LUNCH pages

About this time of year we usually visit with my friends Kathy and Tony in Bolinas: pretty drive down Highway 1, stop in Point Arena for Franny's for pastries to keep us on a sugar high for the whole trip, Gualala for lunch at Trinks sitting on the ocean side. Not enough sugar from Franny's so we got a lemon meringue tart to follow our blackened chicken sandwich and fresh squoze orange juice.

Then the twisty, scenic ride south through Sea Ranch, past Fort Ross – same as last year and the year before, so no pictures.

The ride is beset by frightened drivers who looked at their maps in Leggett or San Francisco and though the coast route couldn't be more than an hour longer than straight mostly freeway Highway 101. 

To Freeman Toyota to get our Prime's 40k service, and then on our way home. The prevailing traffic was travelling at 72 miles per hour on the freeway, above my rated top speed, but I kept up through the busy midtown section.

After a stop at Oliver's for groceries we can't find in Fort Bragg (guanciale, organic pork tenderloin) I stubbornly set my cruise control at 65 and felt like the pebble perturbing the stream. 

Lunch at Lauren's. We think Lauren's was better in her old digs: more spacious, more Boonville. The Caesar was good although the cretins were to hard, and the peanut sesame noodles were too peanutty. 

Then the end of the line; our car right where we left it, and we're again autonomous. Did I miss 'vehicular autonomy' during the time away? Not even slightly! San Francisco downtown driving is not for the elderly country bumpkin nor the faint of heart, and I be both.

Easy ride north, an expensive but gratifying stop at Oliver's in Windsor for some niceties not to be found near home, and the usual great service and delicious food at Catelli's – awesome arancini! 

Then the windy road over the Coast Range . . . made windier by flooding at the low end of the Navarro River and the detour through Comptche . . . and home at last, after dark. Ah! Home sweet home. 

Starting clear back in November, Sienna and I conspired with Margaret Fox and her merry band to produce a Beaujolais Reunion Brunch at the Caspar Community Center. 

The familiar way north – the view from just north of Westport, with Cape Mendocino vanishing as usual into the haze. 

We're on the road before the touron hordes, and get to drive the twisties between the coast and Leggett mostly by ourselves: a beautiful drive through the second growth redwoods. What BIG country this is: steep, deeply indented . . . we agree, this is our kind of country, and  dream to drive . . .

Rochelle took most of these on-the-road images, denoted with an

. . . until we come to the traffic control where they're working. Three one-lane flag-stops before Leggett. None of them too long, and they help us set the tone for the trip: taking it easy.

Lunch in Arcata at Renata’s Crêperie– more about that sweet little city below – and then it's the open road along the North Coast shoreline.

A funny thing happened on the way to lunch. Both R and I thought Cannon Beach was on the highway – maybe it was within our memory – but we must have missed the signs coming north, and the Nav Lady (that's not what we call her in private) told us to turn where there wasn't a turn then gave up on us. We consulted the map, and discovered that Cannon Beach is off the highway, a lovely little haven of elitism with a great fish store.

That's lightly battered wild caught Salmon and (maybe a little over-potatoed) clam chowder.

Lunch at Salt Pub in Ilwaco. Amazing Red Pepper soup, steamers and smoked wild salmon spread with a tasty dry raspberry and apple cider. With a sprightly personable server and an okay view:

Lunch prepared here using ingredients from Gaetano's Market & Deli downtown: linguine, Bolognese, and slivers of guaciale. Plus black currant cider from our favorite Washington cider maker, Finn River. Oh yum.

As promised, quiet day. Just now, as the light begins to fade at 8:30, two big vehicle carriers float by.

Green Wave bound for Port of Richmond, California

A few miles down the road, after a certain amount of rubbing and complaining from the hurt front end, we arrived at our intended lunch spot, The Horse Radish in Carlton. Our sweet server asked if we were having a nice day despite the weather and we revealed our recent fatal encounter with the local wildlife.

“Oh, you poor things!”

Apparently she told her colleague who brought me my Blackberry Cider and said “Terry told me about your accident, and you must be shaken up.”

“Nowhere near as shaken up as that poor deer,” I suggested.

“Well, anyway, this is on the house, and we hope you have a good lunch.”

And we did. Luscious Eggs Bene and a gorgeous little salad.

Forty-something miles later, we're at Chuck (Rochelle's brother) and Mona's in Silverton, where R's older brother's wife also lives, and so while I navigate the insurance reality, she has family to catch up with.

Slow start with good conversation with Vanessa, then out to lunch at Kachka, an Eastern European restaurant in southeast Portland.

Amazing new flavors. Two plates of dumplings, pelmeni (Siberian style pork and beef) and cherry vereniki (Ukrainian sour cherry) got eaten before I could take a picture.

next group : Bend