Through Sea Ranch, Salt Point State Park, Fort Ross State Historic Park the highway rises and twists before dropping down into Jenner. We pulled over to admire the view of the Russian River meeting the Pacific and watch a few kayakers drift along. Suddenly, eagle-eyed Sue noticed what looked to be a pile of driftwood was actually a collection of harbor seals!
After taking turns looking through the binoculars at the seals and getting a wee chill in the fog, the Cafe Aquatica made for the perfect warm-up latte pit stop.
Continuing on, we almost lost Sue to the local surf boys at the Sonoma Coast State Beach.... Actually wait — we almost lost her to the local authorities when she tried to sneak our beach house recycling into the clearly marked "No Household Recycling Please" beach boxes! Can't take the environmental outta the girl it seems!
Keir toured us all through the Alfred Hitchcock filming sites of The Birds around Bodega Bay before we made it to the renowned organic brick-oven bakery - Wild Flour Bakery - in Freestone.
It was a veritable madhouse inside and a line up out the door! Hands were flying to loaves of perfectly shaped sour dough varieties, sticky buns and scones lined up on butcher block counters. Wait — I'm not talking about the Overton hands flying here, either! No squeezing the loaves allowed here!
Thankfully there was a sampling "bar" where the varieties could be tasted free of charge. We elbowed our way out of there with a regular sour dough loaf, a sticky bun and several scones.
Out back of the bakery proved to the perfect picnic spot to enjoy our wares. The Wild Flower Gardens were chock full of lovely looking fruit and veg (no sampling allowed in here though - that said we had to empty out Susan's pockets upon leaving!!).
Here's the happy fam! (Good actors, aren't we?)
We took the incredibly scenic Bohemian Highway (think rolling meadows, followed by hilly vineyards, followed by thick redwood forest) up through the picturesque little town of Occidental, which is described in our book as the "favorite West County town — a haven of artists, back-to-the-landers and counter culturalists."
This time, the fog had cleared and we enjoyed a perfectly sunny drive back along Hwy 1, stopping to savour the rocky coastal views.
In celebration of Canadian Thanksgiving, we made a special dinner — individual mushroom/goat cheese/pine nut phyllo packets, a squash and gruyere tart and steamed lemony broccoli. Note the Bandon-by-the-Sea made cranberry preserve on the phyllo packets! For dessert, Margaret treated us to some homemade rice pudding.
A Thanksgiving feast indeed!
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