It’s been a busy couple of days, so busy that we’ve been totally bagged by the time we get back to the hotel! We’re sleeping well, though, and really enjoying our fabulous breakfast buffet each morning. What a way to start the day – fresh fruit and orange juice, nice scones, great coffee…
Yesterday, we wanted to go off the beaten track a bit, and boy, did we ever. We headed west, through Sebastopol and out to Hwy 1 along the coast. We actually passed through a town with a population of just 30 (Dogtown, CA) Now that’s a small town.
The coast highway surprised me just outside of Stinson Beach; I was checking the map, and when I looked up and out, I nearly passed out – we were up high, and right on the edge overlooking the Pacific. Note to self: one trip on the coast highway is enough. It was very pretty, mind you, but it was freaky driving all the same. Curt did really well, took it easy and was very careful, even with his wife white knuckling over in the passenger seat.
We decided to forgo heading further down south and went to San Rafael instead. San Rafael is home to the 20th mission on the 21 California Mission Chain (San Francisco Solano in Sonoma is the last one, #21), and it was a beautiful visit. We had already bumped into two beautiful country churches on the way out – one in Bodega, St. Teresa of Avila, which we found out later was used in Hitchcock’s The Birds; and the second in Tomales, the Church of the Assumption. It was open for us to go in, and very inviting, even though there wasn’t a soul around. I think both Curt and I felt both the sense of history (it was built in 1860) and a sense of peace there. It was hard to leave.
We left San Rafael and headed back to Santa Rosa in the late afternoon. We went over to Santa Rosa Plaza for a bit, shopped a bit, ate a little, came back and chilled out. It seems we keep sleeping in later and later every day – it’s going to be hard to get back to our regular routine, but it’s been fantastic sleeping in and staying up late watching American TV.
Today, we hit San Fran – but more about that tomorrow!
PS: Pictures are uploading on Flickr – make sure to check them out and make comments there or here as you like!
