with so much uncertainty these days, The challenge to stay motivated has led to creativity.

First, restaurants closed and no one was meeting together for dinner parties but this has slowly changed again. Now restaurants are open with social distancing and limited capacities. Meeting friends on the street or in the backyard has become the norm. Ways of doing things have changed and now we’re doing things we would have never imagined doing before the pandemic. How long everything will be open, well, who knows.

Even keeping up with writing a simple blog gets tricky as the rules keep changing, different counties have different restrictions and whether a person wants to wear a mask or not varies by personal opinion.

Work environments have not only been challenging but dealing with homeschooled kids whether you’ve wanted to or not has been challenging for parents. All this is causing so much uncertainty, making things confusing and simply put; unmotivating.

What a time to take a break from it all.

Much to my surprise, we’ve been getting a lot of long term requests for stays at the Sonoma Wine Nest for the entire summer and even longer. Maybe a change of scenery is really what people are looking for right now as we are dealing with this whole pandemic and emotional toll on our social justice system right now. Considering, all this might take a lot more than just a few days for us to unwind, unlike a weekend getaway used to.

Regardless, while businesses try to figure it out, the work force gets creative while working from home.

Maybe it’s the ability of being close to the countryside, having a backyard deck with a BBQ or visiting a small town; the quest for longer stays is on at the Nest.

If I were to stay a while which we did think about, these are the things we would be doing while working from home (WFH) in Sonoma County.

Hike Any of the State Parks

between breaks…

There is such a bountiful amount of parks in Sonoma County. Above is Foothill Park just down the street from our home: the Sonoma Wine Nest.

What a great way to take a break. There are numerous parks with biking trails, picnic tables and fishing. If you can get out to take a walk, you can choose what type of hiking trails fits your ability either between Beginning, Medium and Advanced trails. There is a trail for everyone.

If you like the beach, there are plenty of parks along the coast. If you like the Forest, there are trails for the most incredible redwood tree hikes, walks or biking.

Drive to the Ocean

after the conference call….

If you’re up for a drive and want to take a day or even just the afternoon off, why not visit the ocean? We drove to Bodega Bay and played golf last year. For us, a visit to the coast was visiting a nice golf course.

If you like eating oysters and other seafood, there are plenty of places to sit overlooking the ocean from casual to fine dining. Whether you like to take a drive, grab a bite, hike, walk or just hang out on the beach, you can pretty much choose whatever kind of visit to the ocean you’d like.

Pick-up Take-Out and Picnic

on your lunch break…

With not a lot of options to sit in a restaurant, we grabbed sandwiches (above) while we were in the Dry Creek Valley and headed to Amphora Winery, a family owned winery that does simple, affordable wines. There is a picnic area nearby along with a few other family wineries just up a small road off the Dry Creek Road. We had been to this winery before but not a lot of us knew about the picnic area across the way. What a treat this was!

With more restaurants doing take-out, what a way to picnic it if you’re in Sonoma County. Are you tired of taking the food back to your home? A lot of people are taking advantage of ordering for pick up to enjoy it at better location in Sonoma County. There are endless places to enjoy your favorite restaurant with the most incredible outdoor views. We saw people sit on the sidewalk in Healdsburg enjoying their lunch now more than ever.

Do Wine Tasting - Outside

for happy hour…

With a lot of wineries scrambling on how to have wine tastings, I’m sure there will be new creative ways to enjoy wine tasting such as at La Crema Estate at Saralee’s. They have a few options including the ability to picnic on their property with a bottle of wine. If you’re going to purchase a bottle anyway, why not have your meal on a vineyard?

Visit a Small Town

to pick up your morning coffee…

Instead of going into these towns to just eat or do a wine tasting, why not just stroll through while going to the bank, picking up paper for your printer or your morning coffee?

When we drove through Sonoma, everything was closed during the quarantine. However, as these towns start to slowly open and commit to Safe-Travels Promise, you can be sure to enjoy these towns that are now open.

What are some ways you’ve gotten creative?