We began the day with a quick tour of Bodega Bay village and harbor.
The special in most restaurants there seemed to be barbequed oysters, which I don’t even want to think about (wouldn’t they slide through the grates?).
It does appear to still be an active fishing town. There were many large pleasure boats moored in the marinas as well, so the weekend people are also a presence.
We wanted to see Bodega Head, so drove along the bay until we found a road heading upward. The views are astounding. It is not as large as the Mendocino headlands, but seemed almost as impressive. (When we get to Mendocino we can compare.) It was a brisk day with a more than brisk wind blowing off the ocean.
We ran into a group of volunteer whale watchers, who were there not only to see the whales themselves, but to assist others in finding and identifying them. This is the time of year the mothers and calves migrate back to the North. It was so windy that it was impossible to identify the whales spouting (which is how you know a whale is present and about to surface), as the moisture would immediately blow away and become indistinguishable from the other waves and mist. The volunteers came armed with knowledge and a huge painted board that identified the different species of whales.
Needless to say we didn’t see any whales, but we now know how to look for them. Pete, one of the whale watchers graciously answered our questions about seabirds. He even took us to an area people are not supposed to be in and showed us the nests of pigeon guillemots, a species of seabird that only comes ashore to breed and raise their young. They arrived on the cliffs of Bodega Head about a week ago and will stay until about Labor Day.
The pigeon guillemots are black with white wing bars—which is the only part you can see against the dark cliff face where they nest. They have red webbed feet according to Pete, but I guess we will have to take his word for it.
Look for the two white wing bars, one higher than the other, slightly to the left of center, to the right of the dark crack in the cliff, nesting pigeon guillemots:
Needless to say we didn’t see any whales, but we now know how to look for them. Pete, one of the whale watchers graciously answered our questions about seabirds. He even took us to an area people are not supposed to be in and showed us the nests of pigeon guillemots, a species of seabird that only comes ashore to breed and raise their young. They arrived on the cliffs of Bodega Head about a week ago and will stay until about Labor Day.
The pigeon guillemots are black with white wing bars—which is the only part you can see against the dark cliff face where they nest. They have red webbed feet according to Pete, but I guess we will have to take his word for it.
Look for the two white wing bars, one higher than the other, slightly to the left of center, to the right of the dark crack in the cliff, nesting pigeon guillemots:
There was also a large flock of black cormorants hanging out on the non-windy side of a large rock. We had seen them before today but didn’t know what they were.
We drove up to a higher overlook, but I thought the original one was better. However we did see several deer, and had to take care on the drive down as a couple of them bounded across the road in front of us. Been there done that—car/deer encounters are not good for anyone.
We headed toward Santa Rosa, our destination in Sonoma wine country.
Going through Sebastopol, I noticed a sign, much like the ones near schools warning drivers that children might be crossing the street. Only this one said “Senior Crossing”. I like that we more mature folks get out own warning sign. There did appear to be a lot of retirement housing in the area. Since we thought it must safe and senior friendly, we decided to stop for coffee and found a wonderful little coffeehouse there.
We went to the Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. It was fabulous.
We headed toward Santa Rosa, our destination in Sonoma wine country.
Going through Sebastopol, I noticed a sign, much like the ones near schools warning drivers that children might be crossing the street. Only this one said “Senior Crossing”. I like that we more mature folks get out own warning sign. There did appear to be a lot of retirement housing in the area. Since we thought it must safe and senior friendly, we decided to stop for coffee and found a wonderful little coffeehouse there.
We went to the Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. It was fabulous.
We toured the museum, which is located in the House of Happy Walls, the home built by his widow, Charmian, and bequeathed to California to be set up as a museum honoring him. He never lived there. Charmian built the house and lived there after his death.
In addition to manuscripts, other documents (including his first rejection letter—he received 600 before publishing), and displays of his life and writing, there are collections from their travel in the South Seas, including an impressive collection of wooden spears.
There was a rejection letter from "Saturday Evening Post" explaining that they did not use tragic stories, but to try again if he wrote stories "of a more cheerful nature."
We also toured Beauty Ranch. He wrote in the cottage there from 1911-1916.
We also toured Beauty Ranch. He wrote in the cottage there from 1911-1916.
We didn’t realize what he did to advance “scientific” farming in the worn out fields he bought up in the area. He introduced farming methods he had learned about when he was a Hearst correspondent during the Sino-Chinese war, including terracing and planting nitrogen replacing crops. He believed in natural plant and animal fertilizers.
The present Beringer winery was the only hold out in London’s land acquisition, and today is sort of on a island of land surrounded by his former holdings, now a park.
The cottage is furnished much as it was when Jack and Charmian lived and entertained there, including their clothes in the closets. Charmian had 21 pairs of shoes, which the guide said was considered outrageous at the time. I wonder what they would have thought of our daughter's closet?
The present Beringer winery was the only hold out in London’s land acquisition, and today is sort of on a island of land surrounded by his former holdings, now a park.
The cottage is furnished much as it was when Jack and Charmian lived and entertained there, including their clothes in the closets. Charmian had 21 pairs of shoes, which the guide said was considered outrageous at the time. I wonder what they would have thought of our daughter's closet?
It was awesome to see the room in which Jack London wrote, usually 1000 words/day, writing long into the night. We loved the whole site, but the cottage was the best.
With my total aversion to any snake, I was not exactly thrilled to see the following sign. We did tramp all over the area, but I stayed on the path with religious fervor.
Finally saw a California golden poppy when I was not in the car:
We stopped at the Beringer Winery, which is just down the road a piece from the Jack London sites. Tom did some tasting while I wandered the gift shop.
Our next stop was at the Jack London Village, a collection of restaurants and upscale shops. We found a cool place for lunch, that didn’t kill me, which is always good.
While at the village we went to a chocolate tasting, an olive oil tasting, and a cheese tasting. At the chocolate shop we sampled two different kinds of ganache and five different chocolates of differing cacao percentages. We decided that truffles were in order for dinner dessert.
The cheesemongers shop (Raymond and Company, Cheesemongers) was fascinating. They use wine farmstead (same as estate for wine) and single herd cheeses. They must have traditional rind rather than the contemporary practice of vacuum sealing. This company buys from local cheese makers and imports a few then ages the cheese themselves. They supply artisnal cheese to many of the wineries in Napa and Sonoma.
We tried several goat’s milk and cow’s milk cheeses. One of his suppliers wraps their cheese in grape leaves, for one variety, brandy soaked grape leaves. Interesting taste. We really liked the Cypress Grove Humboldt goat cheese. It is a creamy soft cheese with a streak of ash in it. We got a small hunk of that and some Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold, a hard Italian cheese with undertones of Romano, but much much better. We added that to our dinner menu.
At Figone’s Olive Oil Company we tried some different olive oils. They grow their own olives and press their own oil. The Tuscan Blend was really interesting. The young girl who was overseeing our tasting said it had a peppery finish. I had just remarked I didn’t taste it when it hit. She smiled and said, “on the back of your throat isn’t it?” Right she was. We actually showed restraint and didn’t get the sampling bottles.
We did some scouting of possible wineries to tour tomorrow. I thought we were lost at one point, but Tom says we weren’t. He wasn’t lost, he just took a different road than he intended. I chose not to try to understand the difference. It’s all beautiful, so which road doesn’t matter when you have no set schedule.
A quick stop for stoned wheat thins and apples, where we also got free strawberries, and we had dinner for our room—Tom opened some wine, and we had cheese, crackers, apples, strawberries and good dark chocolate for dessert. It doesn’t get any better than that.
The elevator is out, so we have to walk a flight of stairs (luckily only one). They gave us a split of wine for the inconvenience. There is a large contingent of Special Olympic athletes and their chaperones here, and they needed more rooms with two beds. So we got our free (on points) room upgraded to a King at no charge. I think we like Santa Rosa.
Tom is plotting where to visit tomorrow.
Our next stop was at the Jack London Village, a collection of restaurants and upscale shops. We found a cool place for lunch, that didn’t kill me, which is always good.
While at the village we went to a chocolate tasting, an olive oil tasting, and a cheese tasting. At the chocolate shop we sampled two different kinds of ganache and five different chocolates of differing cacao percentages. We decided that truffles were in order for dinner dessert.
The cheesemongers shop (Raymond and Company, Cheesemongers) was fascinating. They use wine farmstead (same as estate for wine) and single herd cheeses. They must have traditional rind rather than the contemporary practice of vacuum sealing. This company buys from local cheese makers and imports a few then ages the cheese themselves. They supply artisnal cheese to many of the wineries in Napa and Sonoma.
We tried several goat’s milk and cow’s milk cheeses. One of his suppliers wraps their cheese in grape leaves, for one variety, brandy soaked grape leaves. Interesting taste. We really liked the Cypress Grove Humboldt goat cheese. It is a creamy soft cheese with a streak of ash in it. We got a small hunk of that and some Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold, a hard Italian cheese with undertones of Romano, but much much better. We added that to our dinner menu.
At Figone’s Olive Oil Company we tried some different olive oils. They grow their own olives and press their own oil. The Tuscan Blend was really interesting. The young girl who was overseeing our tasting said it had a peppery finish. I had just remarked I didn’t taste it when it hit. She smiled and said, “on the back of your throat isn’t it?” Right she was. We actually showed restraint and didn’t get the sampling bottles.
We did some scouting of possible wineries to tour tomorrow. I thought we were lost at one point, but Tom says we weren’t. He wasn’t lost, he just took a different road than he intended. I chose not to try to understand the difference. It’s all beautiful, so which road doesn’t matter when you have no set schedule.
A quick stop for stoned wheat thins and apples, where we also got free strawberries, and we had dinner for our room—Tom opened some wine, and we had cheese, crackers, apples, strawberries and good dark chocolate for dessert. It doesn’t get any better than that.
The elevator is out, so we have to walk a flight of stairs (luckily only one). They gave us a split of wine for the inconvenience. There is a large contingent of Special Olympic athletes and their chaperones here, and they needed more rooms with two beds. So we got our free (on points) room upgraded to a King at no charge. I think we like Santa Rosa.
Tom is plotting where to visit tomorrow.
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