Bay Area Summer Vacation for Local Tourists

[tanabutler]

So I wonder if Ms. Marie-Louise will give up an update on her summer travels. Highlights? Low lights? Bright lights?

[marie-louise]

So I wonder if Ms. Marie-Louise will give up an update on her summer travels. Highlights? Low lights? Bright lights?

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Ah, I never did get back to this...

It was a fabulous trip. I discovered a few gems of places to stay. Others were just okay. Someday soon, I will provide details.

[marie-louise]

First stop was Calistoga. We stayed in a place that was as close to ideal as any room I've ever stayed-The Cottage Grove Inn http://www.cottagegrove.com/page-01.htm (sorry for the long string, but I can't post links the way I used to). Great bathroom with a spa tub for two, comfy chairs to read, a wood-burning fireplace, porch w/ rockers, and a comfortable bed. Total romance. It is now on my list of places to retun to again and again. The innkeeper told me that the rates go down in the winter, plus they have a package deal w/ the Lavender Hill spa.

We took two mud baths. The first was a "traditional" bath at Golden Havens-the kind where you float in mud. It was WAY too hot, both in the mud and in the room, but I did like that we could both be in the same room. The next day we spent a good part of the day at Lavender Hill Spa (link posted above) and that was much nicer. I highly recommend it.

We had dinner at Terra, which we both loved. I can't remember what we had but it was incredible. The next night found us at Taylor's Refresher, eating a burger, drinking a beer and watching the sky turn pink from the setting sun.

My only real complaint was that it was HOT. August is not the ideal time to go to Calistoga and climb into a vat of steaming mud-it just happens to be when our anniversery is... Thank God that The Cottage Grove Inn had air-conditioning that WORKED.

[marie-louise]

Next stop was Mendocino. Alas, it was hot there, too, and like any other place that is cold or foggy 90% of the time, the buildings simply aren't designed for cross-ventilation.

We had a great time driving from Calistoga to Mendocino. We stopped at the Jimtown Store (way to go, Rancho Gordo-she's got a huge display of your beans), then had lunch at Bistro Ralph-a place we've eaten at many times. We sat at one of their outside tables & had an ahi burger and a salad. We got some wine at Navarro, but otherwise, didn't do any wine-tasting the whole trip. I don't know why-we love California wine-I guess it's because we can do that any time...

We stayed at The Brewary Gulch Inn: http://www.brewerygulchinn.com/index.html I didn't like this place as much as I thought I would. We stayed in one of the third-floor rooms and it seemed sort of spartan. And very hot-between being in the attic and having only west-facing windows w/ no breeze, it was not fun being in this room. We peeked into a couple of the 2nd floor rooms w/ the spa tubs and they looked a lot more luxurious. I'd stay here again if I could get one of those rooms at their last-minute special rates. The breakfasts were fabulous, including THE BEST BACON EVER. (The chef was also the waiter-he told me his secrets were local bacon from Fort Bragg that was baked, not fried, with brown sugar and... red pepper flakes.) That hot/ sweet combination was perfect. They also had a nice wine and hot appetizer buffet in the late afternoon, as well as great chocolate biscotti available anytime. They occasionally have a winemaker's dinner here; I'm guessing that would be worth the drive.

The first night we ate dinner at the Albion River Inn. It was pretty good-nice view, good wine list, decent but not great food. Lots of kids running around (but in all fairness, late August is peak family vacation time.) The next time we just had a picnic on the bluffs-we'd been hiking all day and just didn't feel like sitting through another long dinner, although we had reservations at Cafe Beaujolais. Speaking of which, since Tana mentioned it earlier in this thread, we did finally eat at Cafe Beaujolais several weeks ago and had an awful meal. My entree was a muddled mess of way too many flavors-it was some sort of vegetarian Mexican stuffed peppers and polenta number-and worst of all, it had pinto beans that were so underdone that they were crunchy. Yuck!!! My husband had greasy duck with a too-sweet sauce. The hostess was rude (we arrived at 8:27 for our 8:30 reservation and she had the nerve to look down at her watch and then rudely tell us to sit down on a bench because our table wasn't ready. The bench was in full view of many empty, set tables.) We then got handed a ticket and sent down a dark path-unescorted- and up some stairs to their other room, which might have a nice view during the day, but was just a cramped little room at night. The waitress was oddly perky in a too-much-caffeine sort of way. It was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in a long time!

[tanabutler]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience at Cafe Beaujolais. I will tell my foodie friend in SF about it.

You were brave to do the mud baths in August. I much prefer Napa Valley in November, myself.

Thanks for writing it up, ML. I love the vicarious thrill of reading about someone else's traveling.

[marie-louise]

Okay, part III-our actual anniversary. It didn't go as planned, but it ended up perfect...

We drove from Mendocino to Eureka via The Avenue of the Giants (that scenic road through the redwoods.) We ate lunch at Hurricane Kate's even before we checked in-God, I love this place. Good food and positive energy. We rented The Carter Cottage-part of the Carter House compound. What a disappointment. They refer to it as "The Love Shack" on their website, but it wasn't warm and romantic at all; when not rented for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS A NIGHT to trusting souls such as us, it is used as a demonstration kitchen or rented out for parties. And except for the bedroom-which was nice-that's just what it felt like. There wasn't anywhere to sit and face my husband and have a conversation, because the comfy furniture was pushed off to the corners to make room for a table that seated eight. The kitchen had a professional stove, but the only pots and pans were these cheesy painted enamel ones (T-Fal wanna bes) that would have melted if you'd tried to cook anything. The undercounter refrigerator made so much noise that we had to shout. The deck was huge-you could have easily had a wedding for 50-100 people there, but hardly a romantic place for two. Weirdest of all, the place had two bathrooms-one off the hall for these parties-with a bench out in the hall for people to wait to use the bathroom (all we did was trip on it-it took up half the hall.) All that was missing was the chartpad in the corner...

We'd stayed at Hotel Carter before so we had high expectations. I had told all three places that it was our 25th anniversary. At each of the other two places, they'd left us a bottle of champagne and a personal note. At Brewary Gulch they actually had a 5th of French champagne waiting on ice for us. I know I told the person when I booked the room that we would be there on our actual anniversary, but not a thing was left. The most annoying part of all is how they nickel and dimed us-despite the fact that were were paying a LOT of money for this room. They had wine and appetizers in their lobby, but only the first glass was free. When we asked for a second glass, we were told that it was $6/glass-and we had to sign for it right then and there. Even weirder, although breakfast was "included," we were presented with a menu that said there was a 15% service charge-and they made it clear that was NOT the tip. If you ordered a free entree, you had to pay more of a charge than if you had the continental breakfast. So, they presented us for a bill to be signed for $2.16 (plus a line for a tip, although the breakfast was buffet-style and no service was provided other than handing us a menu). It felt really cheesy. We decided that this was not where we wanted to spend our anniversary, so we checked out early (and to their credit, they did not charge up anything for the second night.)

We drove north up to Redwood National Park and took a hike. Our plan was to drive home and spend our anniversary night in our own bed, but we'd farted around so long at the park that we would have gotten home very late. So, we decided to just get our our guidebook and start calling around. the first place we called was The Gingerbread Mansion in Ferndale, and amazingly enough, their honeymoon suite was still available on Friday night at 4pm-and they gave us a discount because it was so late! So, for much less money than the Carter Cottage, we stayed in this incredible suite: http://www.gingerbread-mansion.com/empire.html They brought coffee, then breakfast up to our room (discreetly leaving it in the foyer and knocking on the door.) This suite was everything that the Hotel Carter was not. It was romantic in a overdone sort of way-complete with a mink throw on the bed and a bathtub in front of a fireplace. We also got spur of the moment reservations at Hurricane Kate's, so we had a casual meal with lots of small plates of food and Hurricanes to drink. We had a proscuitto & fig appetizer w/ a melon sauce; lumpia; beef sate w/ peanut sauce; and hummus w/ vegetables and pita. We also split a Crème Brulee for dessert. All terrific.

Edited September 22, 2004 by marie-louise (log)

[marie-louise]

Last but not least, the days of playing local tourist were very special.

We had a Maine Lobster Feast Fed Ex'd for one dinner, but there was so much food that we ended up making two meals from it.

We went to Point Reyes and hiked to the spot where we had a picnic the day after we eloped.

We drove up the Sonoma coast via the Coleman Valley Road and hiked along the ocean near where we used to own a home.

We hiked along Inspiration Point in Tilden Park another day.

And as I mentioned in another thread, on our very last night of our vacation. I made a cheese souffle in honor of Julia Child. I'm not positive, but that might have been the first meal I ever made for him.

Thanks for all your ideas-you helped a lot.