The Valley of the Moon. Wolf House. The Bear Flag Republic. The Bohemian Forest. The Russian River. Luther Burbank. The Gravenstein Highway. The House of Happy Walls.
The names ooze fascinating history, heavy romance and even a hint of danger. Sonoma County, abutting Marin to the south and Napa to the east, is my favorite California getaway. More diverse than its neighbors, Sonoma boasts vineyards that refuse to take second to Napa, deserted ocean beaches as inviting as Marin’s, and, best of all, far fewer tourists to compete with for dining reservations or wine tastings.
Now for the really good news: Horizon Air has started daily round-trip flights from Seattle (and L.A.) into Santa Rosa at the heart of Sonoma County. The tiny Charles M. Schulz (Yes, Snoopy and the Red Baron!) Santa Rosa Airport is so central to everything that five minutes after you pick up your rental car, you can be sitting down to a gourmet repast at John Ash & Co., one of Sonoma’s early great vineyard restaurants.
Whether you are headed to Napa, Sonoma, or Mendocino, these Horizon flights into Santa Rosa puts you within easy minutes of the very best of Northern California. With departures from Seattle at 1:35 in the afternoon, you can be soaking in your Sonoma hot tub by 4. It’s a plan.
What to do
Start with wine: Some of the biggest names in California wine are based in Sonoma County. At the north end near Healdsburg and along the Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley are vintners like Jordan, Kendall-Jackson, Korbel Champagne, La Crema, Simi, Chateau Souverain, Dry Creek and the over-the-top Ferrari-Carano winery. These are the big guys with showy tasting rooms, grounds and cellar tours, and even restaurants. There are 100 other smaller operations, much loved by those in the Bay Area who are in the know, which offer less show and often more wine insights.
In the south county near the town of Sonoma, the wine appellations of Carneros, Sonoma Mountain and Sonoma Valley are home to the vineyards of Sebastiani, Ravenswood, Kenwood, Gloria Ferrer, Benziger and Chateau St. Jean.
Small town boutique shopping: Petaluma is a perfect example of the fun walking, shopping and eating of the county’s very livable small towns. The beloved movie “American Graffiti” was filmed in Petaluma more than 30 years ago, and nothing much has changed since. This is ground zero for antique shopping, but when Sonoma County says “antique,” they don’t mean “junk.”
The towns of Healdsburg and Sonoma make “walk-able” even better with their old fashioned central Spanish-style plazas. Centuries-old brick and adobe buildings surround these shady plazas, each with high fashion boutiques, cozy inns, restaurants, bookstores and art galleries — all high-end. On the northeast corner of Sonoma’s town plaza is the monument to the brassy American horsemen who rode over from Gold Country to Sonoma, captured General Vallejo, the ranking Mexican authority in 1846, and proclaimed California to be a new, independent country.
The hamlets of Sebastopol, Kenwood, Glen Ellen, Bodega, Occidental and Guerneville each have enough interesting shops and top dining spots to warrant visits.
Other adventures and worthwhile visits: Northern California’s rolling hills and oak-studded grassy meadows and rambling creeks invite picnics, biking and hiking. Jack London chose the best of this land to spend his last years from 1905-1916 on his “Beauty Ranch” and his large fieldstone “Wolf House.” Today the land belongs to the State Historical Park system, and a visit to his widow’s “House of Happy Walls” where his memorabilia is on public display is fascinating. The Jack London Park is near Glen Ellen.
On the west side of the county, the Pacific Coastline and the towns of Bodega and Bodega Bay are good for a day at the ocean. Bodega Bay has kayaks, surfing gear and even boats to rent. The town of Bodega Bay is particularly intriguing, especially if you are old enough to have seen the Hitchcock thriller “The Birds,” which was filmed there.
Ever ride a Segway? The revolutionary Dean Kamen Human Transporter is put to good use in Petaluma as a way to get around town without walking. Since much of the town is on the National Historical Landmark listing, tour-leader Stewart Munson uses his Segways for non-walking tours of the town and area. This is a perfect way to try out the vehicles (It takes about 15 minutes to master riding them — very intuitive) and see the town.
Mercer Islanders know Luther Burbank Park, but do you know Luther Burbank? The man who re-invented the potato, the edible spineless cactus, drought-tolerant plants, super-fast growing walnut trees for fine-grained cabinets, white blackberries, the Shasta Daisy, the “plumcot” and more than 200 other new varieties of fruits is revealed at his home and gravesite. You can tour his home, his carriage house and museum, his greenhouse and his personal gardens located near City Hall in downtown Santa Rosa.
Why did he choose this area to develop his new world of genetcally engineered plants? In Santa Rosa, he believed, was the most perfect combination of nature — sun, moisture, fertile soil and distance from population centers which allowed him the peace and quiet to conduct his research.
Where to stay
I loved the Melitta Station Inn English Bed and Breakfast ideally set halfway between downtown Santa Rosa and the famous wineries of Kenwood and Glen Ellen in the Valley of the Moon. English transplants and world-travelers Tim and Jackie Thresh are the innkeepers, and their six-unit B&B is one of the best I’ve ever stayed in. There are lots of things to like about Melitta Station — the cathedral ceiling, airy great-room is perfect for reading the paper by the fireplace, the new extra-large Jacuzzi, the lazy creek-side quiet of their country lane, their well-appointed rooms and bedding and private baths. But the best reason to stay at Melitta Station is Jackie’s breakfasts — and her afternoon tea service and cookies. Jackie is a trained chef, and she loves dazzling her guests with fruits marinated in warm caramel sauces, yogurt fruit-and-nut compotes, frittata, apple rolled pancakes and always special homemade breads, unusual juices and smoothies.
Several of my fellow guests chose Melitta Station because it is located 100 yards from Annadel State Park, which features many biking and walking trails. Another couple chose it because it is so central for biking to the wineries, several wineries are flat 10-minute ridse from the B&B. And everybody around the breakfast table appreciated that Melitta Station is a solar first — it is totally powered by solar-generated electricity — a nice step in the green direction.
Another option at a higher end is the Kenwood Inn and Spa, and this is an easy-to-recommend winner. From Kenwood south to the Sonoma Mission Inn, the Valley has numerous natural hot springs. The Kenwood Inn and Spa takes full advantage of this heavenly warm water to provide an array of swimming pools and soaking pools engineered for adults to enjoy. There are private Roman baths, sun-splashed pools, waterfalls, giant waterwheels and fountains everywhere. The spa and bath products feature the vaunted Paris-based “Vinotherapie” Caudalie brand. These Caudalie skin elixirs, cleansers and energizers are derived from grape vines, pulp, seeds and leaves. It’s Europe’s latest thing. The last time I saw them was at Switzerland’s top spa town Bad Ragaz a year ago.
The Kenwood Inn & Spa is Tuscan-inspired, reminiscent of a hilltop village, with 30 individually unique, intimate yet grandly spacious villa suites, lovingly added onto incrementally over the past 25 years. The arches, stone walkways, iron balconies, fireplaces, baths, wine bar and private verandas worked perfectly to whisk me back in time and place. I love Italy, and the Kenwood Inn is an improvement on all that I love about Italy.
Incidentally, high season for the Sonoma area and particularly the vineyards of the Kenwood valley is in the summer, plus the Indian summer months of September, October and early November too. Because the Kenwood Inn and Spa has hyper-heated pools year-round, this is a spot you can also enjoy at lower costs in the heart of California’s not-so-wintry winters.
Where to eat
River’s End Restaurant: Highway 1 is the curvy one-lane each-way road that skirts the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Astoria. The River Road runs east-west, following the Russian River to the Pacific Ocean, passing gorgeous vineyards such as Korbel’s and the hippie-haven Guerneville as it twists to the sea. The two roads meet at the mouth of the Russian River at the hamlet of Jenner and one of the better restaurants in the county. With sunsets over the Pacific nightly on display at River’s End, it is hard to ask for more. But River’s End is really about dining. Chef David Dahlquist has headed the kitchen for 21 of his 42 years. His philosophy: local foods presented in novel ways —lemongrass prawns, kicking ahi, baked salmon phyllo, duck three ways, blue filet mignon, or spring vegetable neapolitan. Crab cakes? Too easy. Why not lobster-crab cakes? Starters? How about duck confit egg rolls with plum sauce? And maybe the best part of River’s End is the fact that owners Bert and Stephanie (she’s from Tacoma) Rangel insist on providing a full wine list — Sonoma oriented, of course — at affordable prices. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but open five days a week for lunch and dinner.
Ace in the Hole Pub: California State Route 116 is known locally as the Gravenstein Highway. Until 15 years ago, the western half of Sonoma County grew apples, not grapes. While wine has zoomed in popularity, any Brit or Irishman will tell you he (or she) would just as soon have a good pint of hard cider as a glass of wine. And I can confirm from last year’s visit to the “auld sod” of Ireland that every pub in the land of Guinness also serves a choice of hard ciders.
Englishman Jeffrey House saw an opportunity. His California Cider Company, based five miles north of Sebastopol on the Gravenstein Highway, sells more hard ciders — mostly apple but some pear, berry and honey ciders too — in the Western United States than any other manufacturer. His cider business strategy is to have patience. Like his Seattle friend Charlie Finkel of St. Michelle Winery and Pike Place Beer fame, Jeffrey House knows that sooner or later Americans will tire of sipping wine. Jeffrey House is betting the house that cider will fill the bill as a happy alternative to wine as it has done in Normandy, Brittany, Ireland, England, Canada and even parts of Italy.
To make it easy to sample his ciders, Jeffrey, an agreeable bloke, has created a wonderful pub — the Ace in the Hole — with outside tables in season for his barbequed steaks, ribs, burgers and bangers. The Ace is a very authentic place, for sure, and if you go, make it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday because the Ace has free entertainment. Friday nights are open mic, and half the county was lined up to perform folk music, jazz, and pop when I stopped in.
The Ace is yet one more facet to my favorite county in California — multi-faceted Sonoma.
Bill Morton can be reached at www.secondhalf.net.
