Lavender Ice Cream

California is wonderful, because you can find things to eat like lavender ice cream made with local organic lavender. It was delicious.

This seemed to be the general spirit of the north coast: earthy, refreshing, laid back, and well, not delicious, but at least very beautiful.

On Thursday Mike and I drove north up Route 1 (The Coastal Highway) to Mendocino. The road was very curvy and featured stunning views of the ocean, sheer cliffs dropping a hundred feet to the crashing waves, rocky crags and arches. We were lucky enough to have a beautiful, sunny day with zero fog, which is a rarity along this coast.

Mendocino is a cute little north coast tourist town, not unlike a small coastal New England town. Amid the antique, art, and wine shops we stayed in a historic little hotel with a balcony overlooking the ocean. The Mendocino music festival was in full swing on the green across from our hotel, so after dinner was had dessert and wine on the balcony and listening to great music until it was time for bed.

Friday we continued north and visited some redwood groves before turning south to head back to Sebastapol. We were on a mission to Navarro Winery to find one of my dad's favorite wines : Navarro Pinot Noir Methode Ancienne (an old fashioned method of processing grapes, delicately, apparently to reduce harsh tannins. We tasted it at the winery, it was smooth!). We bought a few bottles as a thank you present for my dad for booking us the night at the hotel in Mendocino.

It was a wonderful few days to soak up the north coast atmosphere and relax. Now we are back in Sebastapol with dad, Mike is packing, he flys back to Vermont tonight. And in just a few more days, I'll be flying out for China!