On The Road: Small Towns In California

Small towns are so cute. Not only that, they are often the subject of songs, movies and books. Small town mysteries. Love affairs on sweltering summer nights. Young girls among the golden fields of corn, dreaming of a life of stardom. Etc.

Also, just really cute.

I could go on, but here is one I want to share with you: Boonville, CA. Population about 1,000.

I was driving back out towards the coast, radio up, window down, thinking about how I want to make an art project about small towns in the United States.

The drive through Northern California is gorgeous – and I was on the 128, which takes you into Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, offering green farmlands, redwood trees, coastal bluffs with shimmering blue, and vineyards and wine tasting.

I drove directly into Boonville, since Highway 128 runs through the center of town and becomes the town’s “Main St”. 

Travel tip: If you walk through town, taking pictures, it gives you a whole new way of seeing and interacting with the environment. It’s interesting to look for views and scenes that you want to photograph, and you come away from it with a completely different relationship with the town than if you had just driven through and noticed how attractive the place seems. I parked the car by the side of the road, in the shade of a tree. Since it wouldn’t take very long, my plan was to walk down one side of the street to the end of town, take some pictures, and then turn around and come back down the other side of the street.

It was hard to get out of the car, because I was rocking out to the song that was playing, so I let the song finish while trucks went by on the highway, before I got out and walked down the road.

 

There are a number of wine tasting spots in Boonville, since this is in Anderson Valley, otherwise known as wine country. Wine, beautiful surroundings, sunny day. Yay! What more could you want? Don’t answer that. Sometimes we are endless pits of wants and desires, so just forget I even asked, and check out this wine tasting sign:

Why too cute?!

I got an organic blueberry banana yogurt smoothie from here, which at almost seven dollars didn’t taste enough like any of those previously mentioned items, yet was still refreshing and kind of perfect for a hot day and a long drive, and plus I was relishing in the environment, so in the end, what the hell. I was happy!