Sonoma Coastline

A former sheep ranch is home now to a gated community that - supposedly - is about two hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.

In reality, if one takes Route 1 along the coast all the way up to Sea Ranch, it would take almost 3 hours. This “off season” time of year there’s precious little open in the way of stores, gas stations and restaurants once you pass Point Reyes Station, about an hour into the drive.

The goal was to go up the coastline an undetermined distance to “see what they could see” and possibly to meet up with an entrepreneur and visionary whom I often work with. He lives in Mendocino - when he’s home. I didn’t realize quite how far that really is from Silicon Valley.

In reality, Friday night was a stop-over in Jenner, where the Russian River meets the Pacific, at a neat little inn with cottages that perch on the hill above the river. With names like Mill Cottage, Brambleberry, Xanadu and Orca, the rooms and cottages provide a variety of amenities, including breakfast.

Since lunch wasn’t so easy to find, the Jenner Inn and Cottages hostess suggested a place “up the road about 20” that served lunch - the Timber Cove Inn - that was also the home to the Bufano Peace Statue. Arriving there after about another hour, including a one-lane road that was being used while a slide area in the redwoods was being repaired, the fact that lunch was not being served was readily apparent. This hostess suggested going on a bit more to Sea Ranch, which had both a continual serving of food, from the bar menu in the mid-afternoon, which is now was. It also had, she promised, a beach that was accessible.

Both turned out to be the case. The Sea Ranch is a former sheep ranch that is now a “gated” community with its own postal code, complete with the old-school postal boxes (with glass inset) that are rapidly being replaced by the silver metal monsters. Wonderful food served in a sun room, followed by a walk to the beach, then a round of hot chocolate back in the lodge.

A place to explore again.