Day 341: Fort Ross

Well, we've had enough of being boring around here. So, after sleeping in to a completely irresponsible time of morning, I decided that we needed to go on some sort of adventure. So, I pulled out my phone (still in bed) and hopped on Pinterest (searching: "Things To Do In Sonoma County, NOT Wineries). 5 minutes in I found this place about an hour north of our house on the Sonoma Coast. It featured an old wooden fortress, some cannons, and a beach head. 

Done done and done. 

So, we drove up Highway 1 to Fort Ross, an old fortress founded in the early 1800s build around an early settlement of Russians and Alaskans that came to the area. The fortress is fully accessible, and all but one building was open to walk through, showing how the fort operated and featuring lots of little signs with information on them. The kids of course oogled over the armory (full of untouchable weapons and ammo, of course) and the cannons poking out of portholes in the high "block houses" aimed at the ocean for potential Spanish pirates. The boys spent most of the time pretending to shoot pirates and marauders invading the fortress. So obviously this place was a monumental hit to them. We walked a few trails to neighboring parts of the fort, including an old Russian cemetery that overlooked the fortress, and a long trail down to the beach at the cove sitting in front of the fort. We played on the beach for a bit before walking back up to the fortress and having one more go at defending the fort from imaginary invaders before heading home. 

Awesome family day. Learned a little something too. 

Firing cannons

Boys up in the fortress block house

Walking from the fortress to the ocean

Northwest Cove below the fortress

Russian Cemetery

These humongous shells called abalone

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