Words are everything

Petaluma and Point Reyes

Nick and I took a last-minute weekend getaway to the town of Petaluma this past weekend. The town itself isn't too pretty, but it had some great restaurants and beautiful scenery just past its borders.

We stayed at this French-style boutique hotel called the Metro. Our room was super cute and tiny, but for the price we paid it was well worth it. They had lot of French antiques but still gave it a modern setting.


We ate at some great restaurants, not spending more than $100 for three courses for each of us. One was a modern Thai restaurant, another a tiny French bistro with only nine tables. The next night we ate at a much larger American style bistro in historic downtown where the chef signed the day's menu for us. On Sunday morning we ate at a small cafe where the food was good, service was okay, and the design was fabulous. I just wish the service was better. Take a look at this:


We also bought lots and lots of cheese! In Nick's words, "this is dairyland." We stopped at the Marin French Cheese company where some award-winning triple creme brie and their special breakfast cheese was bought. This is what the outside looked like...they had their own pond! Geese poop was everywhere, though.


On Saturday we drove to the coast and visited the Point Reyes National Seashore. It was windy and beautiful. There is even a restaurant on the beach where we had clam chowder, a veggie quesadilla, and a chicken-apple sausage sandwich. Nick walked down to the lighthouse but I didn't because I did not want to climb 300+ stairs to get back up. While he was down there I saw a whale! If you look closely you can see him in the lower left corner on his way down.


On our way back we stopped at Point Reyes Station and visited the original Cowgirl Creamery store. We bought their seasonal spring cheese, the St. Pat, which is wrapped in nettle leaves, a cheese called the Appalachian which is from a creamery in Virginia, and a lentil salad at their cantina.

It was great to see the ocean and get away for a bit. I'll want to go back to do some of the hikes sometime, I think. I decided that I really like the northern shore of California. There's just something peaceful and beautiful about it that makes it different from visiting the shore in southern California.

posted by Sharona @ 10:20 AM