Beer, beer, beer, and Mendocino

You know what's sad? When you haven't blogged since September.

You know what's sadder? When the last thing you blogged about actually took place in August.

You know what's saddest? When a friend of yours sends you a "Happy Anniversary" email in October, because she doesn't notice that your blog hasn't been updated in a month and talks about events that happened two months ago.


There's been a heck-a-lot happening in Thathouse which has severely limited my internetting capabilities. More on that later. Probably a lot later. Because I have SO much to catch you up on. But I should probably finish up with our Mendocino anniversary trip first!


We started off our last day by visiting Point Cabrillo Light Station. I almost felt like Alice going through the looking glass since we have our very own Cabrillo lighthouse down here in San Diego.

Our Cabrillo has a little museum dealing with whales. Because it's a prime whale watching point. Actually, it's a prime San Diego watching point. You can see everything from up there. But this Cabrillo light house, since it's in Northern California, give you an up close and personal view of Abalone (which might be the national animal of Northern California).


(This is what an abalone looks like when it's still alive, not on your plate)

But like the San Diego counterpart, this Point Cabrillo had some truly spectacular views.



For most of our trip the ocean was covered in a dense fog. But as if Mother Nature knew we'd be leaving soon, she wiped it all away for our final day.






All that walking around and gazing out at the water made us hungry, so we headed up to Fort Bragg because one of the things Mendocino has to offer is an amazing array of beer. Before we headed to Mendocino we bought all the Mendocino beer we could get our hands on. We really enjoyed some of the beers from North Coast Brewery so we made a point of getting there on our trip.



Thatboy saw a chili dog on the menu and was all in. Because, you know, we all need food to go with our beer. Or some of us do. But to be fair, how often do you see chili dogs on a menu?



I went super high class. Well, high class as compared with the chili dog - ham and brie with mango chutney on a croissant. Did you notice the fries on both of our plates? They've covered in garlic. As all fries should be.

But we should get to the part you're all anxious for, the beer!



We ordered a sampler so we could try all their beers. And we took notes. On a napkin, but notes nonetheless.



We already knew we loved the Brother Thelonious (in fact, we just had a bottle tonight), but we found some new favorites. We especially loved Pranqster which found its way into Thatbrother's birthday present last month.

And after all that beer, it was time for more walking and gazing. There was a lot of walking and gazing on this trip. This time we headed to a park that would allow Thatdog - Russian Gulch State Park. And we headed out on a coastal trail that let us take in how amazing the day was without the fog.










I love these guys playing mirror mirror on the picnic benches. Thatdog loved them too. He loves to charge them and let them know that it is NOT okay for them to be anywhere he can see them.


I love my artist in action shots.



And honestly, we we hadn't had enough gazing, so we headed back to our room to gaze some more. I mentioned before we had a spectacular view of the ocean. We decided to take advantage of it since we could actually see it. Besides, how romantic is it to sit with your honey and watch the sunset?





Well, maybe with your honey it would be romantic. I was stuck with this guy:



At least we had pizza!



I let Thatboy pick out our pizza from Piaci Pizza. He ordered one that was divided in fourths, with each fourth having a separate topping. (Mushroom, cheese, roma tomato, and ham) Which he didn't realize when he ordered it, even though the menu spelled it out explicitly.




We both loved the Roma Tomato section best.


The next day we headed out - but not home. Because really, what fun would that be? Thatboy took the scenic route this time, which wound along the coast and made me feel like I was in some Merchant Ivory film. We made a stop in Point Reyes and discovered the mothership:



Cowgirl Creamery! I'm lucky enough to get this at my local cheese store, but not with NEARLY the selection you can get at their home base. And even what I can get isn't nearly as fresh. Thatboy and I had a picnic in the grass with leftover pizza, watermelon, and Red Hawk cheese that had been made that morning.

Okay, that's probably good for now. I'm EXHAUSTED and Thatboy's promised to pull the couch out so we can have sofabed Saturday night. PLUS I've got some sugar cookie dough that is just dying to be put in the oven. So bear with me - I'll post when I can and make the posts as entertaining as possible, but I can't make any promises as to frequency.

Mendocino's Sites and Tastes

I woke up bright and early our first morning in Mendocino to go for that 10 mile run I mentioned in my half marathon recount. The first mile of it was running along the freeway, on the shoulder which hardly existed. Anytime a car came near I slowed to a walk and pushed myself as close to the drop off as possible. Luckily, that early in the morning there wasn't much traffic. Eventually I came to my destination for the majority of my run - Russian Gulch Park. I wish I had brought my camera because it was SUCH a gorgeous run, over the bridges and through the woods, through fern gulches with huge pines towering overhead. I came home in time to jump in the shower and head to breakfast before we headed in to Mendocino itself for a little exploring.

The town of Mendocino is VERY small. Thatboy had warned me about that. The downtown area really consisted of two main streets, one of which was mostly consumed with historic buildings.

But we did happen to stubble upon some incredibly fresh raspberry bark and couldn't pass it up. After I bought a couple sticks for the two of us, I was chastised by someone in the know for not treating them reverently enough. We kind of rolled our eyes.

And then we tried them. And all of a sudden, I was very kitten mittens with our extra delicate cargo that couldn't be messed up AT ALL because they were one of the best things we've ever eaten. How come everyone doesn't eat these all the time?

Fittingly for our fourth anniversary (traditional gift = flowers) Mendocino was abloom with. . . blooms. Gardens poked out from between buildings, homes, and in every free space there was.

When we had finished going in and out of the local shops, we headed for a little hike along the coast, which ended down along the beach.

Thatdog LOVES running along the beach. We're lucky enough to live in an area where we can take him to the beach on a fairly regular basis, so he knows exactly what to do. What to do = chase the waves as the come in until his supreme machoness makes the waves retreat.

After a full day, we headed back to the Inn for some wine and appetizers where Thatboy fell in love with some artichoke spread. And then it was off to our very fancy anniversary dinner.

When I was researching places to eat in Mendocino, one restaurant continued to pop up - La Petite Rive. Reservations were a must since there were only 8 tables and 2 seatings for dinner. But we were able to get in, which made me feel very fortunate indeed. And this was before we discovered that the innkeeper who called me his "little runner girl" was the chef at the restaurant along with his wife. We happened to dine on a night where his wife ran the kitchen. And honestly, we couldn't have asked for a better meal!

La Petite Rive works similarly to a tasting menu you would find elsewhere - with a twist. You order your entree, and they take care of bringing you the other four courses. While we waited to order, we ordered a bottle of Cabernet Franc by Rivino. AMAZING. We were blown away by this wine, and we definitely were impressed when we saw what a small batch it came from - only 46 cases were produced. Have I gushed before about how much we love small wineries? So we were tickled when our amuse bouche arrived - beef rolled in gorgonzola and walnut with a small taster of the cab franc. Guess we made a good selection!

Next came a garlic soup which might have been THE BEST SOUP I'VE EVER HAD. Seriously. I'm tempted to email Troy and offer our first born in trade for the recipe. I've seen Troy with kids...he might take me up on it. This was amazingly delicious. Good description right? I can't help it. SO GOOD. No words are enough. Even if the rest of the meal was a fail I would come back for this soup.

And then our salad - greens dressed with a citrus vinaigrette and yummy toasted almonds. I love how something so simple can taste so amazing. Nothing fancy, but every note was pitch perfect (that works for more than just music, right?)

As we ate our salad, I noticed our waitress outside picking flowers. Those flowers then showed up as garnishes as our palette refreshers - mango sorbet. Really, what's not to like about sorbet? Cool refreshing, and obviously cleansing.

For a main course, Thatboy had the filet mignon. I love filet mignon, so take my word for it when I say this was perfect and tender.

But my meal was definitely the winner. The rack of lamb, encrusted in baked goat cheese. Seriously - lamb in goat cheese????? How I could I NOT order this? And it lived up to the hype I had created in my head. The goat cheese was such a great creamy, tangy complement to the sweet rich meat.

For dessert we ordered the chocolate cake. Mostly because Thatboy loves chocolate and dessert and me? I was just fine with my wine and lamb. Although I did eat all the strawberries on top of the slice.

But it's always nice to end an anniversary celebration with cake, right? And this was definitely the way to go out. It was SUCH a fantastic end to another year of marriage and gave us hopes for the next.

Anniversary in Mendocino: 4 years and we haven't killed each other yet

I can't remember how long we had been dating, but I remember from a very early date Thatboy had our retirement all planned out. His long term goal was for us to retire to Mendocino, CA where we would run our own little bed and breakfast. Honestly, he's been talking about this for years.

Mendocino is a little coastal town north of San Francisco where he spent many a childhood summer camping with his family. As for me? I'd never even heard of the place when we started dating, and 10 years later I still hadn't been. So we decided for our 4 year anniversary we would spend a long weekend checking out this place we were supposed to be wiling away our golden years.

We decided to roadtrip that sucker so Thatdog could come with us. Early on a Thursday morning we dogpiled into the car and then we peoplepiled in, ready for the 12 hour drive.

We did our typical route up to the Bay Area, crossed over into Marin County, through Sonoma County, and that's when things started getting new and exciting for me. We wound through dense forests on narrow roads. There were so many trees that it grew dark and cold as we drove.

Once we were through the forest though, we saw the light. And the coast! And it wasn't long before we pulled into our home away from home for the next few nights. Inn at Schoolhouse Creek. So called because it was...an inn...on Schoolhouse Creek. So called because the first school house in the area was built here, beside a creek.

The "main house" where we had breakfast and our afternoon wine and snacks.



During breakfast the innkeepers put out birdseed on the tree stumps outside those windows so we had loads of woodland creatures joining us - bunnies, squirrels, birds, even some families of quail!




And then our rooms. Thatboy and I stayed in one of the rooms built during the crazy motel phase of America so there were three rooms in a row, but all looking out over the ocean.



Thatboy let me pick the room, and he was glad he did - wood everywhere, a huge deck, and a fireplace that functioned as a heater. Everytime it got cold, it would just turn on! And even though it was August, it got plenty cold.




And the Inn especially catered to its four legged guests. Upon check in, That dog was given a special goodie bag.




Thatdog LOVES his new tennis ball. I think he knew it was a special present, because he hasn't ripped it into pieces like most of his toys. And the goodie bag wasn't the only pet friendly aspect.




There was a giant field for him to run around in. And chairs for when he got tired of running.



And a hammock that sat beside the creek. Thatdog was a little nervous about this swinging thing, but he eventually got the hang of it.



Because his mom and dad make him do all sorts of things he hates. And they're mean enough to hold him on a hammock until he realizes it's not going to eat him alive.



And there were loads of other things to amuse us - I just love giant chess sets. Except I can never remember how to play chess. I've been taught a million times, but it goes right in and right out. I think I remember the horsie moves in an L shape....





And there were the resident donkeys...who were much less interested in Thatdog than he was in them.

Once we were all settled in, we headed out to dinner at The Moosse Cafe - a dog friendly restaurant in Mendocino. Well, the patio is dog friendly, so we got to sit outside with a view of the garden.

One of the attractive things about Mendocino is that it is known for both the wines and beers produced in the Anderson Valley. We knew we were going to do a lot of partaking in both. So Thatboy started early with one of our favorite breweries from the area - Anderson Valley Brewery.


Anderson Valley Brew Co is a "green" brewery, using solar power to make its beers. The entire area is very organic and eco-friendly. But it's especially nice when a beer can have a social conscious AND be good too. The Oatmeal Stout is a nice sweet dark beer. I had my 10 miler the next morning, so I only had a sip of Thatboy's, but I would have had more as it lacked the overly hoppy flavor of many of Southern CA's microbrews.



I mentioned earlier that it was cold, even for August. We came prepared in our winter coats, especially since we figured we'd be dining al fresco with Thatdog. It's a good thing we did. Thatboy and I split some mushroom barley soup to warm up! It was absolutely perfect timing and temperature.

Thatdog didn't get the benefit of soup and you could tell this was another one of those moments where he was questioning our sanity for being outside in the cold when we had a perfectly nice room with tennis balls we could be sitting in.



For dinner, Thatboy had salmon with wild mushrooms in a curry sauce. He loved it so much he kept trying to get me to try his sauce - but I declined because of the proximity to the fish. For some reason proximity didn't bother me too much with his mushrooms though. SO delicious and buttery.



I had the crispy organic chicken breast stuffed with a citrus-fennel and olive butter, served with thyme-scented couscous, baby carrots, sun chokes and a tomato-balsamic relish. Now, I love vegetables pretty much any way they're served, but the balsamic relish was to die for! I love the sweet vinegary burn. And as someone who doesn't usually like chicken skin, I was planning on giving it to Thatdog for a special treat. Until I had a bite. And then it was much more "one bite for me, one bite for you."

We were tempted to get some dessert to go home, but we were tired, and full, and knew that we wanted to take advantage of something else our Inn had to offer.



The creekside hot tub! Because it's set away from the rooms, the hot tub is available for dipping pleasure 24 hours a day. And that fence area meant Thatdog could join us! The only problem was we couldn't find a light anywhere, so it was a very dark dip - and that also meant we couldn't keep a good eye on Thatdog. So we made it a quick dip and headed back to our room to enjoy the fireplace and some wine. After all, it was just our first day and we were itching to start the real exploring the next day.