Connie and Karen Experience the Tolay Fall Festival

Hi Blog.  As you know, we are staying in Vallejo, CA east of San Francisco.  This Saturday, our friends, Karen and Connie, arrived in Duncans Mills, CA, about 65 miles north and west of us.  We wanted to see them before we left for Yosemite on Wednesday.  We discovered Karen and Connie at the Escapees Rally in April 2012.  That was just after we sold the house and hit the open road.  As full-time RVers, they've been an inspiration to us.  We've kept in touch via emails and Facebook.  After a year and a half, we were finally in the same state and only 65 miles apart!  We learned there was a fall festival in Sonoma County about halfway between us.  We agreed to meet on Sunday at the Tolay Lake Regional Park.

Tolay Lake Regional Park is located between the Petaluma River and the Sonoma Valley. This unique 1,769-acre property contains farm and grasslands, ridges, a seasonal freshwater lake, ponds, wetlands, and many other natural resources. It provides habitat for several species of special status, including the burrowing owl, California red-legged frog, northwestern pond turtle, golden eagle, white tailed kite, horned lark, northern harrier, and the tricolor blackbird.  It is one of 50 different parks run by the Sonoma County Park Service.  I didn't know that counties had their own park service.  Apparently, California has a number of National Parks, State Parks, County Parks and City Parks, each administered by its own park service.

Here are Connie and Karen as they arrive at the festival.

The Tolay Fall Festival is more than just pumpkin patch.  It is a seasonal celebration  connecting visitors with the beauty and history of this special park. Fall Festival activities and displays are low-key, hands-on and educational by design.  Doesn't that just sound so California!  Check out all the things there were to do:

• Explore the “Nighttime Creatures Barn” with its exhibits of native and exotic snakes, birds of prey, tide pool animals, and taxidermied wildlife.
• Venture into the “Creepy Crawly Room,” where tarantulas and scorpions glow under black lights.
• Take a hayride to a pumpkin patch in the park’s back 40 and find the perfect Halloween pumpkin.
• Visit a replica of a Native American village and try farm activities like wool carding and candle dipping.
• Enter the World-Record Pumpkin-Seed Spitting Contest for a chance to win an exclusive title and a year of bragging rights. See the 2012 results (190 kB.)
• Join experts in archery, fly fishing and astronomy for hands-on demonstrations.
• Participate in gunnysack races, find your way through a straw maze, and pet barnyard animals.
• Enjoy food and desserts from local vendors or bring a picnic to enjoy at the park.

Karen had been complaining that, with all the snow and cold temperatures, she hadn't experienced much sun recently, so we walked over to the astronomy tent for a quick peek at the sun.  They had two different types of telescopes you could look through.  One let you see the spots on the sun.  The other let you see the different solar storms and solar flares.  The volunteers were from the Robert Ferguson Observatory at Sugarloaf Ridge Park.  Each month during the new moon the observatory opens its doors to give visitors the opportunity to explore the wonders of the sun and the night skies.

After exploring our galaxy, we went back into time to discover some early technological breakthroughs.  Here, one of the volunteers demonstrates an automated saw.

This bad boy (actually it's a girl - note the pink toe nails) is an elephant foot tamper.  We should have taken a video because you can't really get it just by looking at this photo.  But this puppy is really, really heavy and jumps up and down tapping the earth under its elephant foot.  Found an example on You Tube - check this out - Jumping Jack Tamper.

A county Fall Festival would not be complete without a potato sack race.  The young gentleman in the foreground was leading, but leaped right out of his sack and crashed in front of his sister.  His sister also didn't finish the race - not because he took her out, but because she was too busy laughing at him to finish herself.  Such is youth.

After watching the races, it was time to get crafty.  First up was the wool shed.  Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of Karen carding her wool or spinning it on the spindle.  However, if you look carefully at the photo below, you can see her new wool bracelet.

Next we made corn husk dollies.

All this craftiness builds up a powerful hunger.  We walked over to the food court.  Decisions, decisions, decisions - burritos, BBQ or all things turkey.  Dave opted for the cajun turkey sausage, Karen and Connie both ordered the turkey bacon BLT and Kathy went for the BBQ pulled pork.  We shared a slice of Mom's Homemade Sweet Potato Pie.  Now that our bellies were full, it was time to take the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

The park was all decked out in its fall finest.

After bumping down the old farm road, we arrived at pumpkin nirvana!

Here all the little pumpkins congregated in hopes of getting adopted.  It is really difficult to decide because each one is cuter than the next.  Well, maybe not cuter, but you get the idea.  After a few laps around the patch, we picked our favorites and headed back to the fair grounds.

After safely tucking our new additions in our respective trucks, we enjoyed a couple of root beer floats courtesy of the Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department.  Next - time to explore the “Nighttime Creatures Barn” with its exhibits of native and exotic snakes, birds of prey, tide pool animals, and taxidermied wildlife.  Yes, we even ventured into the “Creepy Crawly Room,” where tarantulas and scorpions glow under black lights.  However, the most fun was chatting withe the volunteer snake wranglers.

Before long, it was time to wish Karen and Connie safe travels.  We are already making plans to see each other in Ventura and Temecula.  Look out Southern California, here we come!