A perfect NorCal Day

After living in northern California for five years, I haven't been back since I left, except for a short weekend trip when TD graduated. I have such wonderful memories of that time and place, so during our trip to the Bay area and Sea Ranch I was looking for a quintessential Northern California experience on Sunday, our last travel day. I really wanted to pack in all of that Bay Area - Sonoma - Mendocino goodness into our very short trip.

But what would the quintessential Northern California experience be? Hog Island Oysters at Bodega Bay? Cheeseboard Pizza or Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto? Eating pastries from Tartine while hanging out in Dolores Park? Wandering Golden Gate Park and visiting the de Young Museum?



I wasn't sure, and spent the weekend asking friends what they thought we should do. However, I should have known that the perfect Northern California experience sometimes finds you - sometimes when you are driving down Highway 1 and everyone is feeling either famished or terribly car sick, you might stop at the first sign of civilization and it just might happen to be next to a delightful coffee shop, that just happens to serve chowder and breakfast all day, and it just might be next to the water, and there might be an awesome bluegrass band playing while the fog rolls in. And that, my friends is the quintessential NorCal experience (at least for me).

Enjoy!