I Visited Sonoma for One Month – John Moss
John’s Sonoma Journey
This is the first of three stories about John’s relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 A One-Month Visit to Sonoma – Chapter 1 (You are reading this story.)
🟥 I Found Community in Sonoma – Chapter 2
Click the story title above to continue John’s journey as a one-month rental becomes a permanent move.
🟦 Helping Build Community in Sonoma – Chapter 3
John’s final story describes how retirement led him to volunteer with FISH, Rotary, and Vivo Youth Orchestras, finding purpose by giving back to the Sonoma community.
A One-Month Visit to Sonoma begins below.
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For most of my life, Sonoma wasn’t on my radar. What began as a one-month rental during COVID was simply a way to see what all the fuss was about. By the end of that month, I understood why so many people loved the town.
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For most of my adult life, Sonoma wasn’t part of the plan.
My wife and I had spent twenty-five years in Piedmont raising our family, followed by another decade in Oakland. We also owned a cabin in Arnold that had been our vacation home for many years. As time passed, though, I became the only one who still enjoyed spending much time there. I loved skiing, but my wife wasn’t fond of the summer heat or the rustic nature of cabin life.
When we started thinking about finding a different vacation home, my wife suggested Sonoma.
Several close friends from our Piedmont years had already moved there, and she had visited often enough to become familiar with the town. I wasn’t convinced. I knew very little about Sonoma and wasn’t ready to buy a house simply because she liked it.
Instead, I suggested a test.
Let’s rent a house for a month and see what we think.
In the summer of 2021, during the height of COVID, we rented a home on Sonoma’s west side. I worked remotely during the day, but otherwise we lived as though we were residents rather than tourists. We shopped locally, walked through town, spent time outdoors, and simply experienced everyday life.
What stood out wasn’t a single attraction.
It was the overall feeling of the place.
The pace was slower. The weather was beautiful. The town felt welcoming. Instead of feeling like visitors passing through, we found ourselves imagining what life here might actually be like.
By the end of that month, Sonoma no longer felt like just another vacation destination.
It had become a place worth thinking seriously about.
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Sometimes the best way to evaluate a place is to live there for a while rather than simply visit.
A trial visit can reveal qualities that don’t appear during a weekend getaway.
John’s first experience with Sonoma wasn’t about wineries or tourism—it was about discovering what everyday life felt like.
That one-month visit became the first step in a much larger journey.
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This story was created by extracting the opening chapter of John’s Sonoma journey from his original recorded conversation. It represents the “I Visited Sonoma” stage of his experience. His journey continues in “I Found Community in Sonoma,” where that one-month visit leads to a permanent move and a new chapter of life.
