Point Reyes trip

Hi all! I'm back from Point Reyes. I wrote a LOT about my trip in a little notebook, and I don't know if I'll have time to write it all here, but I'll give it a go.

Friday, we hit town a little after 12:30, walked through a couple bookstores, then got pastries and coffee (pain au chocolate for me and a sticky bun for Sweetie) at the Bovine Bakery and sat on a bench in the sun. It had rained (and even hailed a little) on the way down, so the sunshine was a pleasant surprised. We then checked into Motel Inverness; it was a small room, but the lobby was nice, and the innkeeper was building a huge fire in the massive stone fireplace. The grounds were gorgeous (right on the bay), and we were "welcome to use the bird blind." We decided to go to the beach, so we started driving... and driving. We were headed for the lighthouse, but it was taking FOREVER, so we pulled off at South Beach. There were scary wave advisories, so we pretty much stayed away from the water, but we hung out and looked at the waves for a long time. The water up close was foamy and white, further out was pale green, the horizon was a dark indigo line, and the clouds were a purply storm. It was gorgeous. I've never seen this, either, but the horizon was bumpy! You could see it moving. The sea must have been really choppy. The beach was deserted for a long time until another couple drove up. It must have normally been pretty well used, though, because there were the remains of several fires, and a fair amount of trash, sadly enough. Sweetie even leaned over to look at what he thought was a pretty rock, and it was a pistachio shell. We drove back, passing several ranches (all named letters, like "M Ranch"). and in Inverness, the Dacha, which is a building that hangs out over the water on stilts, and is topped rather inexplicably with about 12 minarets.
We poked around Pt. Reyes Station a bit more, and while in Cowgirl Creamery, I said "Ooh, we'll have to get some things from here before we go!" Sweetie smirked, and wouldn't tell me why until we got outside. Then he said "Are you planning to sell my kidney to buy something there?" Sure enough, when we went back later, I admired some plum jam and saw that it was $18.50. I think my gasp was audible. That night we went to the Station House Inn for dinner, and it was really good. I had a veggie Shepherd's Pie, and it was delicious!
The next morning we got pastries again, this time from the Busy Bee Bakery, which was in Inverness Park and was charming as all get out. Sweets had another sticky bun and I had a tangerine spice scone. We liked our pastries and assumed that the chocolate croissant was good, since a French guy in there had two. Then we drove to Stinson Beach. It was a long but lovely drive, through rolling green hills, eucalyptus groves, around Bolinas Lagoon, through Dogtown (population 30, but with an art gallery!). We got a couple beautiful hours of sunshine, even though it was cold. We had brought long books and a beach blanket, and had a great time. It was lovely out, and iridescent foamy bubbles were drifting along the sand.
Back in Pt. Reyes, we got a sandwich and salad and ginger beers from the market. For store food, it was REALLY good. My salad had feta, dried cranberries, artichoke hearts, and balsamic vinaigrette. We took a nap that afternoon, then went to Vladimir's for dinner.
Now, I had seen on the internet that at Vladimir's, "Food and entertainment" was provided by the owner. That sounded good. What I didn't really think about was that at a Czech restaurant, I might not find much to eat. Well, I should have thought about that, as the ENTIRE menu was meat-centric. Not just meat-centric, but entirely meat-filled. Still, the waiter was super-nice, and he got the chef to hook me up with some sauteed veggies, as well as the dumplings, braised cabbage, and hot rye bread that came with every entree. I'm actually glad we went there, because we had a really good time. Sweetie described the interior as looking just like the place that, in D&D, you go to meet your fellow campaigners. He narrated for me: "You see an elf shooting fire from his fingertips." "I go talk to him." "You see a burly guy drinking at the bar." "I go talk to him."
It was all red leather, low chandeliers, horseshoe candleholders... Until about halfway through our dinner, we were the ONLY people eating there. Everyone else was clustered around the bar, and it was obvious they were locals. An interesting side note was that one of them was Bob Giacomini, maker of Point Reyes Farmstead Blue Cheese, who is a distant married-in relative of my Boompah.
Vladimir himself was an old guy entertaining the crowd at the bar, wearing a tam and athletic socks pulled up to his knees, and some sort of maybe vaguely ethnic outfit. Hard to say. He grunted us to a table, then his nephew took over.
That night wechecked out the bird blind, then pretty much watched TV, cracked a bottle of dessert wine, and that was that.
Sunday morning we went to the Pine Cone Cafe, which I can't recommend highly enough. The Coastal Traveler had said it offered food for "citified" tastes, and a Chronicle review mentioned its "citified" flavors as well. A really strange adjective for what was basically a very traditional diner, just with fresh, local, organic ingredients. I had a spinach, swiss, avocado and caramelized onion omelette, and I'm not sure I've ever had a better omelette. It was delicious. The decor was retro-50s, with map of America curtains, and overall a sweet, if Twin-Peaksy vibe. I loved it. I would totally go back there, and the lunch menu looked good, too. It was hard to turn down the honey-wheat pancakes. Mmmm. The organic thing is big there -- that's why Prince Charles visited, apparently -- and I don't think we had a cup of coffee that wasn't organic and fair trade the entire time we were there.
After breakfast we drove to Dillon Beach, which was a bit of a disappointment, because, beautiful as the view was, there was only one place to park, it cost $5, and it was raining. We turned around and went back to Tomales, where we had more pastry! (I just had "Chai-ish" tea, but Sweets bought a sticky bun for later.) We sat in a little covered area outside the bakery and watched the drizzle. Tomales is very pretty, in an old west sort of way. All the buildings on the main street look just like they must have 100 years ago. We were puzzled by the building that looked just like a bank that had a big sign that said "Not a Bank."
I really wanted to do a little shopping, so we went to Point Reyes Station again and I poked my head in most of the shops. Sweetie bought a beautiful photo called "Mt. Vision Moonrise" and I got some nudie postcards and a windchime. I liked these cool "vegetable papyrus" bowls made of dried really thin slices of veggies like purple potatoes and woven longbeans. Then we went to Olema for more shopping, and I LOVED the stores there. One was more arty, with textiles, scarves, books, and jewellery. I salivated over some hand-tooled leather purses. One store was more mixed-up, with pottery, imports, vintage jewellery (I had to get a pair of clip on chandelier earrings)... The final one was crazy, with original clothing designs that I really liked, with funky prints of Chinese babies and cowboy boots and sushi and stuff. They also had more funky jewellery (I got a Bettie Page bracelet and pin-up girl earrings). I also got Moe a super-Moe outfit, which I'm sure the boys will blog about later. The clothing was expensive, but they had all kinds of great stuff. I loved it. It was totally quirky -- they even had Lucha Libre masks. The ad in the Coastal Traveler described it as selling "women's clothing, men's stuff & fun things." Its hours were "noonish to sundownish." It was fun.
Then we got a baguette, apple, pear, some black pepper chevre, and candy and chocolate. We drove around a bit more and found Manka's (a super-duper fancy restaurant), then ate our goodies in our room. We dinked around some more and I took another nap (I love vacation!), then we went to Priscilla's for dinner. It was a homey little pizza shop next to Vladimir's, and we had a good dinner. I had pizza margherita, one of my favorites. Afterwards we walked out towards the bay and watched the clouds (pinky from the sunset and reflected in the water, with deep gray puffs in front of them). Then we walked back towards the car, but both noticed a little park at the same moment. It was tiny, but really charming. There were wooden steps up to it, a big log set up as a bench, bulbs and cherry trees, little flowering things, a fountain, and sweet ferny things growing up all over. I don't know what they really were, but they might even have been some kind of pine sapling. They looked lacy and delicate, but when I touched them they felt like pine needles. They were the shape of pine trees in minature. There were more at the motel, which had beautiful grounds, too, including several sweet pieces of statuary and bunches of calla lilies.
This morning before we left, we ate at the Bovine Bakery again. I had an Armando roll, like a cinnamon roll, but with apples and raisins! Sweetie had his third sticky bun of the trip, and we headed out of town. Sigh. We had a really nice time, and a good drive today too -- we got lost a little, but it was a nice drive anyway.

That's about it. Take care everybody!