Lemongrass Thai Cuisine
109 N McDowell Ave, Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 789-9777

As we perused the menu, the waitress brought us a bowl of styrofoam.  I mean shrimp chips.  In pretty colors.  With dip.  I asked if there was egg (my daughter is quite allergic) and she was sure there was not but offered to show us the box.  She was right but, given they were from a box and the list of artificial food dyes in them was longer than the list of the other ingredients, we asked her to take it away.

We started with the coconut soup, or at least we tried to.

Tom Kha, “coconut soup based seasoned with lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, onions, and carrots.”  $8.50 for a large (ordered with 3 bowls) plus $2 for “prawns.”  It was served with the rest of the meal, not in the 15 minutes or so while we were waiting.  It came with no bowls and the only spoon was a soup spoon, nothing to serve with.

I love coconut soup and order it whenever I get the chance.  Picking out all the pieces of roots and leaves that make up the complex flavors is part of the fun.  Except there weren’t any.  No flavors from them either.  The mushrooms were white button, cut in half, the onions were undercooked slices of plain yellow onion, and the carrots were flavorless and too uniformly cut (with scallops) to be house prepped.  There were at least a fair number of shrimp (does keeping the tails on turn them into prawns?) for the $2.

How do you make coconut soup?  I imagine fresh coconut milk seeped in herbs and spices and tangy from lime.  I don’t know what recipe Lemongrass used but it was something like: open cans of coconut milk, add to pot with several cups of sugar, add vegetables, cook until light gel stage.  I make coconut ice cream with canned coconut milk and the soup was actually sweeter.  Finally, I gave up and asked for fish sauce (which came in a small bowl, tasting mostly of water and salt)  and dumped it, plus the “hot” sauce from Michael’s dish into my soup bowl, but nothing cut through all that sugar.

Unfortunately, I also ordered a peanut sauce dish.  I expect this to be sweet, but it should fundamentally be savory, with complex flavors.  Like the soup, it felt more like dessert.

Pad Peanut Sauce, “stir fried mixed vegetables and fried tofu with peanut sauce.”  $8.50.

More of the same mushrooms, carrots, and onions, plus some welcome nicely cooked green beans, red bell pepper, pod peas, and a bit of raw cabbage.  No sprouts, no chopped peanuts, just some cilantro and a slice of orange.  We knew this version didn’t come with noodles and we asked for all our dishes to be egg free. The sauce was not thick or cloying, like I feared, but the overwhelming flavor was sugar.

We fared a bit better with the other two dishes.  Miriam of course wanted some chicken.

Barbecue Chicken Rice Pot, “vegetarian fried rice, with sliced barbecue chicken on top.”  $10.50.

Miriam loved the soup and tofu (such a sad comparison to when she was a toddler sucking on a piece of ginger pulled from a bowl of soup at a different, better, Thai restaurant) and ate plenty.  She claimed to enjoy this dish but barely touched it.  Michael says the chicken was pretty good, though a little bit–surprise–sweet.

The oddity was the rice.  Since we saw brown rice on the menu we asked if they could use it here, done with no egg.  Yes, we’ll give you steamed brown rice.  We don’t want steamed rice, we said, the menu says stir fried.  They promised they would do it, in a freshly washed pan.  So what did we get? steamed white rice with raisins.  I’m not joking…raisins.  Had I noticed this early enough I would have sent it back.

Michael’s dish was the best of the night, though not for him.

Prig Pow Seafood, “prawns, calamari, mussels, scallops, and sole.  Sauteed with vegetables in dry chili paste.”  $12.95.

Since it was Father’s Day, I encouraged him to order the dish the way he liked it, even if no one else would touch it.  So he asked the waitress (a different one from above) to make it extremely hot.  What followed was a comedy of sorts.  So no spice? she asked.  No, I want spice, make it the way you would for a Thai person, not an American.  So do you want spice or no spice?  Very spicy, he insisted.  He ended up with a nice bowl of seafood, some beans, peas, carrot, and cilantro, in a sweet mildly spicy sauce.  Mild enough for me to pour into my soup and onto my plate.  At least it had a flavor beyond sugar.

Most of the reviews I’ve seen talk about the wonderful friendly service.  Again, I have to wonder if we went to the same restaurant.  The waitresses were nice enough, and always topped up our water, but they messed up the soup and didn’t provide serving utensils for all the dishes (plus included a steak knife with the already sliced chicken). There were no condiments and it took some doing just to get fish sauce.

Our primary waitress laughed, actually laughed, each time we asked for something or made a comment.  I am sure it was just a nervous titter over her English being so poor she didn’t understand us, but my mind couldn’t help interpreting it as rude.  This is how we ended up with things like mild vs hot spices or the disaster which they called rice.  Instead of telling us she didn’t understand, or grabbing the other waitress (which she did at times), she nodded and told us it was fine.

My guess is that other reviewers have both a higher sugar tolerance than we do (it’s the next day and my head is still buzzing) and happened to hit the better dishes but miss the awful ones.  In fairness, it’s a huge menu and we only had 4 dishes.  If we hadn’t had the soup, we probably wouldn’t be panning the place so badly.  The food was cooked well.  The problem was the ingredients.

Menu Pages:

Page 1 – Page 2 – Page 3 – Page 4 – Page 5 – Page 6 – Page 7 – Wine

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Real Doner (Gyro)
307 F St, Petaluma, CA 94952
(707) 765-9555
Open daily: 7 am – 7 pm

Real Doner Counter

I figured I would have hummus and other standard Middle Eastern fare, while my family and the friend who joined us would have meat dishes (the ones reviewers were raving about).  To my dismay though, the owner informed me that they added mayonnaise to the hummus and baba ganoush.  Even a touch of mayo is a no-no because Miriam reacts to the tiniest bit of eggs, including when I eat it.

As we spoke further, I discovered food allergies also ran in her family and she turned out to be very knowledgeable about how to put together substitutes.  I ordered the eggplant salad and falafel but she made me an amazing meal that didn’t feel like second best at all.

Falafel with salad

I got five large beautiful falafels, perfectly cooked in oil that does not see egg or wheat batter, pickled red cabbage, cucumbers, and a lettuce and tomato salad.  My only regret was not getting several containers of the delicious vegan tahini dressing.

Eggplant salad

The menu claims the eggplant salad is pureed, but this one was certainly not.  Perhaps the best eggplant salad I’ve ever had.  Cooked just so with a hint of heat.

Michael ordered the chicken shish kebab and Miriam ate from both our plates.

Chicken shish kebab

Our friend got the Cigarette Borek and some lovely looking bread.

Cigarette Borek

Bread

I didn’t taste the meat or bread dishes but the others liked them very much.

My only complaint about the place is that service is extremely slow.  I think it took about half an hour to get our food after ordering, even though the only other people in there were served a couple minutes after we arrived.  Everything is made to order and is extremely fresh, but I hope they find a way to speed things up without cutting corners.  The long wait is part of why I haven’t been back yet, though the food is calling to me.

Menu, outer page

Menu, inner page

Reviews:

Chowhound Places
Chowhound: Real Doner (Gyro) is destination worthy … amazing great
Chowhound: Real Gyro Re-Opens

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

So this year we decided to go to Gourmet Garden, a non-chain Japanese/Chinese/American buffet with a smaller selection at half the price.  The real plus? it’s 3 miles from our house.

Gourmet Garden Buffet
100 S. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 778-3899
http://www.gourmetgardenbuffet.com/
Open: 7 days, Lunch 11am-4pm, Dinner 4pm-9pm
Party room, party trays, and takeout available
Lunch $8.29 (kids 6-10 $5.79, kids 2-5 $3.79)
Dinner (M-Th) $11.99 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Dinner (F 4-9pm, Sat, Sun, Holiday all day) $12.49 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Kids under 2 free, Seniors over 65 10% off

We went once before and I came away disappointed, so was reluctant to go again.  On this trip, I realized I had misremembered.  The food is actually pretty good.  Everything is made fresh and tastes like something you’d get in a home kitchen.  The disappointment was simply that most of the food has meat or egg or both and that doesn’t leave much I can eat.  There are several safe dishes to be sure, but not the full variety you expect from a buffet.

Let’s start with the sushi.  At Gourmet Garden, the sushi station is the heart and soul of the place.

Raymond the sushi chef

A young smiling man (his picture doesn’t do him justice) named Raymond creates both standard and masterful sushi and sashimi dishes with the few ingredients he has in front of him. Unfortunately, each and every one of the sushi pieces has wasabi mayonnaise, which means Miriam poison (eggs).

Raymond though is more than happy to make sushi to order.  He offered Miriam a vegetable maki roll but she said nope, she wanted one with raw fish, and chose the salmon.  He also made me a maki roll with eel and pickled turnip and some salmon nigiri (there’s a sushi FAQ with pictures so you can sound as educated as I do).

Salmon nigiri sushi and shrimp dumplings

Sushi is my favorite part of these buffets and it’s hard not to just be able to choose what I want and put it on my plate (some of the creations were just gorgeous too).  So I limited myself to 3 special orders (16 small pieces, which Miriam ate several of) and enjoyed the rest of the food offerings.

My usual way of working a buffet is to grab an employee (not a server, as they rarely know anything about the food) and get a rundown of what is and isn’t safe for me to eat.  Unfortunately, not a single one of the buffet workers I asked spoke English.  Several of them spoke Spanish (which I also speak) but were only guessing about the food ingredients.

Raymond to the rescue again.  He knew how every dish was made.  He was so knowledgeable, in fact, that I asked if he owned the restaurant.  No, he’s just the sushi chef, but he goes through the kitchen to see how all the food is made and then retains it all somehow.  After I got permission to take his picture for my review, he asked me to tell my readers that he’s looking to find a young American girlfriend.  A sweet man who knows how to cook, not a bad catch.

Plate of sushi and hot foods

I ended up with several plates of good food.  Above we have (from top and clockwise): salt & pepper shrimp (very good but messy), green beans (moderately spiced), seaweed salad (one of my favorites), family style tofu (I had a craving for braised cabbage as we drove to the restaurant and this dish satisfied it, the tofu was cooked perfectly too), eel maki, and shrimp with vegetables.

On the plate below we have: steamed cod (the only miss of the night…it was cooked adequately but was too bland, it would have be good with a spicy sauce or mixed into another dish), broiled oysters (delicious if you get them fresh and choose the bigger juicier ones), and more family style tofu.

Plate of oysters, fish, and tofu

Miriam asked for, surprise surprise, chicken and I found two she could eat: teriyaki and 5 spice. She also had noodles, sushi, fruit, and several pieces of marinated sashimi, before deciding it was too spicy.

Miriam polishing off several plates of food

I didn’t ask about dairy but I suspect most of the dishes were dairy-free.  There was cheese in the salad bar and butter in some of the American dishes. I didn’t bother to ask about gluten either.  Though, except for the noodles and dumplings, I would guess that the only gluten we ate was soy sauce (which was in almost every hot dish).  A few choices were breaded but they all had egg in them so we didn’t eat them anyway.

Because it’s a buffet and you can ignore rice and other starches, you can eat here lowcarb.  Sashimi, seaweed, vegetables, tofu, a salad bar, meat, and soups.  Some of the sauces might be a bit on the carby side for those who need to keep their carb counts way down. Vegetarians have good choices too with a lot of the lowcarb items plus rice, noodles, vegetable sushi, and bread.

All of the desserts appeared to have dairy and eggs and wheat.  They had some (out of season) fresh fruit and several canned fruits including lychees.

Fruit bowls

The restaurant is all on one level with easy wheelchair access to tables an the buffet area.  The buffet stations themselves are a bit hard to reach from a sitting position, but no worse than any salad bar.  Nothing was burning inside and there was no noticeable propane or other smells, aside from the yummy food.  We did not check out the bathrooms.

With some careful navigation, Gourmet Garden can accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions.  For those with none, you’ll find a decent variety of hot and cold dishes, all fresh and inviting.

(Note: Prices & website updated as of 9/18/09.)

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Namaste Cafe
1390 No McDowell Blvd., Ste, A
Petaluma CA 94954
(707) 664-9245

Open Monday through Saturday – Lunch 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, Dinner 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Lunch buffet is $8.95 ($5 for kids) and dinner entrees run around $9-14.  Lunch buffet $8.95 ($5 for children).

My brother and his girlfriend got two chicken dishes, tandoori and tikka masala ($14), both of which they liked very much.  Miriam had some too and kept asking for more of the masala sauce spooned over rice.

Chicken Tandoori

Tikka masala is a protein of choice buried in a fragrant fenugreek sauce.  Tandoori has no sauce at all and the protein is baked in a clay oven then served on a sizzling hot platter with some vegetables.  Michael and I got the mahi mahi tandoori and the fish was ever so slightly underdone, but still flaky and flavorful.  That iron platter stayed hot for the entire meal and the vegetables left behind burned.  At that point it occurred to me is what we should have done is to have let it cook for a couple more minutes then quickly transferred it all to our plates.

Mahi Mahi Tandoori

I asked the staff about egg in their food and, fortunately for us, they don’t use very much.  Only in the naan (bread).  They told me most of their dishes have cream added and all of their breads are wheat-based.  Because Miriam and I can both get away with occasional dairy and gluten, I didn’t worry about it.  But another reviewer mentioned getting dishes made without cream, so it seems dairy-free is possible.

We started off with complementary crackers and a tamarind dipping sauce.  They were light and crispy but had little flavor, despite being studded with spices.

Cousins eating crackers

We got ourselves some roti, which is a plain wheat grilled bread (we ordered it without butter, which is how it usually comes) but that turned out to be a mistake.  It was rather plain but hardened up just enough so you couldn’t soak up sauces with it.  The basmati rice with peas ($1.50) was delicious.  My brother’s family ordered aloo paratha ($3) which was a baked flatbread with potatoes and spices and raved about it all night.

Michael’s and my other dish was channa amchaur, a beautifully spiced chickpea dish with enough sauce to justify eating the perfect (but carby) rice.  I could have easily finished the bowl of it myself.

Chickpeas, rice, and bread

Michael had an Indian beer and my brother some chai tea.  We all skipped dessert.

The inside of the restaurant is warm and inviting with no scents except for the lovely ones coming from the kitchen.  Because the place is small, there is a single door to the outside and no way to sit away from the drafts.  It was cold outside and we had to wear our jackets during the meal to stay warm.  In summer it wouldn’t matter, and it has been unseasonably cold here (30′s and 40′s at night).  I didn’t check out the restroom.  The dining area is wheelchair accessible.

I do look forward to coming again but next time I want to try the lunch buffet.  Hopefully it will have more of those chickpeas.

Namaste Dinner

Other Reviews:

Chowhound Places
Chowhound Review Dec 2007
Chowhound Review May 2008

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Peterson’s Farm
636 Gossage Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952
ettamarie@petersonsfarm.com
http://www.petersonsfarm.com/

The Peterson Farm as viewed from our driveway

Yes, we are lucky enough to live across the street from a small, working, chemical-free farm.  In a mere 6 acres, Ettamarie and Ray Peterson manage to raise hundreds of pumpkins (including several delicious varieties, not just ornamental ones), fresh eggs, glorious raw honey, and a few miscellaneous things depending on the season.

Naturally, we always get our Halloween pumpkins here.  This year they graced our Sukkah too.  They make good pie when they’re done being pretty.

Cyndi & Miriam pick out pumpkins

Neighbors wander in as needed for a carton of eggs or a jar of honey but this isn’t an attraction you can just drive over to: make an appointment first.  Mostly, they host school groups.  The joyous noise of children discovering their perfect pumpkin floats through our windows all October.

Peterson's Farm barn

There is a picnic area.

Peterson's Farm picnic area

And a large barn for workshops and classes.

Peterson's Farm Barn Interior

But what Peterson’s Farm is famous for is Ettamarie and her bees.  Here she is showing off a real hive inside a glass display case (there is a hose off to the right, through the window, that lets the bees go outside as desired).

Ettamarie Peterson & her bees

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This year, a first-night seder on April 19, 2008, wasn’t the most stressful, but it was the weirdest.  All the food came out well but, otherwise, everything that could have gone wrong did.

I always find dietary and other restrictions to be a challenge (in a fun competitive sense) and I pride myself on creating a safe space for all of my guests, with food they can eat (perhaps not everything, but a decent meal).  But this year pushed me to the brink.

We had our own restrictions: no meat, nothing that Miriam is allergic to (she can get sick from crumbs and I want her to have a few days a year with other people where she can eat anything she wants), no chemical products on the guests, etc, but they’re seamless for us.  And we can still have a full seder.

(In foreground: matzoh plate next to my seat; in background: the main table with Miriam (brown dress), her Aunties Connie and Jan (holding babies), 3 other friends, and Grandma Julie standing at right.  The note on the door to our bedroom warns people not to open it, since that’s where the kitties spent the evening.)

This year, due to medical issues with guests, we had to leave the doors and windows wide open but couldn’t turn on the heat, we couldn’t light our candles (beeswax even), we couldn’t take photographs (except when the reactive guest left the room, so my food and other photos are lacking), we had two guests who invited themselves at the last minute (and one arrived scented and had to scramble to change clothes and wash-up), dinner was completely out of order and late, we had 4 (yes, four) cancellations the day of the seder, there were 2 guests who simply didn’t show up (medical emergency and they had a bad email address for me), oh and we nearly killed one guest (her fish allergy, which we always managed to accomodate in the past by being careful, was far worse that day, and we did more last minute cooking than usual, which made for more fumes)

Add to that the fact that I dropped a few of the usual rituals and customs to save time, but then ended up with even more gone due to the above restrictions.  We didn’t start with eating hardboiled eggs like we have in most years, due to Miriam’s allergy.  Two years in a row now I’ve had the idea of using whole walnuts instead, but then I can’t find any.  We skipped the handwashing and didn’t sing a single song.  And the post meal sections got lost entirely.  No Elijah’s cup, which I’m still upset over.  We only did the hunt for the affikomen.  It felt more like a dinner party than a seder.

Oy.

We were supposed to have 20 guests (including 5 children) but, with all the additions and subtractions, we ended up with 16 (including 4 children).  Three were new to our seder (2 had never been to any seder).

We had two tables.  The main one is our regular dining room table.  Michael always sits there, at the end furthest from the kitchen.  Then we move a buffet and desk back to add another table.  I always sit at this one, in the chair nearest the kitchen (behind the wood doors to the right).

(Main table to left has Grandma Julie (white shirt) and 2 friends; secondary table has my cousin Sara next to Miriam (visiting from the other table) and 3 friends)

Ritual Foods:

Oat flour matzoh
Horseradish
Parsley
Wine
Grape juice
Charoset
Salt water
Roasted beet (an ancient alternative to a roasted lamb shank)
Roasted egg

(Seder Plate: Parsley, horseradish root, roasted egg, roasted beet, salt water, charoset)

Dinner Menu:

Beet borscht
Gefilte fish
Mushroom and olive compote
Baked yams
Pan seared roasted halibut with rosemary
Drinks: Wine (red & white), grape juice, water, seltzer, lemon slices
Dessert: Macadamia Nut Torte

(Connie offers a toast)

(Sara gets Miriam some yams, as a friend looks on)

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Fortunately, we discovered the Boys and Girls Club. They are national, and Petaluma alone has 10 clubhouses. We used the main Petaluma location:

Boys & Girls Club Petaluma
Lucchesi Park Clubhouse
203 Maria Dr., Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 769-5322
http://www.petalumabgc.org/

This is a large building with several function rooms, a gymnasium, a commercial kitchen, a teen room, and a central space with game tables. Most are for rent by the hour. We chose the multi-purpose room, which is quite large, with plenty of tables and chairs. There are lights and electrical outlets, but no water. Bathrooms are across the hall. The kitchen is a couple rooms down.

(Miriam watching her friends play musical chairs)

The cost? $40/hour for the room and $10/hour for a staff person to be on site. We chose Sunday, March 2, 2008, and had the place completely to ourselves. These folks are very accommodating. I didn’t even have to negotiate but they gave us kitchen privileges and an extra half hour before and after the party at no additional cost. They even allowed us to have the gym as a backup for the piñata if the weather was bad. So, for a two hour party and an hour of setup/cleanup, the total was $110 (2 hours for the room, 3 hours for the staff person).

One wrinkle: to rent the space, you must provide a liability insurance waiver. If you have homeowner’s insurance (or possibly renter’s insurance), you simply go to your provider and they give you the waiver for next to nothing. But ours said they didn’t do that. The only other solution was to go with the independent insurance the club recommended. But they wanted $175!! For a two-hour children’s party! Others were similar.

After a day or two of sheer panic, we simply switched homeowner’s insurance companies. We ended up saving hundreds of dollars a year on our premium and the waiver cost a whopping $4.

(Miriam in background with her cousin Jaiden. In front, from left, Aunt Kim, cousin Kalea, cousin Stephanie, Grandma Julie)

A rare trait among public buildings: The Boys and Girls Club doesn’t use pesticides or herbicides inside or outside. They also don’t have air fresheners. (The director couldn’t understand why anyone would consider using stuff like this around kids.) When I went during the week to check it out, the bathrooms and other rooms had little to no scent at all (except for some paint smell in the art room). It was very nice.

The day of the party though, the whole place had a mild but persistent cleaning chemical scent. We opened the windows in the party room and wiped down the tables (they were thick with cleaning residues) with our own cleaner. This made a big difference and the chemically sensitive among us survived.

It’s important to me to be able to provide my own food (too many allergies to risk it) and that was no problem here. Just no alcohol (you can…but it costs extra). And I liked having our own games and other activities, not orchestrated by staff or a preset menu of options.

Partway into the party, some of the older kids (age 6 or so) told me they were bored (they loved the games I had but they weren’t nonstop so they didn’t know what to do with themselves). I resisted the urge to fix it and entertain them. I expressed sympathy and told them what was coming up and went to work on something else. Before I even turned back around, they had discovered the crayons I brought and a stack of paper plates make great fun.

The one thing I wasn’t crazy about with the rental is that you’re required to clean up, or you forfeit all or part of your hefty deposit (ours was $400). That sounds reasonable in theory…until you’re rushing to get folks outside for a piñata (without them going home) and, in addition to picking up, wiping off food residue, and putting the chairs back, you have to scrub all the tables, vacuum the floor (they loaned us a vacuum), and even take out the trash (hey, at least they didn’t make us clean the bathrooms, though I was required to check them). I would have gladly paid the staff person another $5 for a half hour of cleaning, but it wasn’t an option. On the bright side, I totally forgot to take out the trash (it was all in one bag in the can) and they didn’t ding us for it.

The club had some nice outdoor space too. Since it was a gorgeous day, we had our piñata outside. It was a huge errr…hit.

All in all, I was happy with the space. The room fit our needs perfectly. I would have preferred another hour though (people showed up late so there wasn’t enough time to do everything; we skipped present opening and held the piñata bash after the official end time). From an MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) perspective, it was a decent choice, though I’d look into the possibility of providing them with some cleaning products ahead of time for a larger event.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

That’s right, an hour drive turned into a 13 hour trip. Despite the nasty weather, Miriam and I drove to San Francisco yesterday around noon. The rain was pounding and visibility was pretty awful, so we drove slowly. Plus a piece of Park Presidio (a major road in SF) was shut and the detour added a few minutes. Still, we felt lucky to make it in just an hour and a half.

As I got ready to go home in the evening, I promised my hosts I would call 511 (local traffic advisory, also at 511.org) before leaving, but of course I forgot. Shortly after crossing the Golden Gate, I heard on the radio that highway 101 (which I was on) was closed at the Novato Narrows (inbetween where I was and my house). I pulled off at an exit and called 511 to verify. Yep. Highway closed, travellers advised to avoid the area and take alternate routes.

Only there are no alternate routes. To the east you can take highway 37 to Lakeville highway (about 40 min detour with normal traffic) but Lakeville is a fast, dangerous (1 lane in each direction, no divider), rural road in the best of conditions, and it was still pouring rain with little visibility. And it turns out that 37 was flooded near 101 too (the news reports say they were able to divert traffic this way, but it took 2 hours!). To the west you can go through Novato and take Novato Blvd to the Petaluma Pt Reyes road to the D Street Extension into Petaluma (also about 40 mins extra) but it is dark, rural, and I had no way of knowing if it was even open.

Because the 101 closure happened at the north end of Novato, the next town up was Petaluma, about 12 miles away, with the next exit maybe 5 miles up. In a prolonged emergency, they could have routed northbound traffic (the only one affected by the flooding, though southbound flooded and closed elsewhere) into the southbound lanes. And maybe they did, but the radio and 511 didn’t say and the flashing sign they set up before the closure just said it was closed. (The news says the entire freeway had to be closed and no lanes were usable.)

So Miriam and I drove to a friend’s empty house in Novato (after getting gas and picking up the keys in San Rafael) and spent the night. Miriam managed to sleep through all of this. She was out maybe 5 mins after leaving our friend’s house in SF and didn’t wake up until I brought her inside. And what an angel. Not only was she polite and sweet (though needy) during my hours of helping a friend pack, but she woke right up in Novato and helped me traipse around the house looking for sheets.

We woke up this morning and the rain had stopped and the highway was open (though highway 37 and some others are still closed). At the place where the closure was reported, I could see why…the huge (multiple acres) lake to the east there must have overflowed its banks. Only there isn’t a lake there, just pasture. Most of the year anyway.

We got home at 9:30am, about 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. Thank God for cell phones and generous friends. It could have been a lot worse.

News:

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: Deluge closes 101 at county line

“As the water rose, freeway traffic was able to get by in single lanes, but by 8 p.m. the CHP was forced to close the highway entirely. Traffic was reported to be backed up for miles at times in both directions. Eventually, Highway 101 was closed between Petaluma and Atherton in Marin. Vehicles were stalled in water and had to be towed out”

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: More showers on the way

“The Friday evening commute on Highway 101 turned to disastrous gridlock when the San Antonio Creek overflowed south of Petaluma. The highway, which was closed at 8 p.m., finally was opened to traffic at 5 a.m. this morning.”

Marin Independent Journal, Jan 25, 2008: Marin reels as slow storm keeps ‘pumping rain’

Drivers in both directions were diverted to Highway 37 and Sonoma County side roads, said Officer Tom Stewart of the California Highway Patrol. A drive time of more than 2 hours was reported between Novato and Petaluma.”

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.