The storytellers eventually found Sonoma and stayed, helped build the community, or both. Looking back from that perspective gives their first encounters greater meaning. A visit that may have seemed ordinary at the time became the beginning of a much longer relationship.

Many of these Journeys began indirectly. Some people came because their parents or grandparents visited Sonoma. Others arrived with a spouse, passed through while traveling, came for work, attended a community event, or simply explored a town they already knew a little about.

Chance played an important role. A cross-country traveler stopped for gas and found a Help Wanted sign. Someone renting in Boyes Hot Springs turned left one day and discovered Sonoma. A construction project brought another person back to Glen Ellen. A firefighter drew a one-hour commuting circle around Oakland and found that Sonoma was inside it.

Several storytellers visited more than once before deciding to stay. Their relationship with Sonoma developed through familiarity rather than a single dramatic moment. Weekend visits, family connections, music in the Plaza, local events, rural surroundings, and Sonoma’s slower pace gradually made the town feel like a possible home.

These chapters also preserve earlier versions of Sonoma. The storytellers remember open fields, quiet roads, free wine tasting, resident-focused businesses, one stoplight, and a town that felt more rural and less influenced by tourism.

What connects these stories is not simply that the people visited Sonoma. It is that their first experience became the opening chapter of something larger.

Readers can begin with one person’s I Visited story and then follow the linked chapters to learn how that person found Sonoma, made it home, and sometimes helped build the community.

These observations are based on the following 11 Chapter 1 stories:

1. Craig Adrian

2. Don Lundgren

3. Bill Blosser

4. John Moss

5. Emilia Cardon

6. Duane Asken

7. Charlotte Flynn

8. Greg Rose

9. Jim Kent

10. Walt Pannis

11. Lee Anne Birka

Readers can begin with one person’s I Visited story and then follow the linked chapters to learn how that person found Sonoma, made it home, and sometimes helped build the community.

These observations were developed from the individual stories currently included in the I Visited Sonoma collection. As additional stories are added, the observations will evolve to reflect new perspectives and recurring themes. Their purpose is not to summarize every story, but to highlight what the collection reveals about why people first discover—and continue returning to—Sonoma.