A Mendonoma Road Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, Alex planned us a wonderful road trip through Anderson Valley and over to the Mendocino Coast. We have gone on countless road trips all across California, especially in the last couple years, but this trip was extra special!

We started with a visit to the town of Sonoma, happening upon this adorable neighborhood flower stand.

Lunch at El Molino Central, while we listened in to the Amber Collective Instagram Live session with Leona Chen and Dr. Terry Park– the final chat of our Asian American History Lessons month.

Then it was on to the town of Boonville, home for two nights! We stayed at the Boonville Hotel, which was quaint and lovely and had a delicious restaurant too. 

So many lovely spaces inside and out.

Boonville is a small, old town with a few cute shops. 

Anderson Valley Brewing Co.

Offspring Pizza, the spinoff restaurant of our hotel’s.

Paysanne, a cute little cafe in a former gas station. From which I bought this coconut popsicle.

A nice relaxing morning the next day, with a self-serve tea and breakfast bar.

Then it was off to visit Pennyroyal Farm, which makes sheep’s and goat’s milk and wine too! We got to go on a full tour and tasting on this misty morning.

The goats are all so friendly!

If you look closely behind us you can see the guard llama looking over the herd.

Babies!

The sheep are less friendly and more skeptical of humans. Apparently more particular about how they get milked as well.

And this is where the milk turns into cheese! We got to see them mixing the blueberry laychee, which we then purchased to take home. Apparently Boonville has its very own language, Boontling, which is a jargon spoken only in this town, created in the 1890s. And ‘laychee’ is Boontling for cheese, as morphed from the Spanish leche. 

After the tour, we got to taste all the cheeses and the wines! And we got to admire the namesake pennyroyal mint that grows on the farm too.

Also in Boonville, a little cluster of former train cars, now housing a tiny bookshop, a hair stylist, and other small shops. 

The Apple Farm, whose products we kept seeing throughout our stay.

Love a little honor system farm stand.

And just around the bend, Big Hendy Grove, a nice forest of redwood trees.

Dinner that night was back at the Boonville Hotel and Restaurant. So homey and delicious!

I love a good gift shop, and this one featured lots of local goods, including these Boonville peppers and chili powders and these rooster bowls which we saw at breakfast.

Anderson Valley is very well known for its wine grapes! Here we made a quick visit to Baxter for a tasting before departing Boonville for the next town!

The Mendocino Coast!

Our next stop was the Harbor House Inn, a two Michelin-starred restaurant in the town of Elk, where Alex had booked us a lunch reservation. We arrived early, but that was perfect for a little walk down to their private cove before lunch.

Such a beautiful coastline.

And the perfect place to lounge on a hammock.

It took a bit of balancing to both get into this hammock, but we made it! And then Alex presented me with a little present!

Afterwards, we went inside for our lunch reservation. And they were so very kind to start our meal with champagne and congratulations!

The meal was wonderful, of course. But we will certainly have to come back for a stay and the full dinner experience. In the meantime, we took another walk out back after our lunch to go enjoy the ocean views one more time!

In case you didn’t pick up on it earlier, yes, we’re engaged!

The trip continued on to Point Arena for our last night in the area.

There, Alex found a brand new restaurant, Gama, serving Japanese food.

Also very tasty!

And the perfect way to round out this beautiful day, sunset back on the coast of Point Arena.

For the final day of this trip, we booked a mini safari tour at B Bryan Preserve, which Cassie had highly recommended to us so we could go feed some giraffes. This place is so funny, just run by an eccentric rich person who wanted to have African animals on the Mendocino Coast. The ticket we got was just for a tour in our own car, so we could only take pictures from our vehicle along the predetermined route.

Zebras!

And then at the very end you can get out of your car and feed this giraffe romaine lettuce.

Very fun and very funny, haha. Lovely.

Next, a visit up to the Point Arena Lighthouse. Many many steps! And very very windy. But beautiful.

Journeying down the coast.

Despite having photographed many weddings at the Sea Ranch Lodge, this was my first time visiting the Sea Ranch Chapel across the highway and up a ways.

It’s a nondenominational chapel open to the public every day of the year.

Then we paid a visit back to the lodge. They have undergone a renovation since I last visited, and it looks like the hotel rooms are still being renovated now.

A very windy walk out to the bluffs out back.

Such beautiful pink blooms!

And back inside in the cafe, enjoying some smoothies and the view.

Finally, we journeyed back towards the Bay and stopped for dinner at Spud Point Crab Company in Bodega Bay. Very tasty, would do again!

And then we were back home in San Francisco before dark. Thank you to Alex for always planning the most wonderful trips for us. Looking forward to a lifetime of adventures yet to come!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures, even in quarantine. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.