Great America and Boonville 8/18 and 8/19
Busy weekend as J’s company has a family outing at Great America and our friend invited us to stay the weekend in their house in Boonville ([Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/vQWNKBNzwcn).
Although we have been in Bay Area for many years, it was the first time we went to Great America. I am not interested in Adventure park as I don’t enjoy the thrills on the rides and Jia is ok with them. We went in and visited the water park (the small one for kids) as KK still didn’t want to do any ride. I guess he is still too little for those (he said Gondola is scary). He had a lot of fun in the water park especially after he warmed up and went to the small slides many times.
Then around 1 we left to head over to Boonville. I went there before but really didn’t quite know geographically where it was until I need to write this blog. It is north of Santa Rosa and south of Anderson Valley. I knew about Anderson Valley as quite a few wines I like are from there. I have to say the traffic is really bad as we only arrived after almost 5 hours driving, which is crazy with a 3-year-old in the car. Our friend has a really nice house and great outdoor kitchen and pizza oven. We enjoyed a lot making pizzas and hanging out. KK was especially thrilled to see and sit in the tractor from the barn.
The following morning we went to Hendy Woods State Park and hiked in the loop. I am happy that both KK and my mom enjoyed it and Kiki was sleeping when I carried him hiking. Traffic back from Boonville back to South Bay is crazy too, we had to take 580 and then 880 instead of 80 to 101. After the whole trip, even though we got a relaxing night at Boonville, I told J that maybe next time we should stay 2 night and above to consider worthy the trip. It is just way too hard to keep KK in the car for 5 hours drive.
On the way back we stopped by Luther Burbank Home & Gardens to let KK run around a bit and ate our lunch. It is a nice garden and I like how they said on the sign “promoting public understanding of ht relationship between the plant world, humanity and the rest of nature.” KK is still too young to appreciate all these but I hope one day he will see the importance of keeping the balance between humanity and environment.
For Great America, I think we would only go back when KK is over 5-6 as there are other places he can enjoy the waterpark features too.
For Boonville, I look forward to another longer trip in the future as it is too tiring to be stuck in the traffic. I am also looking for friends recommendations around the vineyards around there as it is amazing scenery to drive past some of them.
