Mendocino Virtual Office

Trip date: October 2022

The last time I went to Mendocino with my friend Aaron, it was during a pandemic, I had to drive 818 miles, and we ate outside on the deck at Michelin-starred Harbor House.

This time I flew down to Santa Rosa, had a house rental with friends Aaron and Albert, and ate inside at the Harbor House... twice!

I started off in the Alaska Lounge, which is so great for breakfast and a mimosa before flying out of SeaTac. I had checked my bag because I was bringing some cocktail makings so I didn't even realize until I was onboard that this wasn't the small prop plane I was used to for the flight to STS. This time I was on on new Max 737-800 and was even upgraded to Premium! 

STS airport is going through some major renovations and at the time I was there baggage claim was outside under a tent! Aaron and Albert met me to wait for my bag to come off a small truck and then we headed to Unti Vineyard for a tasting.

I've been a big fan of Unti for years but I hadn't visited in a long time. They have a lovely new-to-me tasting room; no more sipping in the warehouse! We grabbed a picnic table outside, as the guys had picked up sandwiches from Loveski Deli for our lunch, and had a delicious time eating, drinking, and catching up.  

It was a 2-hour drive from Sonoma to our Airbnb in tiny town of Manchester. But most of it is through gorgeous redwoods! Once the redwoods end, the road twists and turns along the stunning Mendocino County coastline. It's truly such a beautiful drive!

We had a big 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, right on the cliffs overlooking the sea, with a full length deck and a hot tub. The house had a real 70s vibe (think paneling and bronze fixtures) but the views made up for the lack of modern decor. 

Dinner that night was in the small town of Arena at Izakaya Gama, which is owned by some friend's of Aarons. Albert's and Aaron's friends from LA, Amy and Lena, met us and we basically ordered the entire menu. The food here is fantastic! If you are in the area, I'd say it is a do-not-miss. Trout sashimi, chawanmushi with the sweetest uni, karaage, and this amazing strawberry "shaved ice" dessert were highlights for me. But really, everything was awesome!

Back out the house we tried out the hot tub and took in the incredible sky full of stars. It had been a great first day!

The next morning was Monday and as this was a working trip we were all on our laptops for a while. Just before lunch, Aaron, Amy, Lena, and I went for a great walk on Irish Beach. It's a beautiful stretch of sand and no one else was there, except for a sea lion!

We all then had lunch at Harbor House! Except for Aaron and me it was everyone's first time and it was so fun to see their reactions to the beautiful location. 

It was a very good 4+ course lunch with my favorite dish being the black cod with fermented cucumber. It was so simple looking but the flavors were just perfect, relying on the quality of the fish which was exceptional. 

After lunch we had our garden infusion (tea) on the deck and went for a nice walk around the grounds and down to the beach. It was a super fun and beautiful lunch!

That evening I made us all cocktails for happy hour which we had outside on our deck. Aaron grilled up sausages for dinner and we had a big salad to go with. And the cherry on top was the most dramatic sunset! Such a fun day with everyone!

Amy and Lena were leaving the next day so I got up early (for me), took Aaron's car (with permission of course) and met them for a morning beach hike. This time we went to check out Bowling Ball Beach which I had seen lots of photos of. Unfortunately I hadn't read that you can only see these rocks at low tide. And it wasn't!

We climbed down the hill and had a nice walk on Schooner Gulch State Beach instead. I wouldn't go out of my way to walk here, as it's pretty short, but it was great to see the girls again before they took off. 

Before I headed back to my office, aka the Airbnb, I stopped at the Point Arena Lighthouse. There's a small entry fee and luckily they took tap-to-pay as I only had my phone on me!

While waiting for my tour to start I went through the very interesting museum. I learned that this lighthouse was powered by a first order Fresnel Lens; the largest of its kind at over six feet in diameter and more than six tons in weight. It's not used anymore but it's still there to see.

The museum has lots of info on shipwrecks in the area as well as destruction caused by earthquakes. If you aren't doing the tour you can still go through the museum and gift shop.

It's 145 steps up to the top of the lighthouse; the tallest on the west coast. The views from up here are gorgeous and the gentleman who was working at the top pointed out the site of the last shipwreck as well as the erosion of the ground that the lighthouse is on. 

The rest of the week went pretty much the same; morning coffee in the hottub followed by work and then afternoon hikes and outings. We cooked at home in the evenings and enjoyed the views.

One afternoon Albert, Aaron, and I did a short hike out to Manchester Beach. The trail starts at the campground there and leads straight out on a dirt trail that turns into a sand trail. It was late in the day when we went and we were the only ones there! Stunning!

One afternoon we headed to the town of Mendocino; my first time! It was about a 45 minute drive up the gorgeous coast. 

We started with delicious smash burgers in the garden of The Brickery This is such a pretty spot! I hear good things about their dinner options too. Highly recommend a stop here.

We wandered around town a bit and then did a short hike on the Headlands. It was such a gorgeous day and the views were awesome!

We made it a loop by walking back through town and past the "Angela Lansbury" house. Just as we were heading back to the car thick fog started rolling in. Within an hour there was zero visibility! 

Before heading home we drove out to visit our friend and talented potter, Cliff Glover. We had a lovely visit over some tea in his garden and then did a bit of shopping!  

The next day we woke up to complete, white-out foggy conditions so after our morning work we visited Sanny Ceramics and met Jason who is another very talented potter. No one's wallet was safe!!

We stopped at the Elk Store for sandwiches and while eating outside in the chilly foggy weather we decided to head inland and go for a hike in the redwoods at Big Hendy Grove in Anderson Valley. This ended up being a wonderful plan as there was no fog and it was sunny and warm!

Hiking amongst towering trees is one of my very favorite things. The smell of the forest, the way the tops sway, the silent majesty... I absolutely love it! 

Afterwards, we stopped in for a wine tasting at Navarro Winery which has been producing wine since 1974. It was a lovely setting and there was no tasting fee!

Finally, the reason for the trip! Dinner at Michelin 2-star Harbor House! Unfortunately the fog was still laying low on the coast completely hiding the lovely view. Fortunately dinner was so very good that we almost forgot about it. We were seated in the gorgeous wood paneled dining room, right in front of the fireplace. Absolutely perfect for the cool evening.

The tasting menu was 9 or so courses and Aaron and I did the alcohol pairings (wine, beer, saki) while Albert did the non-alcoholic pairing (juice and tea). 

Service and dishes here are both wonderful. Most courses were assembled tableside which was a great touch, and we saw some Cliff Glover pottery in use!

It had been a fantastic week on the coast, even if we couldn't see it for the last two days, and this was a great way to end it. 

The next morning we packed up the car and checked out. As Albert was putting out the garbage he found a (live) racoon in the bin! YIKES! We left the lid open and called the property owners to make sure they would send someone over to release it!

The guys were driving me back to the airport before heading to LA. We stopped in Healdsburg and did a little shopping around before having lunch at Little Saint. The setting is super cute (it's in the old Shed space) but I wasn't overly excited for lunch as the resto is vegan. 

But I have to say everything was very good! 

After we shared some ice cream from Noble Folk and then I did a quick wine tasting at Lioco. 

And then the lovely week was over; time to say goodbye to Aaron, Albert, and CA. While I was doing a bit of work at the airport I was notified that I had been upgraded to First Class! A perfect ending.

All photos from this trip here. 

Winter Warmer in San Diego

Trip date: December 2021

My friend Aaron always has a great list of restaurants to check out going for various cities. I mean I do too but I feel his is next level. So when he suggested we do a weekend of eating, drinking, and hiking in San Diego I agreed immediately!

I decided to fly into LA and drive down with Aaron. It was an easy flight on Alaska and as the Covid pandemic was still an unwelcome guest, masks were still required. It was about a 2 hour drive on a lovely sunny Friday afternoon from Orange County airport to San Diego.

Originally Aaron and I had decided to stay in the La Jolla area in an Airbnb based on the location of some of the places we were going to check out. Our plans changed a bit but we kept the Airbnb. This was the first time either of us were staying in a place that would be shared with others. Per the listing we were staying in one wing of a 5400 square foot mansion, the owner in the other wing. Our wing had 3 bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms, and a common kitchen area which we would be sharing with the very nice foreign college students who were living there. A very unique stay! The mansion was huge and had lovely views of the ocean but I'll just describe it as Grey Gardens and leave it at that.

On our first night we took a rideshare into town and started with drinks at J & Tony's Discount Cured Meats & Negroni Warehouse. Truely, that is the name of the place! 

This bar is ridiculously fun! There's a full sized Ronald McDonald statue, and a dinosaur, and a disco ball, and a lot of other quirky stuff. The bartenders are great and the drinks are delicious. As it was the holiday season when we were there we were able to try some special drinks including an Irish Coffee and a shot of nog. I highly recommend this spot!

It was a short walk to Callie, which had just opened earlier in the year. Chef Travis Swikard was previously the Chef for Daniel Boulud's restaurant in NYC so it's also a hot reservation to secure. The menu is Mediterranean inspired and the flavors are absolutely delicious! 

Everything is meant for sharing so that is exactly what we did. We started with the hummus which was so silky! Our beef tartare was served on top of a smear of labneh and came with house-made lavash to scoop it up with. Raw carrots were shaved and tossed with cashew dukkah and our braised mushroom dish had a perfectly poached egg in which to drag the funghi through. But the stand out was the Aleppo Chicken. Spiced, grilled, and served with yogurt, coriander honey, and sumac pickles it was an incredible dish! 

We loved our dinner here and I've already recommended to it many. But it books up way in advance so reserve early!

For our after dinner drinking we had made reservations at the newly opened Young Blood. It's a speakeasy style bar in the same building as Noble Experiment (a favorite of mine) and was opened with the help of NYC's Attaboy creator Sam Ross (another favorite of mine) so chances were high that I was going to have a great time.

The bar is reservation only and there is no menu. You're given a 90 minute table and the staff serves you champagne followed by three "designed for you" cocktails. It's $65 total.

Young Blood is swanky, quirky, delicious, and fun! I can't wait to go back! And if you visit, be sure to check out the very unique patterned carpet!

Day two started with a lovely stroll around Old Town before pulling into a strip mall for lunch at 1 Michelin star Tadokoro Sushi, which the Callie chef had told us about the night before. 

We each had the $31 lunch special which came with 8 pieces of nigiri & ½ roll. We added an order of ankimo and also a gorgeous grilled fish head. This was a very good tip that we had been given! Great spot.

It was about a 20 minute drive to Torrey Pines State Park from Old Town. I'd never been out here before and it was so pretty! We hiked the Broken Hill Trail which is a 3+ mile loop through the eroded cliffs with stunning views of the beach and the ocean.  

The cliffs are so unique! It was really a beautiful hike with a very small elevation gain. The loop took us about 1 ½ hours. We were back at the mansion to enjoy some freezer cocktails in the hot tub and then light Aaron's menorah while we got ready for our big dinner out.

Addison, a 2 star Michelin, is in the Fairmont Del Mar so I had in my head that it would be quite modern and swanky. We arrived early in order to enjoy a pre-dinner martini. The gin selection was very basic which was a disappointment. But we got two seats in front of the lobby fireplace which was great. And they even brought me a stool for my purse which always makes me happy!

We were moved into the dining room and right away the ambiance was not a hit for me. It is very stark, not one single thing on the table or the walls, which felt weird. It felt very old fashioned and everything was varying shades of beige. 

But they rolled the champagne cart over and I immediately forgave them their sense of (lacking) style when I saw they had Krug by the glass as an offering. We started with that and it was lovely. There is only a 9-course tasting menu available which is $298 per person. We were then given the option of three different levels of wine pairings, the most exclusive was a ridiculous price (and we had to ask) so I have blocked it out. We chose the pairing that was the same price as our tasting menu.

Besides the 9-courses we were started with three little bites and a juicy cocktail. Chef William Bradley created a wonderful tasting menu, most of the dishes had an Asian influence which I loved. The dishes were gorgeous to look at, many were playful and made me smile, and the flavors were mostly all fantastic.

I thought most of the wines were good but I thought they should have been a bit better for the price. We were given a glass of Cristal as a bonus "because the bottle is open and we are closed tomorrow night" was the response when I asked why. Whatever, I'll take it!

The dessert course was also not included in the set menu count and was an array of five different bites! I was stuffed and more than a bit tipsy at this point! 

We had a great time but it was a very expensive meal that I personally don't think I would choose to do again. If the room held the same aesthetics as the food then I would have enjoyed it much more. 

Our mansion in La Jolla was very close to Veterans' Memorial Hill on Mt. Soledad, which isn't just a wonderful memorial but it's the only memorial in the US that honors veterans, living or deceased, from the revolutionary war to now, with an image of the veteran. And of course on clear days there are great views of the Pacific Ocean and the coast cities.

We headed back to Old Town for lunch at another spot our Callie chef had told us about- Tuetano Taqueria. Tuetano means bone marrow and that is exactly what you can add to your taco order! It comes on a stick so that you can scrape the marrow out onto your birria taco. It's crazy delicious! We tried the quesadilla, beans, and consume too. All fantastic! This new location has a really nice outside patio to eat on also.

We hiked off our lunch out in Oak Canyon on a 3 ½ mile loop trail that follows a creek bed most of the way through the canyon, complete with said named Live Oak trees. 

That night we met my friend Gail, who happened to be in San Diego visiting her friend Robin, for drinks at Grass Skirt. This is always a fun spot for tropical drinks and on Sunday it was surprisingly busy!

Robin has joined us in Palm Springs a few times so it was great to see her again!

Aaron and I left the girls to their own devices and headed back downtown for a final dinner at Fort Oak. Their concept is simple, most everything is grilled, and the space is super fun as the building was the old Ford dealership in the Mission Hills area. 

Everything was very good but we both also found everything to be really salty! 

We finished with cognac and ice cream :)

Another thing that our mansion was close to was the Salk Institute, designed by Louis Kahn and a great example of brutalist architecture. Technically the Salk was closed to visitors because of Covid, but we did a quick walk around just to take a peek.

And with that, our long weekend was over. Aaron dropped me off at the airport and I had an easy flight home to Seattle. It was a super fun weekend and sooooo nice to get a bit of warm weather, sunshine, and the company of a good friend!

All San Diego photos here. 

Palm Springs Virtual Office

Trip date: September 2021

I had just returned from Palm Springs when the pandemic hit in March 2020.  By the fall of 2021 I had only flown one other time and was missing my annual sun-cation. I was also missing tan lines as the pandemic had really put a damper on beach vacations! So I booked my 2nd flight during COVID, packed my bikini and my laptop, and headed south to work remote for a week. 

I actually didn't realize until I was headed to the airport that it was September 11th, and the 20th anniversary of 9/11. There was absolutely no one in the Clear/Precheck TSA area which was quite eerie. And a lot of folks on the flight were visibly anxious with the anniversary and the pandemic. So a relaxing flight it was not!

It was crazy hot when we landed and I was very happy to get into my rental car and blast the A/C. The townhouse I had rented was just 1 mile from downtown, in a gated community, and had a private enclosed courtyard with pool & hot tub. I would not have to be around anyone I didn't want to be around.

Inside was a big kitchen/dining room, comfy sectional, big screen tv complete with Roku and a gorgeous fireplace. And upstairs was a bedroom loft and a covered balcony area that looked down on the pool. As I wasn't planning on going out much, this space was absolutely perfect!

I headed to Jensen's grocery and did a big shop to stock up my place for the week. Then back to the townhouse for some rosé in the pool with a floatie. It was 108F so no need to pay for the pool to be heated!! When I finally got out of the pool I had a lovely night in the A/C and a delicious roast chicken dinner thanks to the grocery store deli.

Originally I had planned on heading out each morning for a walk through the various neighborhoods like I normally do. I had even bookmarked a couple of new-to-me hikes. But it was just way too hot to be out during the day with the temps above 100F every day (& one day 110F!). So every single day I got in the pool with my morning coffee and read on my kindle. Then I spent the afternoon working, while taking pool and book breaks. When it cooled off in the evenings I had a quick hot tub before making dinner and watching movies. It was heaven and my tan lines were back!

I did go out a few times to places requiring proof of vaccination. My friend Nathan, who lives there, and I headed to local fave Bootlegger Tiki one evening for pre dinner drinks. When it is hot, nothing cools like a tiki drink (or two)! It had been a few years since I had been and it was still just as good. 

That evening we had dinner at Sandfish Sushi which I had wanted to go to for quite awhile. It was absolutely fantastic! We ordered way to much food, and I had a few now-rare Japanese whiskeys, which are my faves! Service was fantastic and the restaurant is gorg. I'd highly recommend!

Another night Nathan and I had drinks at PSAir, a little cocktail bar hidden in the back of a local wine/liquor shop. My brother had sent me a few photos the last time he had been in town so I was looking forward to checking it out.

As the name hints, this speakeasy is all airline themed. You sit in what looks to be a plane's fuselage complete with first class leather airline seats. A screen shows aircraft taking off and landing while servers bring you "First Class Nuts" and "Paper Plane" cocktails. 

It's cheeky and silly and absolutely fun. We even ran into one of Nathan's friends there who is a flight attendant! Very meta!

For dinner we headed to the bar at Mr. Lyons for big prime rib steaks. An excellent evening!

Another evening a friend who also happened to be in town invited me to dinner and drinks at Workshop Kitchen. It had been years since I'd been and it was still great! We chose to sit outside on their large patio which was lovely albeit a bit warm!

And one afternoon a couple of friends and I braved the heat and had a lovely lunch at El Patio, which I hadn't been to before. The restaurant has a big outside patio, shaded by a huge tree and complete with misters. Our lunch was soooo good! I highly recommend the mezcalita and the shrimp ceviche! Delicious!!

I was just absolutely loving my little condo and was very sad when I had to think about packing up to head home. I had a morning flight on my last day which made sense as my checkout was in the morning too. But I was so bummed thinking about it the day before so I sent the host a note asking if there was any way I could stay all day and take a later flight home. Bingo! 5pm check out for an additional $40 and $98 for the evening flight on Alaska into Seattle. 

I spent the entire day in the pool with my book, going inside to do some work in the A/C from time to time. At 4pm I got cleaned up and packed up and left my sweet little private townhouse. Quite a different PS trip than in years past, but exactly what I needed!

All Palm Springs photos here.