Until recently I'd never heard anyone say, 'I'm going to Santa Rosa for the weekend.' About an hour by road north of San Francisco, it's the last large city you pass through on your way to some of California's richest wine-growing areas: the Sonoma Valley, Alexander Valley and the Russian River, to name but three. These offer quaint, upmarket weekend escapes, and Santa Rosa has long been regarded as little more than the gateway you pass through to reach them. But now, thanks to the fact that Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Sally, Woodstock and Peppermint Patty have set up home permanently in Santa Rosa, things have changed. Suddenly fans of these famous cartoon characters are arriving from around the US and the world to visit a museum dedicated to Peanuts characters and their creator. And Santa Rosa is rising to the occasion. The original Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Centre ( www.schulzmuseum.org and ci.santa-rosa.ca.us) has doubled in size, hotels are being upgraded and historic Railroad Square, a downtown area that fell into disrepair, has undergone gentrification and become home to good French, Italian and other European-style restaurants, as well as coffee shops and off-beat galleries and stores. It's fitting that the new museum should be located in Santa Rosa. It's next to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena that Schulz opened in 1969. For the following 30 years, Sparky - as he was known to his friends and family - lived and worked within a short walk of this spot. He began each day with breakfast at a reserved table next to the fireplace at the Warm Puppy, the coffee shop he opened inside the ice arena. His studio, where he created his daily cartoon strips - more than 17,800 that appeared in 70 countries and more than 30 languages - was just around the corner. After breakfast he would go to his office, then return to his Warm Puppy table at lunchtime for a tuna-salad sandwich and tea. But Schulz did more than create his famous cartoon family and open an arean. At Redwood he introduced an annua holiday-on-ice show, for which he designed the costumes. He also played ice hockey there until shortly before his death in February 2000, and each year hosted barbecues and swing dances for up to 1,000 fellow players at a time. The establishment of the museum, which opened in August 2002, was well under way when Schulz died in 2000. Schulz would doodle at his drawing board to work up inspiration, screw the pieces of paper into balls and toss them into the waste bin. His secretary would retrieve, iron and preserve them. Some are now on display in the 6,000sqft gallery that houses permanent and changing exhibitions of original strips and memorabilia illustrating Schulz's career and comic-strip art. But Schulz and Peanuts tributes aren't confined to the museum. Many cities pay tribute to their heroes by erecting monuments, and sure enough pride of place in Santa Rosa town square goes to a bronze bust of Snoopy and Charlie Brown. For Peanuts lovers, going to the museum is like stepping into cartoon-strip heaven, which is probably why 110,000 people paid a visit in its first year. And the numbers are growing - along with Santa Rosa, which is rapidly coming into its own as a Californian destination.