Such a beautiful place to have spent a night and then to wake up to. The sun shines across the Napa valley and in the distance (no pictures) I watch about 10 hot air balloons gliding over the valley. One of our neighbors from last night told us that they were leaving early to go for a balloon ride and I wondered if one of the balloons I was seeing contained them.
We took our time this morning as we could stay until noon if we wanted and our planned drive was only a few hours. We did finally head out at about 10am and headed West towards Petaluma, CA. The rolling hills had many farms and wineries. Some wineries looked like French chateaus dropped into the Californian landscape, we guessed that the winemaking business is doing nicely.
We stopped in Petaluma for brunch and to get caught up with a few internet-based chores as our hosts for tonight had warned us that no cellular signals reached their location.
With a full tank of fuel we headed West toward Bodega Bay, a popular beachside town that was jammed with weekend visitors. This was our first view of the Pacific Ocean on this trip and we found a small parking area a little North of town to stop and take in the views and fresh air.
As we drove further along SR-1 (Pacific Coast Highway) the traffic slowly decreased but the twists and turns increased causing us to drive carefully around the cliff side curves. As we were driving North we were on the inside lane which reduced some of the scariness of the drive; however, at one point we did wind our way up a canyon where we were on the outside of the road. Don’t look down. It still amazes us that many of these twisty roads in California do not have guardrails.
Eventually we arrived in Jenner, CA and found another place to pull off and enjoy the view. As we were early yet to arrive at our hosts, we settled in and watched seals lounging on the beach below and kayakers and surfers enjoying the water.
The final few miles of driving today had us arrive in Fort Ross, CA where we are staying at our hosts, The Fort Ross Store. Another Harvest Host, this store is a general store general store, coffee shop, cafe. It is wonderful, as are the folks that work here. We have a large 20×30 concrete pad on the west side of the building to ourselves that has amazing views out to the ocean.
We are told that the road gets very quiet at night and are looking forward to a wonderful sunset.
Hi Tony and Barb! Keep in mind that we follow you from time to time although we’re not much dedicated and talented to write comments on all those good stories and camera shots you post. You are doing an awesome road trip on the west coast. No Guard Rails!!! on the shore cliffs really triggered us to send you a friendly “Hello”. Keep rolling safely with Joy! Serge & Jo.