Mendocino

We left at 9am and made several pit stops before arriving in Mendocino County around 2pm. We took 101 to the 128 freeway. It was a nice drive especially on the 128 where we stopped by several Anderson Valley appellations. The wineries are definitely more rustic than the commercialized wines in Napa. We liked the free wine tasting and the less “busy” or “rushed” atmosphere too. We stopped by Boonville to have lunch. They have a three stores in a row that sell mercantile and cute stationary/toy store along with one of my favorite cafes I found. The name of it is Mosswood Market. It’s cute because it has a county French feel to it. The interior is simply designed with cute cups and carafe of water given to us. The menu was simple but tasteful. We ordered two pressed sandwiches, Salami and Rueben (both were my favorite!). After lunch we continued driving along 128. It’s a two lane road so there really isn’t much except cows, rolling hills, dried grass that is golden in color and the hot and dry summer air. We finally arrived at our first destination, Standish winery. We tried a bunch of 2004 and 2005 Chardonnay and Pinot’s. The bf bought two bottles. I prefer Syrahs and Cabernet’s more. Back to driving in the heat……we finally hit “breeze” once we saw Mendocino Coastline.

Mendocino is a small town (1,200 people) with a lot of Victorian Bed and Breakfasts and hippy type of artist galleries and cafes. A distinction about this town is its “Water tank” towers made from wood. The visitor guide said they use to pump water from these water tanks and maybe they still do? This place is also known for filming the exterior of Blair House from the syndication, “Murder she wrote”. It was a pretty easy to navigate town. We parked really close to the B&B and just walked everywhere. It was cloudy with breaks of sunshine. We went to this organic coffee shop, strolled around town to Rainsong clothing and to Garden Bakery. You can read my reviews elsewhere of these restaurants. We checked in at 4pm at JD House (Very Crate and Barrel by the seaside!!!) and then rested a bit before we drove to Fort Bragg. FB is 8 miles away. Before driving to FB, we checked out the menu at Café Beaujois. We decided we liked the menu and we called to make reservation. Thankfully we made early reservation because the restaurant was packed (there was an 1 hour wait with two waitresses and one hostess).

At FB, we went to North Coast Brewing company to do some beer tasting. Well the bf did the tasting. I just watched the baseball game (Giants vs. the Red Sox!). We decided there wasn’t much to explore in FB so we drove back to Mendocino to call the restaurant to see if we can get an earlier table instead of the 8:15pm one. Lo and behold, we scored a 730pm one. We watched Commando!! Hahaha. The bf was laughing at me for remembering the scenes and the script! I think I use to watch it with my cousin that’s why I remembered  We started to walk around 7:15 for our 730pm reservation. The chef who founded CB also wrote the cookbook recipe, “Morning Foods”. We ordered a wild mushroom dish, nieman ranch filet mignon and a sturgeon fish. For dessert it was Cherry Tatin. Mmmmm. We got wines too. 

We liked we were able to walk home on a starry night 

Day #2:

In the morning we woke up around 830am to walk ourselves into the main house to have breakfast. There was fresh fruit, granola, milk, tea, OJ, yogart, quiche/frittata and raisin scones. We drove to FB to visit Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. We walked there (about 1 mile walk). It was windy not too muddy and we saw like 5 deers!! I was scared they were going to come attack us. We had a really prideful tour guide giving us the 411 on the lighthouse and it’s inception. I sponsored them by buying a couple of postcards  Then we walked back to our car and decided to pick up some bread at Brickery at CB. We got the Olive Toulasse and I picked up some Swiss Guyere cheese from this rainbow looking co-op grocery. They sell fresh PB and yougart there too! Neat huh? There were two White folks who were speaking Mandarin too. Pretty neat I would have to say.

We decided to drive on Hwy 1 instead of taking the 128Hwy route back. Along Hwy 1 ( I remember passing towns like Marshall, Point Arena), Stopping by Fort Ross to visit the historical site. On a whim, we kept driving and just ate in the car. We stopped by this cool co-op place with organic foods. Then we made it to Marshall in time to taste Hog Island oysters with no line and the guy only charged us $5 total!! Cool!!!! We decided we didn’t want to drive down Hwy 1 anymore so we cut across to San Rafael. Stopped by Fairfield to use the bathroom and then made it back to SF in time to pick up dry cleanings by 6pm!

I had my favorite thing, Pho for dinner.

That’s the end of my trip.

For pictures and restaurant reviews. Please ask 