Petaluma, CA
Petaluma's airport diner since 1991, closed for a stretch and reopened by the founders' son; model planes on the ceiling, soda-fountain milkshakes, and the famous blueberry coffee cake. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8am to 2:30pm; closed Monday and Tuesday. Patio seating right off the ramp.
In Santa Rosa, where Charles Schulz lived and drew Peanuts from 1958 until his death in 2000. The museum has original strips, his recreated studio with the actual drawing board, the wood-paneled office where he worked alone every day for over 50 years. Schulz was an aviation enthusiast — he drew Snoopy's Sopwith Camel WWI Flying Ace fantasies. The KSTS terminal has a giant bronze Snoopy on his Sopwith. Visit the museum, then cross the road to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena — Schulz's "Warm Puppy Cafe" still serves the same chocolate-chip cookies he ate every morning.
The world's most famous wine region from the air — 30 miles of valley between two mountain ranges, neat geometric vineyards stretching to the horizon. The Robert Mondavi mission-style winery, Castello di Amorosa (a full-scale 13th-century Italian castle replica, 2007), the Napa Valley Wine Train. Yountville (with three of California's 14 Michelin three-star restaurants — including The French Laundry) is the gourmet capital. The Mayacamas to the west and Vaca Mountains to the east frame the valley. Especially gorgeous at harvest (September-October) when leaves turn red and gold.
The foggiest spot on the Pacific Coast and one of the most dramatic lighthouses in California. Point Reyes juts 10 miles into the ocean — a triangular wedge of land carved off the continent by the San Andreas Fault. Tomales Bay, the long thin water cut to the east, sits directly on the fault line. The entire peninsula rides the Pacific Plate and is creeping north toward Alaska at about 2 inches a year. The 1906 earthquake shifted the peninsula 20 feet in a single morning — a fence in nearby Olema famously offset by exactly that distance, still preserved as evidence. The lighthouse was built in 1870 at the tip of the headland, with 308 stairs down a sheer cliff because the cliff-top was almost always above the fog layer. Crews logged more than 1,400 hours of fog per year — twice San Francisco's average. Decommissioned 1975, now an NPS museum. Original first-order Fresnel lens still installed.
One of the world's most iconic skylines from the air. The Golden Gate Bridge (International Orange paint, 1.7-mile span, opened 1937) is unmistakable. Alcatraz sits in the bay. The financial district's pyramid (Transamerica) and Salesforce Tower anchor downtown. The Bay's GA-friendly vantages are over Marin (Sausalito and the headlands to the north) and the Presidio (south of the bridge). The bridge towers stand 746ft above the water — dramatic from any angle.