Sea Ranch

Second to last of the Sonoma posts, I promise!

Several years back, Conrad and I spent a weekend in SF with Courtney and Robert.  Just being tourists, no agenda.  It was a nice time.  One of the highlights for me (other than all of us having dinner at Chez Panisse) was visiting the art museum (I can't recall which one) and seeing an exhibit about Sea Ranch.  There was a reconstruction of a home in the gallery and a lot of cool stuff that showed off the design - architecturally as well as graphic.  It stayed with me even as a key piece did not:  Sea Ranch was not a utopian experiment that was abandoned.  Rather, it still exists and thrives and grows.  I learned this from Van shortly after we met him - he took a trip up that way and told us about it.  The three of us have idly talked (as we often do about similar locales) about what it would be like to retire there (beautiful, too isolated).  And, finally last month, I had my opportunity to visit.

We drove the short distance up from Timber Cove in time to have lunch at the Sea Ranch Lodge. 

What a handsome place that is.  Conrad and Van have plans to stay there in September, and I'm a little jealous.  They'll have a relaxing time there, and if our lunch is any indication, the food will be good.  A fritto misto,

a shared salad,

some bacon-wrapped dates,

a refreshing herbal iced tea -

it was a delicious lunch, and the menu had a lot more that looked appealing.

Lunch done, we wandered the Lodge complex a little,

then headed out toward the sea bluffs. 

A bright and sunny day, yes, but also very breezy by the water.  The scarf kept the sun off my neck but also kept me warm enough! 

What a glorious day, though.  Ah yes, I am a little jealous of their future stay there.

From there, we drove north, making it all the way into Mendocino County to get gas (and a bottle of water or two) in Gualala, but otherwise stopping at a couple of places in the Sea Ranch community.  One of those was the little interfaith chapel, which looked a little like a Hobbit residence, but turned out to be a gem of a building. 

The stained glass was lovely,

and the inside felt spacious enough, not closed in.  I thought it was delightful.  We then parked where there was a path to head down to waterfront access and walked through the trees and past homes to get out by the sea again. 

So fantastic.  I didn't like every home I saw there, but I generally had serious real estate envy that day.  Again, so isolated (imagine a medical emergency up that way!), but a guy can fantasize about a second home up there after winning a lottery, right?

It was a terrific afternoon of seeing a community I had heard about for so long, and I was so very glad we did.

a day with John and Bryan

If you poke around in the tags for this archive, you will find a tag for John and Bryan.  Different people, a different time.  That John and Bryan have not been together for many years now (since before we left Chicago), and we've drifted away from John over the years.  It happens, alas.

So, a new John and Bryan, Van's friends.  John and Van were fraternity brothers at CU-Boulder decades back, and Bryan is John's longtime husband.  Confusingly, Van and John have a fraternity brother whom Van stays in touch with also named Bryan.  Thankfully, that Bryan is not currently dating or married to a John!  Oh, and John and Bryan know Allan and Paul in part because they all lived in Santa Rosa for a time and also because John and Allan both work in real estate.  I'm still going to use the same John and Bryan tag, though.  So, clear as mud?  Great!  Let's proceed....

Our second full day in Sonoma (and writing that, I'm really realizing what a compact trip it was and how much we did but also how much driving to and from there was on top of the flights), we met up with John and Bryan at their new house in Sonoma, which proved to be not that far from our hotel.  Nice to see them - it's been a couple of years or more for me!  From there, they drove us to lunch at Bear, the restaurant at the Stanly Ranch resort in Napa.  Handsome place!  I had a pork belly and fried rice dish that I really got into. 

We held off on wines - that was to come!

John and Bryan had planned for us to try two wineries that day:  Cuvaison and Donum.  Hooray!  Who doesn't love a winery visit? 

When we got to the modern-looking Cuvaison tasting room

and settled in, I had the realization that Conrad and I had been there years before, on  a tour we took the day after I ran the Napa Marathon.  It was nice to be back.  I liked the wines, but, sadly, we had to rush through the tasting to make a tasting appointment time at Donum.  A shame - the setting was pretty glorious,

and we might have bought a bottle or two had we lingered.

Where Cuvaison was a lovely but typical wine tasting experience, Donum was a very different thing.  The wine tour was at an appointed time and with a group that included others.  Rather than collect around a tasting counter or table, we were taken out into the winery grounds.  As we went along, we learned about the impressive sculpture collection on the grounds. 

I especially liked the stained glass structure that represented a spreadsheet of environmental data from a year in the vineyard. 

That was cool.  The wine-making building was interesting, too -

that design on the wall is actually venting for the facility. 

Did I mention, by the way, that they poured wines during the tour? 

We did finish in the tasting room. 

Excellent wines, start to finish, though, and Van ended up joining the wine club.  I hope he'll stick with it.  I would enjoy having those wines in the future, for sure!

We headed to dinner from there, a place in Kenwood called Stella.  Lovely place, a newer restaurant.  Pasta was the specialty.  I liked the burrata and asparagus I had,

and the pasta with chicken livers was good (but not photogenic), but I think we all thrilled to share the baked Alaska dessert. 

A small quibble:  that wasn't baked.  Torched, yes, and definitely tasty, but not baked.  No matter.  It was a good end to a very good day with John and Bryan.

Timber Cove

Have I mentioned that Van has a real talent for finding such lovely, delightful hotels for our vacations?  Really, he does.  Oh, yes, he, I, we pay more for the stay than we would at many other places.  That's fine.  As I get older, I so greatly appreciate how comfortable the stays are.

Midway through our trip to Sonoma County, we left the town and headed for the coast.  Past vineyards and rolling, green, pastoral settings and then it felt like the coast suddenly opened up before us. 

We were heading to the northernmost part of the county, almost to Mendocino County.  Timber Cove is a place I'd heard of from Van before (and, if I remember correctly, he and Conrad visited there together).  I don't know what I had in my mind exactly - something built into or clinging to sea cliffs, perhaps - but this wasn't it.  Timber Cove turned out to be sort of hipster luxury rustic, if that makes sense.  Likely not, I know.  But I loved what I saw when we arrived!

The great room was a terrific early impression once we got inside,

and then we got to our room.  A broad balcony with an amazing view of the ocean! 

We did spend some time that afternoon sipping the sparkling wine they had left for us, enjoying that view, especially as the sun got lower. 

But the room was cool. 

Again, kind of rustic, kind of hipster (a record player - there was a record library downstairs to borrow from)

(the Shaun Cassidy record was already in the room - my first little gay boy crush!),

and definitely spacious and comfortable.

Van and I had an easy dinner at the bar of the hotel that evening. 

They had a great bar, and even though the coast population is sparse and spread out, it seemed there were locals there to enjoy the live music. 

We did, that's for sure.  I am sorry I don't have her name, but she performed well.  The destination was gold at the end of a lovely drive north.

I've posted photos of the lovely flowers that were blooming on the hotel grounds, but here are some more shots from that morning walk. 

Benjamin Bufano's Peace Obelisk,

which sits within its own circle of state park just above the hotel, commands the setting,

but the whole area was glorious to have all to myself that morning.

Ah, and then there was breakfast. 

Our first meal that day at the hotel.  I'll save the dinner for a later post.

Thank you to Van for such a treat.  I love seeing the hotels he chooses for us.  More Sonoma to come!