Schulz Museum and more in Santa Rosa

On Sunday, we wedding guests gathered for a casual Sunday brunch at the (still beautiful) Lancaster Estate house.

After brunch, a small group of us (Di Yin, I, G, A, and someone else) who were heading back to the bay area decided to have some fun together on the way back. I advocated (persuasively as it turned out) to stop by the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, the first town we pass through on the way home. I took some pictures at the museum.

I enjoyed most of the exhibits in the Schulz Museum. One large exhibit downstairs showed how Peanuts educated readers about science and nature, spotlighting series of strips that explain gardening, glowing, seeding, bird migration, trees, eclipses, weather, and more. It never occurred to me that this was a conscious part of Schulz's work, but apparently it was. I wonder how much I learned from Peanuts. Schulz also made drawings (with Peanuts characters but not part of the strip) for the E.P.A.

I also particularly liked a display asking which character, which personalities, are you most like. I decided I was most like Schroeder or Linus, though I could identify with Shermy for his famous haircut line.

Another exhibit showed how Peanuts and Schulz's drawing style evolved over the years. It's not just how the characters' appearance changed; even the look of the speech balloons, the perspective of the frame (what angle it seems the viewer is looking at the scene from), and the setting changed dramatically between his early and later work. For instance, in early cartoons, the kids sit on a curb and talk; in later strips, they stand by a wall. (Schulz realized that kids sitting on a curb was dangerous and that he shouldn't show them sitting on a curb in case the characters are taken as role models.) Also, in early strips there were adult legs and off-stage voices. These went by the wayside. In addition, some characters and relatives got dropped, such as Snoopy's family. In short, comparing the visual style and setting and characters over the years reveals a remarkable change that's somehow almost invisible on a month-to-month basis.

Exhibits upstairs in the museum were more historical, presenting biographical information on Schulz, showing intermediate sketches of the process of making a strip, discussing Schulz's influences, and displaying pictures from his life. The museum even included two parts of Schulz's home: a wall of his living room and full model of his studio, including his bookshelves. A final area upstairs showed how Peanuts characters have been developed into products and marketed over the years.

The museum aside, Santa Rosa goes all out for its homegrown star. One brochure I picked up has a map of the numerous Peanuts statues all around town. Next time I'm in the area maybe I'll detour to see some.

After the museum, we continued onward, regrouping again at a winery. We sampled wines and partook of the wide variety of snacks G provided. Sorry I don't remember the name of the winery.

Lancaster Estate Winery Wedding, Healdsburg

Di Yin and I went to Healdsburg over the weekend from Friday, October 1, 2010, through Sunday, October 3, 2010, for a wedding. Healdsburg is north of San Francisco, in the wine country that is Sonoma County. (Particularly, it's considered part of the Russian River communities.)

Two long-time friends of ours (M and M) were getting married (password protected wedding website).

We drove up Friday afternoon for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We were considered part of the wedding party because Di Yin was officiating the ceremony! (She's a long-time friend of both of them and actually helped introduce them to each other.)

The rehearsal dinner was in Healdsburg, the closest town, at the California cuisine restaurant Barndiva. It was a tasty meal among the couple's relatives, eaten outdoors at a lovely, long, wooden table.

Saturday was the wedding itself, an extravagant affair. The wedding was in high style, like a "tripped-out Mercedes" (as described by the groom). Both the wedding and reception were held on the grounds of the Lancaster Estate winery. The wedding literally was on the ground--it was outdoors in the dirt overlooking the valley filled with grape vines.

Incidentally, I took a handful of pictures of the estate, of the reception, and at the wedding.

Di Yin excellently officiated the ceremony. The script she came up with in collaboration with the couple was great, funny, and sweet, and filled with history and context about how the two met and how the relationship evolved.

The reception was in the incredible house built on a ridge in the winery's grounds. The house has great views in both directions, and it's narrow so that windows placed on opposite sides of each room enable one to enjoy both views in one place.

The wedding dinner was served family-style among groups of four. (Rectangular tables were set for eight, so each end received one copy of every dish.) The meal was delicious--I think at the time I claimed it was the best meal I had outside of China that entire year. The menu included a pear salad, a beet salad, an amazingly succulent roasted duck breast, grilled halibut, and Thai-style eggplant that was perhaps one of the best eggplant dishes I've ever eaten.

Also, needless to say, the wines served over the course of the meal and the evening were excellent. After all, what kind of couple has a wedding at a winery? A couple that loves wine. None of the wines, if I recall, were from this winery. In fact, they bought cases of their favorite wines from all over Sonoma and Napa to serve at the wedding. And there certainly was ample wine--they knew that if there were any leftover, they'd take the bottles home and that ain't bad! ;)

After dinner, we headed down to the winery's wine cave for dancing and dessert! It was a cool location (in both senses). The cave and the lighting therein made for a fun atmosphere. The temporarily installed dance floor was small, but this wasn't a problem--we simply spilled into the adjacent halls in the cave. During breaks, I looked around the cave and discovered an exclusive tasting/storage room that had display shelving of one bottle from every year the winery existed (except for a year or two where they accidentally sold every single bottle).

The most shocking thing about the hors d'oeuvre, the meal and the desserts is not obvious: the groom has severe dietary restrictions (for starters: lactose-intolerant, allergic to garlic), but you'd never know it from the quality and variety of the food. And he could eat everything they served.