A Day in Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa, CA, September 29, 2009: Across from the city hall is the Vatican of American horticulture, the home and gardens of Luther Burbank. He developed over 800 varieties of plants, including the Shasta daisy, the russet Burbank potato (a/k/a Idaho potato) and the Santa Rosa plum.

A Shasta daisy with bee (l); Burbank's spineless cactus is still going strong:

Burbank is buried in this corner of his front yard:









We walked around the nearby One Tree Church, constructed of lumber from one redwood tree:
A watershed monument (r) lies along Santa Rosa Creek where we saw a snowy egret (l):

Santa Rosa is home to the Charles M. Schulz Museum, which is inexplicably closed on Tuesdays. The gift shop never closes! The cartoonist Charles M. Schulz created Peanuts and lived in Santa Rosa for over 30 years.

In 1969, Schulz opened the Redwood Empire Ice Arena a/k/a Snoopy's Home Ice, which is conveniently located between the museum and the gift shop!

A webcam capture of us on the Snoopy bench (above):

Santa Rosa's depot was featured in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. The historic Hotel la Rose sits across the street.