 feet and one 40 feet long and end up in “Lakeview” a fictional town with really old characteristics, like a horse drawn fire engine. You always get the feeling like you should able to spend more time “Lakeview” but they want you back on the train you came in on. It is probably easier to regulate traffic that way, but the $4.25 begins to feel like less of a bargain.

The girls were showing signs of hungriness, and it was H-O-T, so we decided to pull into the station and head to the Plaza (or Square depending on your generational experience in Sonoma).

We found a parking spot right in front of the Cheese Factory which is next to impossible to do in a short period of time. You usually either end up circling the Plaza for 30 minutes or parking really far away from where you want to be. We browsed the factory and sampled cheeses, but we really were thinking more about a full meal. As we headed down 1st Street, passing some amazing restaurants and shops, we stopped in front of the Sunflower Caffe. We had been here before, but not when it was Sunflower, remembering the garden in the back and seeing the menu had a both a lamb burger and a hot dog on the special menu we knew this was our place for lunch.

The girls found a table in the shade under some trees and flowers, with all the shrubbery you would expect bugs to be a problem…but they are not. We ordered some salad and Chardonnay while we decided on the actual meal. Tina decided on the Parisian Ham on a bagette and I had the Bistro Steak Sandwich.

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The Parisian Ham minus the Dijon was good, but would have been better if it was served as intended. The Bistro Steak Sandwich was out of this world, the meat was tender and melted on each bite and the other flavors and ingredients went together wonderfully with this sandwich. My coleslaw was great too, very unique and original tasting all at the same time.

pics are here

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