First a little background: Consider this Season Two of Adventure Saturday. Season One was about four years ago and it was a video blog of my various "Saturday" adventures. I shot about six episodes, but I could never find a narrative that I liked in all that footage. It's probably something I'll throw on the website Archives section before too long. In the first season I visited Central Idaho for fishing on the Salmon River, Boot Jack Trail out of Muir Woods in Marin, Land's End Trail in San Francisco, Butano State Park near Pescadero, and took an Alaskan Cruise.
I always liked the idea of Adventure Saturday though and I recently realized that I was still going on these Saturday adventures even if I wasn't filming them. So I decided to continue the idea via blog. And now that you're caught up... on with Season Two.
This last Saturday, my brother and I decided to travel to far away Santa Rosa (60 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge) for a visit to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Neither of us had ever been to the Museum, so it was going to be a first time adventure for both of us.
Unfortunately we got off to a slow start on Saturday and by the time we reached our usual Marin breakfast place at The Bayside Cafe in Sausalito/Marin City, the restaurant parking lot was full. I had to skip my wonderful waffle and bacon and try to enjoy a McDonald's breakfast burrito at the nearby Seminary Drive location - definitely not an even exchange. However, we used the time at McDonalds to wisely download the directions to the museum onto our smart phones. And then, once we were done eating, off we went.
Depending on the traffic, driving north through Marin can either be a delight or a pain in the ass. Most Saturday's, however, its usually a nice drive. That was definitely the case this Saturday as it took us only a little over an hour to cover the 60 miles to Santa Rosa. Once off the exit, it was easy to follow the signs to the Museum which is located about ten blocks from the freeway.
The Museum is actually three buildings and two different parking areas. The first building you come to is a gift shop with all things Peanuts related. The second building is the Redwood Empire Ice Skating Rink that also houses the Warm Puppy coffee shop. In between these two buildings is the first parking area which mostly serves the ice skaters that are coming to the rink. The third building houses the museum itself and there is a museum specific parking lot behind the museum. All parking is free.
The Museum is two stories tall and has a courtyard in back and a garden/maze out front. Inside the museum there is a theater that shows Peanuts related cartoons all day long and also serves as a meeting space for guest speakers and artists. There is also a small museum specific gift shop off the main lobby. The rest of the museum is devoted entirely to the Peanuts and to its creator, Charles Schulz.
The first floor of the museum has a couple of rotating galleries of Peanuts strips as they relate to particular topics. On our trip, the first gallery was showing The Peanuts and Women In Sports, which covered how Charles Schulz and the Peanuts gang were strong advocates of Title IX and other women in sports. The second gallery was all about the Peanuts and Travel showing all the various strips where Snoopy went on visits to places all over the world and what prompted the travel.
The second floor of the museum is devoted to the life of Charles Schulz. In addition to the creation of the Peanuts, there is an excellent timeline of his life, many displays of the influences on his career, and finally, his entire office is preserved for you to see. The man had an excellent library.
There is a short film on the first floor that talks about the creation of the museum, but also gives some interesting facts on the daily life of Charles Schulz in Santa Rosa. He used to eat breakfast at the Warm Puppy Cafe and then go back to his house to work before heading back to the cafe for lunch and for a chance to watch the ice skaters on the rink. He also started and hosted an International Seniors Hockey Tournament every year and usually participated with his own team. This year the Tournament will draw over 50 teams from all over the world!
For lunch, I walked over to the Ice Skating Rink and went to the Warm Puppy Cafe and ordered a Tuna Fish sandwich - just like Charles Schulz used to eat every single day. There was a table still reserved for this kind and gentle genius. Outside the ice skating rink and cafe, many of the top ice skaters in the world have been invited to sign their name in the cement. It was fun to walk around the rink and find all the names of my favorites.
The entire museum would have taken all day to go through. Each of the strips are the normal original artwork size - about 1 by 3 feet and certainly easy enough to read. There are hundreds of them and plenty of information behind their design, and back story. That and all those wonderful Peanuts specials playing in the theater and you could easily get lost in Peanuty goodness. We decided to save something for our next visit.
The drive back was just as pleasant and we ended our Adventure Saturday with a nice drive down the Great Highway.
Next Saturday, we're headed to the Hiller Air Museum on Highway 101 near San Carlos. If you're interested in meeting us there, let me know.
4 comments:
I miss new Peanuts strips. It's the reason I started reading newspapers at about age 8.
Cheers.
Who was that dark haired little girl that used to be mean to the bald one? I liked her. Can't say I read much Peanuts. I am more of a Bizaro fan and of course The Far Side was great too. LOL
Great museum. We were there a couple of years ago. Fun to read many classic Peanuts strips.
If you're going back up to Santa Rosa in late March or early April, come see Cheryl and me at Dillon Beach - a short detour from Santa Rosa. Or just come up to DB for your Saturday adventure. We'll be working on our place out there, so don't be surprised if we put a paint brush in your hand.
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