Travel about eight miles west from Santa Rosa, on Highway 12, and you come to the town of Sebastopol. There’s a main drag, with funky boutiques, a good bookstore (Copperfields), and a few restaurants (try West County for a terrific meal!). While it lacks the charm of other Sonoma County towns like Healdsburg or Sonoma itself, it offers utterly delightful surprises. Our favorite: Florence Avenue, a few blocks west of Main Street. You drive through an unassuming neighborhood, then suddenly you’re on a street on which almost every house boasts a folk art junk sculpture by Patrick Amiot–Batman and a mermaid, a fireman and a surfer, a host of whacko characters (including the Mad Hatter) constructed out of odds and ends and painted bright colors. You’ll soon realize that you’ve seen other pieces by Amiot as you drove into town–a giant cow in a field, a gargantuan silver dog at the SPCA entrance. Definitely worth the detour to see! If you can’t make it during the busy bar mitzvah weekend, check out this Youtube video.
