The plan was to give Mom options for her birthday celebration. We’d go to lunch and mooch around in either Rio Vista, Sonoma, St Helena or Benicia. We met up with my sister Donna at her house in Suisun City and discussed our options. Mom picked Benicia. Little did we know it was the day for the annual Peddlers Fair. Donna was over the moon when we discovered the happy coincidence.
We were lucky to find a parking space down by the water. It was a 12:30 so we were looking for lunch. The Salty Dog had a line of people waiting and no hostess in sight. We walked up the street and stopped at the Union Hotel. The food was terrific but the service was slow as molasses. 
Then we shopped till we felt like melting on the pavement. We stopped at the First Street Cafe for an ice tea. Then we headed back toward Suisun City on back roads. On the way we saw a sign that read “gravenstein apples for sale” and we did a hard brake to stop and buy enough for pies. We enjoyed a perfect day of celebrating my Mom’s birthday together.
americanjulie.com 