r/sonoma

My husband and I left Sonoma, the city, a year ago. We live in the Northeast now.

There were some great things about sonoma. A couple restaurants, an amazing taco truck, some cool people I met. But in general, it was a terrible town and even though I've lived in places that were very poor, run down, and affected by both systemic oppression and gentrification, Sonoma was by far the worst place I've ever lived.

I could go into it. Everything is way overpriced, way more expensive than San Francisco. There's a lot of Boomer drama. The summer weather is uniformly absolutely terrible. The apartment complex we lived in was in shambles and it seemed there was constant illegal and dangerous stuff going on. Extremely incompetent police. Very little outreach for young people. Schools shutting down. It was by far the most dangerous and most expensive place I've ever lived.

Now we live in the Northeast. It's kind of humid here right now, but that only lasts about a month up here and everything is still green and beautiful. It's way easier to get healthcare. We can afford to live. The Atlantic Ocean is gorgeous. We have more space. The weather is way better. There isn't one time of year when it's not 10 out of 10 beautiful.

I'm originally from California, and I missed the redwoods and my friends and family. I miss the food. But life here is of such better quality that I can't imagine I'd ever go back.

If you're tired of Sonoma's socioeconomic shit show and the day drunk boomers and watching white people claim they're not racist while treating the Latinos in town like they're invisible and the violent crime outside of the "nice" neighborhoods and the passive crim inside the "nice" neighborhoods, I recommend moving. We're so much happier. SO. MUCH. HAPPIER.

I just wanted to offer hope to anybody they're wondering if life is better somewhere else, if the grass is indeed greener. And it is! It's not like we don't run into problems here but it's so much better. I'm so grateful. It's okay to leave! Do it!

This isn't to dis the people of sonoma. There were a lot of wonderful people I befriended. But oh my God am I so much happier to be gone from there. I love where I live. We thought about it long and hard and we chose right.

(cross posted )
I wanted to come up to the Russian river go kayaking for a few days, and was kind of surprised at how pricy the camping and accommodations are (I’m looking on Hipcamp), and some of the places don’t have two consecutive days.

I would love to stay on a farm!
Does anyone know of any farm stay type of situations? Or good camping suggestions, perhaps there’s something I’m missing.

I do have two little dogs-

(and if not a farm stay, farms that are open to visit)

thanks!