Monday 19 April 2010

Staying Ahead of the Rain

What can we say? We knew it was going to rain today, and we made it the 60 miles from Gualala to Fort Bragg before it started. And even better than that, we had a tailwind pretty much all the way. Was it a dream brought on from falling asleep watching The Weather Channel after too much wine? No, it’s true.

It was an interesting ride. After yesterday, with more hairpins than a Vidal Sassoon salon, today was much less winding, on the whole, but there was literally NO flat terrain at all. We climbed just under 4,000 ft throughout the ride, but none of the climbs was more than 350 ft. Crazy! But beautiful at the same time. This coastline is stunning: ragged rocks, raging seas, the promise of whale watching, and green hills/wildflowers, as well as a decent road surface and shoulders most of the way. Also, there are cute little towns every 10-15 miles or so with little cafes/delis. Job done. We loved it.

So, we rolled into our B&B in Fort Bragg well within our expected arrival time, even after a puncture. After a quick wash and brush up, we headed straight out to a local restaurant called, quite simply, “The Restaurant”. Wwwow! What a great little find. The food and wine were divine; the décor relaxing yet stylish, with fabulous paintings all around the room; the music uplifting yet unobtrusive; and the people, well, they were just the best. We had a lovely chat with Susan and Jim, the proprietors, and Madeline, our server. We were so excited about Anthony’s entrée of lemon chicken, that Kat pestered Jim and Susan for the recipe…and voila, Susan came out with the sauce recipe, and Jim described how he cooks it. And then there was the cheesecake and the rich chocolate tart that they treated us to for dessert. Mmm. Need we say more? We returned to our B&B very contented, and are now chilling out, happy in the knowledge that we have a rest day here tomorrow. Zzzzzz.

Us x

No comments:

Post a Comment