Sanctuaire

My friends Declan & Milana rented a fairytale type house on 29 acres of land in the middle of nowhere and invited me to enjoy it with them. I jumped at the opportunity. I am not one to skip on a weekend away. So, I am typing this using a satellite Internet connection, because this house is very well equipped, albeit far away from civilization.

To make the trip up a little more fun, I rented a red Mazda Miata convertible. (Great deal from Hertz, so I am not squandering money.) In the little red car I raced up 101 and through Sebastopol, past Guerneville (of Russian River fame) and to Cazadero. Then it is another 3.6 miles on a narrow, winding road, to get to this retreat.

Today (Sunday) is a relax day and we're staying close to home. The sun is out in force and the temperature is climbing. Soon it will be too hot to sit out here on the deck. The property has a hot tub (I am not going to be using that) and a creek down a hill (which has nice cold water, so maybe wading there is an option later today.)

On Saturday (yesterday) we headed to the beach at Jenner, a cute town on the Sonoma Coast on gorgeous Highway 1. While it was hot slightly inland, the coast was a frigid 60 degrees and windy. We chased some waves on Goat Rock Beach and had a mini picnic in the dunes, out of the wind, with banana bread and beer from Whole Foods.

At night I grilled some salmon, asparagus and baked some potatoes for dinner. Everyone also enjoyed the Thomas Fogarty Merlot, which I bought at the winery in the Sante Cruz mountains a couple of weeks back. All in all, another perfect weekend in California. Now I just need to do some work, instead of blog.