Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife:)
Posted by on July 3, 2007
Friday was my wife’s birthday, and as things have been somewhat crazy for us over the past few weeks, I decided to take her away from it all for the week. Back in February we had visited a lovely place up the northern California Pacific coast called Howard Creek Ranch and we fell in love with the place. I couldn’t think of anywhere better to get away from it all at, so a few weeks ago I booked a room and started to count down the days to the trip.
We set off Friday afternoon for the 6 hour drive north, stopped at a lovely Italian restaurant in Cloverdale on the way, and got to the ranch a little before 11pm. It had been a long day so we settled down for the night.
The following day we woke, had a magnificent farmhouse breakfast, and then went for a walk on the beach – there’s easy access from the ranch to a stretch of beach, and we killed about an hour and a half on the sand. We then decided to hop in the car and drive north up 101 past Leggett with nothing planned – we were going to play it by ear. We stopped for a hike at the first park we came across (Standish-Hickey State Recreational Area) where we spent a couple of hours hiking up the side of the Eel River before hunger got the better of us, so we headed up 101 to Garberville where we had a very late lunch.
After eating we started back for the ranch, stopping at a few gift stores on the way. As it was a while before sunset, we went to our room to recuperate a little, then headed for the beech to watch the sun go down over the Pacific ocean. The pacific sunsets are always beautiful, and even with a partial covering of fog this was no different. After the sun had well and truly disappeared, we headed back to the farmhouse for supper and bed.
The following morning, we had breakfast, and reluctantly checked out, knowing we’d be heading back home. We drove back down Highway 1, stopping for lunch and a trip to the beach at Jenner. We continued south on highway 1 until we passed through Tomales, then headed inland through Petaluma and back home via 101 and 580, reaching home about 8 hours after we had set off.
I had a wonderful time and I think my wife did too. 🙂 We had lovely scenery, wonderful food, and I was alone with the love of my life for a weekend with no interruptions (there’s next to no cell phone coverage up where we were), no distractions, and no children. This was our second visit to the ranch, and I’m sure we’ll be back again!
There are some photos from the trip in my albums.
Images by John 'K' 
Sounds like you had a wonderfully relaxing and indulgent time, you deserve it!
Just passing through, but wow! Nothing since July 3rd? Your other computers must be keeping you busy (jk). But yeah, I like the coast highway for peacing out. I lived in Sac in 1977- 80 and traveled the loop through Valleho, San Francisco, Stockton, Pleasant Hill, and back to Sac. for a resuratant chain..Eppies in fact. What fun for very little money.
Me and my girl friend tripped around on their American Express card..mostly up and down the coast. Now, she\’s a doctor and I\’m an escaped patient..still out here too. But it sounded like fun I remember having myself….D.