The Rancho Bernardo Inn was a short drive east from the coastal highway in San Diego and a world away in style and pace. Relaxed and verdant, the property’s golf courses and gourmet restaurant were the center of attraction in an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood.
Tucked away in a residential golf neighborhood in northeastern San Diego is an outstanding restaurant led by a dynamic, exacting and talented young chef with immense culinary promise.
This lovely bed & breakfast in a renovated historic home near downtown Napa offered many of the advantages of a B & B home and those of a larger property with luxury amenities. We enjoyed activity filled days, gourmet bites, early morning pampering (massage and in-room breakfast), excellent recommendations and assistance with sightseeing opportunities and fine dining. We were fortunate to find marvelous sunny and cool weather during our spring stay. At that time, the temperature at 1801 was comfortable without air conditioning and required mild heat (we only turned the fire place on briefly) in the evenings.
Billed as “the nation’s longest running musical revue,” Beach Blanket Babylon®, an irreverent musical centered on Snow White looking for her prince (around the world) spoof, was the perfect entertainment for our jetlagged souls. All day travel and a three-hour time disconnect made us tired and sluggish; the Beach Blanket Babylon performance jazzed us up. We walked out smiling and ready for the scrumptious dinner we had planned.
After driving on beautiful mountain roads for several hours to Mendocino from Napa, we reached the Sea Rock Inn tired and bedraggled. Alayna at the reception desk and Susie, the owner, were so welcoming and friendly, making recommendations for local eateries and attractions, our hunger and weariness disappeared. The fog (uncharacteristic for April) we found when we arrived, cleared after a short while to reveal a marvelous white water view, more impressive than the photos we had seen before arriving, of the headlands and ocean which were across a narrow road from the Inn.
We rushed from a cross country flight that departed before sunrise to arrive in San Francisco, collect our rental car (no small feat at the San Francisco airport) and check-in just before our 12:30 p.m. San Francisco Helicopter Tours van pick up. We were a bit miffed to find all the rushing, concern about find out hotel in time, checking in and missing out on lunch to discover the driver was 20 minutes late. A final pick up in a San Francisco hotel, saw twelve of us headed across the Golden Gate bridge to ritzy Marin County in a nearly full van.
