Sonora: Part One

I wanted to start posting about our vacation, but I realized that I have been a bad blogger lately and am very behind in my posting. So, I’m going to take the rest of this week to catch up and I’ll tell you all about our vacation starting next week.

You may remember that my Grandfather (Papa) recently passed away and mid-June I took a trip to Northern California with my family for his funeral. My Grandmother passed away a few years earlier, so we were headed to Sonora, California where she was buried to bury my Grandfather along side her.

My Grandmother’s family is an old California gold-mining family. Her family has been in California since the 1840s and my Grandfather’s family has been here even longer, but mainly in the Santa Barbara area. His family is Mexican/Spanish and I believe have been in California since it was Mexico, and before that a part of Spain. I love history and tradition, and love that my family has been in this state that I love so much for so long.

Back to my Grandmother’s family, who are the reason we were in Sonora. Once upon a time Sonora was a gold-mining town, and is still filled with historic buildings. My Grandmother’s family lived in that area, and I think she did at some point as well. But I get a little confused about everyone’s history. A lot of her family is buried there and so she was buried there as well. We headed there on a Friday for the funeral. Josh and Eleanor stayed behind. She’s not a fan of long car rides, and I didn’t really feel the need to bring a 2-year-old to a funeral.

We stayed at the Gunn House Hotel, an historic home, turned Inn.

It’s generally a nice place to stay. The rooms are a little small, the televisions are old and tiny, but the beds are comfortable and the water pressure is excellent. My favorite part is the dining room. There’s no restaurant, but they serve an included breakfast of fresh waffles, quiches, a variety of baked goods, and cereals in the dining room every morning.

The owner of the place has a thing for teddy bears though. They’re everywhere. It’s just a little odd.

I’ve decided to start taking a photo of myself in hotel bathrooms (even when I look exhausted) so that I can remember that I was on the trip that I took all the pictures of, but no pictures of me were taken.

More tomorrow…