|
| Beautiful Northern Coast of California |
California Driving Trip of the Northern Coast and Wine Country – Highway 101, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino (10/1-12/2012) – This is the laid back uncrowded California that you dream about – and it’s real!
|
| Pat with Our Toyota Venza – Trididad, California |
We drove California’s beautiful Northern Coast on Highway 101 and Highway 1 north of San Francisco in our Toyota Venza. Below we present our highpoints of our trip offering great trip planning tips for you.
California’s northern coast is a landscape of rugged coastlines, towering forests, and beautiful lakes and rivers. It is countryside full of farms and vineyards and a place where small towns preserve the past. You can treat yourself to wine tasting in the wine country, experience wonders of nature in the California Redwoods, and drive the scenic coast for a romantic getaway or a relaxing beach vacation. You can also discover artist enclaves, fine dining, and local festivals. The politics are liberal and in some parts the economy depends on growing marijuana. Learn more about this unique region…
We started our adventure exploring California’s northern coast driving north of San Francisco across the famous Golden Gate Bridge. First stop was Sausalito. Located on San Francisco bay, Sausalito is a pretty town with outdoor cafes (see photo). On Sausalito’s main street, Bridgeway Blvd., we enjoyed crab enchiladas for lunch on the harbor with a view of San Francisco across the bay.
|
| Stinson Beach – California, USA |
Taking the pretty and winding Highway 1 northeast takes you through Marin Country and to Muir Woods, a beautiful old growth Redwood Forest. For more on California’s Redwoods, click here. Continuing north past Muir Beach, we stopped at Stinson Beach, a nice 3-mile long beach (see photo) with a small cute town.
Before continuing north, we enjoyed California’s premier wine regions of Napa, Sonoma, and the Russian River Valley located north of San Francisco. Some of the greatest wines in the world are produced here. Because we have previously done many wine-tasting trips to these areas, we decided to focus on the main towns visiting Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Geyserville, Calistoga, St. Helena, Yountville, and Sonoma. Our favorites were Sonoma, Healdsburg, and St. Helena.
|
| Pat with Our Toyota Venza – Beringer Winery, Napa Valley, California |
|
| Central Plaza – Healdsburg, California, USA |
We loved Sonoma’s cute town plaza with shops and restaurants surrounding it. Making things even more special, we attended the farmers market that going on with food and music – so much fun! Healdsburg also has a charming, Spanish-style central plaza (see photo), shaded by palm, redwood, and other trees and surrounded by quant shops, restaurants, wine tasting, upscale boutiques, and art galleries (see photo). OK, it appears we like these charismatic yesterday plazas.
|
| Old Faithful Geyser – Calistoga, California, USA |
St. Helena is also nice. No central plaza but it has an attractive 1880’s-looking Main Street with interesting shops and restaurants. St. Helena has been the center of the wine business for a century. We had great lunch at Annie’s Backdoor. We also had fun stopping in Calistoga and viewing Old Faithful geyser that shoots water about 100 feet high every 20-40 minutes (see photo).
|
| Calistoga, California, USA |
|
Enjoying the beautiful drives between these towns is often more fun than the towns themselves. Route 29 from St. Helena between and north of Calistoga passes wineries and beautiful countryside. Stopping for wine tasting is fun. River Road along the Russian River with the town of Jenner at the coast is very scenic with forest and river vistas and passes through quant towns.
|
| Mendocino, California, USA |
|
| Bed & Breakfast Hotel – Mendocino, California, USA |
Heading north on Highway 1, our next stop was Mendocino. Small but wonderful, Mendocino looks like a small town along New England with Victorian homes and stores (see photo). It is located right on the coast with a beautiful view of the rugged ocean cliffs with white ocean waves crashing in. We had a very nice lunch at the Mendocino Café and then wandered Main Street. Mendocino actually has real boardwalks made of wood.
|
| Pat Writing in ‘Write Room” – Andiron Seaside Inn |
We had a treat staying at The Andiron Seaside Inn & Cabins located a couple of miles from Mendocino. Every cabin is decorated in a different theme. Being travel writers, we stayed in the Write Cabin #6 where we could write on the walls (see photo). Pat wrote one of our favorite travel quotes: “The world is a book, and the person who stays at home reads but one page.” The hot tub in the woods is an enjoyable indulgence.
If you want to return the fast way back south from Mendocino, be sure to take Highway 128 from coast to Highway 101. It is a beautiful drive – redwoods in the north and wineries and country road to the south. We thought the small town of Boonville was cute.
|
| California’s Beautiful Northern Coastline |
We continued north on Highway 1 to Fort Bragg. We wanted to stop at Fort Bragg to visit Glass Beach that was once a city dumb creating thousands of small pieces of glass polished by the ocean waves. Glass Beach is not covered like it once was but you can find thousands of small pieces of glass mixed with the rock pebbles. From Fort Bragg, you can take the scenic Skunk Trainride.
Heading north, Highway 1 joins back up with Highway 101 taking you into California’s Humboldt Country. Humboldt Country has a couple of main claims to fame. One being a top Marijuana growing region in the U.S. Famous for producing some of the best marijuana in the world, the economy here depends on this crop.
|
| Bluegrass Band at Apple Harvest Fest – Fortuna, California, USA |
In Fortuna we attended their Apple Harvest Fest and had a great time listening and watching the children dance to a Bluegrass band (see photo). We visited Humboldt County to enjoy the absolutely spectacular California Redwoodsand the must-do Avenue of the Giants. California’s coastal Redwoods are so wonderful that they deserve their own blog post. For more on California’s Redwoods, click here.
|
| Victorian Buildings – Downtown Ferndale, California |
|
| Old Fashion Hardware Store – Ferndale, California, USA |
We next visited Ferndaleoff Highway 101. The entire town of Ferndale has been designed as a State Historical Landmark (see photos). The Victorian homes and buildings have remained largely untouched since the 1890’s making Ferndale one of the best complete examples of California’s Victorian era. They call these home “Butterfat houses” because this area became wealthy as dairy farmers, a tradition that still continues today. We had lunch at Mario’s Lost Coast Café & Bakery and recommend his holistic approach to food. The owner grinds his own flour and bakes his bread.
|
| Victorian Carson House – Eureka, California, USA |
|
| Pastels on the Plaza – Arcata, California, USA |
Next up heading north is the town of Eureka. Eureka is one of the largest towns on California’s northern coast. It has the beautiful Victorian Carson House (see photo) and a restored old town.
We liked the small town of Arcataand attended the Pastels on the Plazaevent where the chalk art lining the sidewalk of the central plaza was beautiful (see photo). Arcata is considered to be “hippy tolerate” because of their very liberal acceptance of young Rasta-style young people, complete with dreadlocks, who come to harvest the marijuana and stay in the streets.
We would like to thank Toyota for lending us a new Venza for this trip. The Toyota Venza is a very comfortable cruising car with many nice features – great for having an adventure. It made our trip more enjoyable. We liked this car very much and now miss it after our trip.
Please see our other 5 blog posts on beautiful California:
For free travel tips and cost-saving bargains:
- Like uson our community Facebook travel page
From a travel TV host (Plan Your Escape™), travel columnist for the Huffington Post, and experience traveler (100 countries), our popular selling 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and comprehensive how-to world travel book“Plan Your Escape™, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home” reveals secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from weekend getaways to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more! – for additional information and sign up for free travel tips and bargains, go to www.PlanYourEscapeNow.com
Source:
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
