Top 10 reasons why I heart California:
1. The smell of Jasmine + citrus blossoms in April
2. Hitting the beach during April's streak of hot weather.
3. Diversity
4. Coastal rain
5. Driving 30 minutes any direction and being somewhere real cool.
6. Farmers markets, farm fresh eggs, local dairies, organic everything.
7. Trader Joes
8. Running trails that go for miles and begin out my front door.
9. My love affair with the Golden Gate Bridge
10.Gardening all year long
Chris and I ran away. We intended to literally run away by driving 3 hrs. north to participate in a race (The Ave. of the Giants) - but we got sidetracked... allow me to explain.
The long story made short goes like this. We got chickens for Easter (what a fabulous Easter Bunny we have!) who lived for three stinky weeks in our garage. I hit the jackpot when I found a Free-ninety-Free chicken coop on Craigslist and dragged my BFF's butt, along with her truck, to Fairfax to pick it up on Friday. Chris (my adorable, but not so handy husband) spent hours(I am not exaggerating) on Saturday staring, pacing, dabbling - building up the coop to sufficiently house our chicks outside. We were supposed to leave at 1:00 on Saturday..... it was 6:00 when we finally left. So...... we had an overnite sitter for the stinky boys, we had 24 hrs of alone time.... did we really want to spend the majority of that time driving? Of course not.
Just 35 minutes north of exactly where I live (yes, in Northern CA, north of the GG Bridge, minutes out of the Fab San Francisco) is a tiny town called Healdsburg. Often featured in magazines like Sunset, it is a heavenly place of art, wine, good food, etc. That is where we landed and ohhhhhh did we have fun! Mexican food, hours of browsing a fabulous book store (Where I found my new love "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." by Barbara Kingsolver), complete laziness at the hotel and ...... well, you get the picture.
Next day - slept 'til 10 (really!!!), intended to run somewhere, any distance, but instead hit the local bakery for princess cake, macaroons, and fresh french bread. picked up Hungarian Bruschetta to accompany the bread, browsed an art gallery (pretending to be wealthy purchasers of course) and headed west to the coast. In the heart of Wine country at noon, watching the waves crash on the rugged Sonoma coastline by 12:45 - honestly....
Parked at Bodega Head, hiked the bluff, found a narrow, rocky trail down the beach and - wow. Found abolony shells for the boys, a sleepy seal on the rocks and a real, live starfish attached to the tide pools!! Heaven. Climbed back up the bluff, devoured our bread and bruschetta, drove past Spud Point Crab Co. following the hand-made signs that advertised "live crab!" Got my attention, for sure. There we met Kathy the crab lady..... I'm sure she has a last name, but i like to think of her as the crab lady. Chris talked her ear off about crabbing, fishing, her family, her ancestry, and all but invited her home for dinner (if you know my husband, you are smiling and understanding...). I was instantly fascinated and wanted desperately to beg Kathy the crab lady to take me out and teach me how to crab. Instead, we bought our 3 giant crabs and headed to the car giddy with the idea of a first-time crab bake. What a find! (Oh, and of course, Chris' friendly nature scored us an any-time-we-want offer to bring the kids to the boat, visit Kathy and use her crabbing pots on the local pier).
35 minute drive through neon green rolling hills dotted with farms, spotted with happy California cows and past glistening lakes. This is for real. I an not exaggerating. Arrived home to excited boys, a tired babysitter (Thanks Kylie!!) and 8 chickens who made it through their first chilly night al fresco.
Thank you Easter Bunny.
This is why I heart California.
