Busy Labor Day Weekend in the North Bay: Travel, Gas Prices, and Local Activities

2023-09-01 23:18:54

You can see this article in English here.

Whether it’s the forecast of warm temperatures, the long weekend or the honorary end of the summer season, Labor Day in the North Bay will be everything but quiet.

“All signs point to a busy Labor Day weekend,” said John Treanor, spokesman for AAA of Northern California.

He said that AAA has noticed that people have a genuine appetite for travel during these times of the year, since they are eager to return to a seasonal pattern of living that they have enjoyed since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although rising gas prices, which Treanos says are noticeably higher this year compared to last year at this time, people won’t be staying home.

As of Thursday, according to GasBuddy.com, prices for regular, unleaded gasoline within Sonoma County have ranged from:

$4.48 per gallon at Quik Stop on North Cloverdale Boulevard in Cloverdale;

$5.11 per gallon at the Safeway gas station on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa;

$5.29 a gallon at the Shell station on Dutton Avenue near the 12 Freeway in Santa Rosa;

$5.49 per gallon at Chevron on Lakeville Street in Petaluma.

Treanor said this year’s high gas prices may be due to “active hurricane season, and very hot temperatures around the west. Both of those things can affect how much it costs for oil refineries to produce.

Reduced production, he added, has caused a recent rise in gasoline prices.

For Leslie Silva, an 18-year-old student studying to be a nurse at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, this weekend is about spending time with her friends.

She said Thursday that they plan to go camping this weekend in Klamath National Forest, about four hours north of the Oregon border. Silva said she had a lot of fun this summer and is sad that it is ending.

Amy Housman, a 50-year-old Santa Rosa resident, says she’ll be getting ready to go back to school.

Being a teacher, Housman said that while summer technically ends on Sept. 22, Labor Day means it’s already over for her.

That’s why your Labor Day weekend will be dedicated to self-care. She says that she plans to attend a Yoga class at Point Reyes and enjoy paddle boarding and kayaking; probably in Lake Sonoma, west of Cloverdale.

She said the fire season is making her anxious, especially with the haze in the air this week from the blazes in Northern California and Oregon.

Houseman added that she is ready for the cold temperatures.

On Saturday and Sunday, high temperatures will be in the mid to low 70s and then climb to the low 80s on Monday, according to meteorologist Dalton Behringer, with the Monterey office of National Weather Services.

The smoky skies will clear, he said, when the West Coast air picks up late Friday and continues through Saturday. But, there are no red flags for the weekend.

But not everyone can enjoy the long weekend.

A bus driver, Francisco Ortego, 71, said that he works on Saturday, so he will stay home on Sunday and Monday.

Drivers who choose to stay local will note that portions of the westbound 80 Freeway will be closed this weekend between the 4 and 780 Freeways.

Treanos said AAA is suggesting drivers be aware of local laws to “slow down, and move to the side.” He added that you “shouldn’t be moving to the side for someone else’s safety, but you need to move under the law.”

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