Green Friday lures thousands outside and into California’s state parks

Lucine Luna of Windsor paused along a trail in Jack London State Historic Park on Friday, gazing at part of the 1,400-acre Beauty Ranch once owned by the famous author.

“The colors of the vineyards are just - wow,” she said, observing the post-harvest red and yellow grape leaves adorning a slope. “That’s why we’re here.”

Luna and her daughter, Kathryn, were among the thousands of folks who opted to feast their eyes - for free - on Mother Nature’s cornucopia a day after feasting on Thanksgiving turkey.

The Lunas claimed two of the 13,000 parking and admission passes offered online in the inaugural Green Friday promotion co-sponsored by the California State Parks and two nonprofits, the Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks Foundation.

The passes were offered on the same day, and as an antidote to, Black Friday, the shop-til-you-drop onslaught that kicks off the holiday shopping season, during which retailers typically reap 30 percent of their annual sales.

A National Retail Federation survey indicated 137.4 million people would go shopping online or in stores over the four-day weekend, and the trade group estimated sales of $655.8 billion in November and December, up 3.6 percent from last year.

Green Friday is a “fabulous idea,” Lucine Luna said, getting people to swap the commercial buzz for the tranquility of nature. At Jack London park, the pass covered a $10 parking fee.

“We’re avoiding the madness of the malls,” said her daughter, Kathryn Luna, a San Francisco resident who came home to Windsor for the holiday.

The idea was an apparent hit, as Friday’s passes were sold out at 89 of the 116 participating state parks, including Jack London, Trione-Annadel and seven others in Sonoma County.

Standing near one of the old stone barns on the old London Ranch, Eileen Matuzzi of San Diego declared herself “vehemently opposed to Black Friday.”

“I probably could get crushed in a retail store,” she said, comparing her use of a Green Friday pass to political support for the Green Party.

“It’s more pleasant to come out here in the fresh air after overeating for Thanksgiving,” Matuzzi said.

In two days, on what is now dubbed Cyber Monday, Matuzzi allowed that she might flex her fingers in online spending.

“That’s more my speed,” she said.

The trail to London’s Lake - going by the Pig Palace, a circular stone swine feed house, and a pair of 40-foot tall cement block silos - was busy Friday, despite the overcast sky and 64-degree chill.

“It’s really cool. I feel like I’m in Europe,” said Fletcher Chouinard of Ventura, making his first visit to the park.

Lizzy Brewer, his companion, said it was her first visit since her childhood in Glen Ellen. Seen through adult eyes, she said, the park “seems more impressive to me.”

Shopping is “my last favorite thing to do,” said Chouinard, who, though he did not let on, is the son of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, a famously reluctant entrepreneur and capitalist. Same goes for his son, apparently. “

I’m not much of a consumer,” said Fletcher Chouinard, a surfboard maker.

Leigh Vintson of Alameda, who picked up a free park pass, marveled at the bright green grassy landscape. Her children, Naomi, 10, and Ian, 7, were impressed by the stony remains of the Wolf House, London’s dream home that burned in 1913 before the author could inhabit it.

The kids shook their heads over the proposition that they could have gone shopping instead.

“We don’t have a TV so they don’t see advertisements,” Vintson said.

Naomi said she has never been inside a large mall.

Partners Marian Halley and Barry Sacks went for a stroll in the park “just to get outdoors,” he said. They live in San Francisco, have an “escape house” in Sonoma and don’t spend much time in stores.

“I have to have a need to go shopping,” Halley said, in which case she goes straight for the item in question.

Sacks admitted that he is a bit less focused. “I’m much more of a browser,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.