On Memorial day we left the Hinck’s house to head to Cloverdale, CA to visit with my Great Aunt and Uncle for a few days. Our route would take us through much of the city of San Francisco and then over the Golden Gate Bridge. Ryan and Jill suggested that we park just on the other side of the bridge and walk back over it, check out Alcatraz, and see if we can find any dolphins that typically swim beneath the bridge. It sounded like a fabulous idea to us. Were not typically big on doing the “touristy” things but occasionally we like to make exceptions, and this was one of those exceptions. We had been to San Francisco once before but didn't get the go to the bridge, we just admired it from Lands End Park, so to actually see it up close and personal was fantastic. Unfortunately, we did see a sign that said the parking lot was closed, so we were not going to be able to walk back over it. Knowing that, we made sure to admire as much as possible as we drove over it. You couldn't see much off the sides of the bridge because the pedestrian walk ways and hand rails really blocked most of the views. We were still able to catch a glimpse of Alcatraz, and the many boats in the bay, no dolphins though. It was still really cool looking at the towers on the bridge, and just admire how massive of a structure it really is. Once we crossed the bridge, there was a beautiful view of the San Francisco skyline and the bay as you looked back.
On Memorial day we left the Hinck’s house to head to Cloverdale, CA to visit with my Great Aunt and Uncle for a few days. Our route would take us through much of the city of San Francisco and then over the Golden Gate Bridge. Ryan and Jill suggested that we park just on the other side of the bridge and walk back over it, check out Alcatraz, and see if we can find any dolphins that typically swim beneath the bridge. It sounded like a fabulous idea to us. Were not typically big on doing the “touristy” things but occasionally we like to make exceptions, and this was one of those exceptions. We had been to San Francisco once before but didn't get the go to the bridge, we just admired it from Lands End Park, so to actually see it up close and personal was fantastic. Unfortunately, we did see a sign that said the parking lot was closed, so we were not going to be able to walk back over it. Knowing that, we made sure to admire as much as possible as we drove over it. You couldn't see much off the sides of the bridge because the pedestrian walk ways and hand rails really blocked most of the views. We were still able to catch a glimpse of Alcatraz, and the many boats in the bay, no dolphins though. It was still really cool looking at the towers on the bridge, and just admire how massive of a structure it really is. Once we crossed the bridge, there was a beautiful view of the San Francisco skyline and the bay as you looked back.
Another suggestion that was made to us by Jill was to go to Petaluma and check out the Petaluma Pie Company. Knowing that we love pie, and knowing that we were going to visit my Aunt and Uncle we thought that it would be fun to show up with something delicious to share with them. So we made the 10 minute detour to go get some pie. Petaluma was a really cute little town, and seemed to have a very relaxed vibe to it, something we would discover would be much more prevalent the further north we go in California. The pie shop was this cute little store in a tiny little shopping courtyard in the middle of town, and there was a little park in the middle of the courtyard. Much to our delight, we discovered that they have both sweet and savory pies at this little pie company. We decided to grab Chicken Pot Pie for dinner instead of pie for dessert, it looked delicious, and this way Aunt Meme wouldn't have to feel like she needed to cook for us.
I feel like we have been incredibly blessed this whole trip with our travel weather conditions. Up until today, we’ve never had to worry about it getting too hot for the dogs. Today was a totally different story though, it was ridiculously hot, and we started to get a little stressed right as we pulled into Cloverdale and the temperature gage was reading 96 inside the topper, where the dogs are. When we first spoke with my Aunt and Uncle about visiting, they told us that they had plenty of room for the camper and would even have hookups for us if we chose to use them. Mind you, I’ve never been to their house, but I remembered that they always had a motorhome that they traveled around in, so I never imagined that parking our little trailer would be any bit of a issue. Well that is until we met Uncle Marty on his 4-wheeler and he started leading us down the hill of a driveway and then around the corner to go back up a narrow hill of a driveway to get to their house. It was nothing like we’d envisioned it. I think we were both imagining a flat concrete pad for us to park on with ample room to turn around and such, but that was quite the opposite of what we really had. I knew right away this was going to be a little bit stressful for Kyle. We are still new to the whole “driving a trailer thing”, and this was going to be quite the challenge for Kyle to back up the hill and get the trailer perfectly positioned so that it wouldn't roll back down the hill once we got it off of the truck. Not to mention we were both getting a little bit stressed out about how hot it was getting for the dogs in the back of the truck. Im sure Meme and Marty were quite entertained by our little freak out moments as we tried to park the trailer. There were couple of times of repositioning the trailer, me running around the entire rig like a crazy person, and the neighbor moving his truck, but we finally got it parked, and got the dogs out of the back before they started to cook. I feel like this was another moment of revelation for us, that we really do most likely want to end up on the coast, where the temperatures are much more mild, we don't do heat well apparently. After our little stress spell, it was time to plug the trailer in, get the AC running and get back to what we were really there for, which was to catch up with Meme and Marty, whom I hadn't seen since 1997. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with them and hearing stories of their travels, their adorable little dog Puddles, and just enjoying each others company. We all visited for hours and enjoyed our chicken pot pies with a couple of old westerns playing on the TV. It was such a fun relaxing evening, and I was so grateful we made the time to come visit with them.
Tuesday, Meme and Marty had to go to Santa Rosa for some appointments so Kyle and I decided to make the short drive over to Bodega Bay. We picked a route that would end up taking us on every back road there was on the way back toward the coast. It was fun to drive through all these little towns, and vineyards as far as you could see. Bodega Bay is an area that Meme and Marty used to visit frequently, apparently there is a phenomenal golf course there that Marty used to enjoy playing at. This is also the town that Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds, was filmed in. I have never seen this movie but Kyle thinks he has, and had a memory of black birds flying everywhere. The school house from the movie is still there to visit if one chose to, we had every intention to, but I think that we got sidetracked somewhere along the line and forgot to. We ended up going to Doran beach when we first got to Bodega Bay, so that we could wear out the puppies a little bit before heading out to Bodega Head to look for whales. Our Doran beach experience was so great. We ended up walking a total of 4 miles along the beach, mainly because we had to walk two miles just to get to a point where we could let the pups off to play without being around people. Sonoma County requires that dogs be on leash the entire time while at the beach, so we wanted to make sure we were as far away for other people before we started breaking the rules. Once we were two miles down the beach we started just letting the pups run around and exploring the little tide pools and the sea life that was on the rocks in the water. I told Kyle that it is amazing what a little bit of education will do for a person. After spending basically a week with Jill and listening to all the fun things she knew about sea life, I was able to finally understand what I was looking at and where to look for things. Specifically where to look for sea stars, which have kind of become my new obsession, and this little beach area was filled with them! It was so fun. I found a ton of them, mainly because I now know where to look for them.
After our beach adventure, we ate a quick sandwich then headed out to Bodega Head to do a little exploring, and hopefully see a gray whale. We did not see any whales, but we did do a little hiking out on the bluffs. We tried to go down a little trail that led to a secluded beach but got about 40 feet from the bottom and ran into bees again. We decided not to forge onward, because: a) we had no idea if the trail even went to the beach or if it just dropped off a 15 foot rock ledge, and b) I really wasn't wearing the type of shoes you'd need to run if the bees started attacking. Good thing we didn't continue, because as we saw when we rounded the corner on the trail on top of the bluff, it dropped off and the trail disappeared, like we anticipated it would. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, expect for a bunch of birds basically, and a couple of Canadian geese… Those darn things are everywhere!
We didn't stay on Bodega Head long, we wanted to get back to the house at a decent time. I just wanted to make one more stop to get some salt water taffy, and then we headed out. As we were heading home, we drove by this little store in Bodega, and took a moment to pose with Alfred Hitchcock before winding our way back to Cloverdale.
I feel like for the most part, Kyle and I have tried to eat pretty healthy on this journey. We sometimes falter, but these last couple of weeks have been brutal for our waistlines…. With all the amazing food that we had with the Hinck’s we knew that we were already in trouble. Then we come to visit my family, and my Aunt wants nothing more than to make us her fried chicken and potato salad, which we are both suckers for, so basically were screwed. Oh well, we will hike it off when we get to Oregon ;-) My Aunt told me, that at one point in my life, my older sister and I used to claim that she made the best potato salad that we've ever had. This time was not a disappointment either, and I could see why I would have said that all those years ago, it is quite delicious. Then there is the chicken. I do not know what it is about homemade fried chicken, but it is seriously one of my most favorite things to eat, ever… Not to mention how well it pairs with homemade potato salad! We were in heaven, we were feeling very fappy, or Fat and Happy, as we ate our homemade deliciousness, on TV trays while watching Jeopardy.
Cloverdale is on the northern end of Sonoma county and on the northern end of wine country, so our drive took us through miles and miles of vineyards, as far as the eye could see. It was stunning. I think that it would be amazing to have a week or two to just explore all of the different vineyards in both Sonoma and Napa county. We were hoping to at least visit one winery or vineyard while we are in wine county, it would almost seem like a waste not to take advantage of this opportunity. Wednesday was our opportunity to do so. We met up with an old friend of mine from Gunnison, at a winery in Sonoma. Laura and her family live in Oakland, and she had reached out to me about a month ago about meeting up in wine country, and I am so happy that it worked out to meet up. They had suggested a little winery in Sonoma, called Scribe and said that it was one of their favorites to visit. It took us about an hour to drive there from Cloverdale, but it was once again an absolutely beautiful drive. This time we were driving through the heart of the Sonoma wine country, it was seriously just vineyards as far as the eye can see. As soon as well pulled in to the parking area, I could see why they like this place. It was beautiful, and small, which was really nice. It was a quaint little setting that had a very relaxed vibe to it. There were about six or seven old barn wood, farm style tables and benches generously dispersed through out the yard, and was generously shaded by huge oak trees. There was also this huge old farm house, that was currently being renovated, which we would learn later, was the house the the original owners had built. The foundation dated back to the late 1800’s and the structure was built in 1919 or some time around then. Not only was the scenery great, but we were also in great company. I hadn't seen Laura in years, I think since our 10 year high school reunion, so it was wonderful to be able to catch up. We also got to meet their little daughter, who is one of the happiest babies I have ever met, for the most part she just smiled the entire time, unless she was hungry, which no one I know can blame her for being cranky about that.
The setting at Scribe is a very intimate setting, which is something that they pride themselves in, they like to be able to visit with their guests, which our host did. She was great, and she had a very intimate knowledge of the business, the property, the wine, and the wine making process. I was very impressed, although when she was talking about the wine she may as well have been speaking greek. Apparently my wine knowledge is VERY minimal, I had no idea what she was talking about half the time. It was a great thing that Shadel was there, he knew exactly what she was saying, and we enjoyed hearing him converse with her about the wines. The wines, were fabulous!! I am fairly certain that I am ruined toward cheap wine forever. I greatly enjoyed the Chardonnay, which I don't typically like, and their Pinot Noir was amazing!!! I honestly wish that I could have bought a whole case of this wine, but since we are technically unemployed, that would have been a terrible idea.
After visiting at Scribe for a couple of hours, it was time for lunch. Laura and Shandel took us to The Fremont Diner, which was highly recommended to them. The Fremont diner is a cute little roadside diner, that sits on an intersection in the middle of farm/wine country. When you first pull into the gravel parking lot, it looks like it will be just another roadside diner with burgers and fries and such, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that it was anything but. The menu had a selection of homemade deliciousness that range from spicy fried chicken and waffles, to a delicious hash with huge chunks of potatoes and vegetables mixed in with some smoked beef, and fresh jalapeño cheddar cornbread, that was to die for! There was also a burger, that was so much more than your ordinary burger. The grind the meat in house every day, mix it with bacon and pimento cheese. It looked absolutely delicious! They smoke all of their meats in house, and used farm fresh ingredients. For our entertainment, there several chickens that were running around the gravel patio area, and we watched as one of the cooks ran around trying to chase them off.. If the menu would have said that they served free range chicken I may have started giggling a little too much as I watched them run amuck… All four of us were more than delighted with the menu choices we made. What was great is it didn't leave you feeling like you had a brick in your stomach after eating, which is something that I've had a problem with when the food is not as good.
After an amazing visit with an old friend, we headed back to Cloverdale to get in some more quality time with my Aunt and Uncle. It filled my heart with so much joy to watch Kyle and Uncle Marty sitting out on the front porch visiting. We were lucky to have a hummingbird come in an feed just over our heads, although he was a little tentative of us at first. He must have realized that we weren't going to bother him and he kept coming back, and we were able to get some really cool picks of him. The whole time that we were there, my Uncle Marty kept trying to give Kyle things. Everything from cowboy boots and baseball caps, to RV stuff and golf clubs. Unfortunately their feet are different sizes, Kyle is too picky about hats, we don't need anything in the camper, and Kyle doesn't golf. So everything he tried to offer would just not be going to a useful home. The one thing that we did accept though was the electric fly swatter. It was hilarious to listen to how much Marty wanted to give this to Kyle, and it was even better to watch Kyle search for a bug to zap with it. We had a wonderful time visiting with them, I am so happy that we reconnected after 19 years of not seeing them.
The next morning we headed out to Fort Bragg, back to the coast and hopefully more fun adventures! Stay tuned to for hopefully more fun stories!
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