Enjoying breakfast in bed at a fancy hotel. My only choice, as I am in the upscale tourist town of Calistoga. Yes, its where Calistoga spring water is from, and theres a note in my room saying I can fill my carafe from the spring downstairs in the lobby.
What a drive yesterday! A ways south of Eureka, I turned off on Highway 1, certainly the windingest, hilliest road I have every been on. Marvelous, as long as you're not in a hurry. The speed limit might be 55, but I don't think I ever got to that on this road... more like 35 most of the way. Even with hundreds of hairpin curves, blind corners, no shoulder, un-guardrailed drop-offs, I occasionally saw signs proclaiming it as a bike route. I am a pretty brave biker, but really, you'd have to be suicidal! True, there wasn't a lot of traffic, but there's got to be a lot more in the summer, and really, I think they'd just have to close it to cars (Ooooh, wouldn't that be wonderful!) for me to ride it.
Eventually I made it to Fort Bragg, where I found a nice little natural-foods place for lunch. True to the California stereotype, seems like every little town has one of these. Here, I traded my hiking boots for sandals, and my sweater for a t-shirt! Yippee!
Stopping for a latte on the way out of town, I asked the barista if the road going south was as curvy as the one coming in. She said "There's no way out of Fort Bragg without at hour of winding roads"... you would've had to hear her tone of voice....sounded like she'd been there a bit too long....
But she was right. I decided to head inland toward the wine country, but the road was much the same. Gradually changing from redwood forest to hilly chapparal, and then vineyards, vineyards, vineyards, vineyards, and vineyards. Countless tasting rooms, one of which I finally stopped at mainly to use the restroom, but I did buy a bottle of wine from them. This was in and area that I think is called the Anderson valley, which eventually lead to the Napa valley, which as I'm sure you can imagine is even more vineyard-filled.
Not long after I left Fort Bragg I realized I'd forgotten to get gas, so pulled into a station in a tiny tiny town. Old, old pumps, the kind with mechanical odometer-type numbers. $4.55 a gallon! Yipes! I just bought enough to get me back to civilization...
Calistoga: Art galleries (mediocre, tourist-trade), restaurants ($$$), B&B's ($$$), restaurants ($$$), wine shops. I thought I'd stumbled upon a reasonably priced restaurant until I asked if anything came with that $11 order of crab cakes, and was told that it's a tapas bar and the chef recommended at least two orders for a dinner. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty town and worth a visit, just be forewarned that it is pricey. And this is the off-season.
A couple of nice ocean views near Mendocino. Lots of cool seastacks.
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