Bodega Bay – Riveted

Bodega to Calistoga (and the Farmlet!)

Laura Domela — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 03:13:03 +0000

This morning we got up, did some work, and then rode our bikes out to Bodega Head in the fog. This shot was from our campsite:

View of Porto Bodega Marina from across the back side of the bay. One of those dots is our Airstream:

We rode out to Bodega Head and then on the way back stopped (again!) at Sput Point Crab Company. We ordered a couple of crab sandwiches (for breakfast), and took home a whole crab and four cups of clam chowder (because OMG this clam chowder is amazing!) They are super serious (and right) about the clam chowder being addictive.

A bit more work back at camp, and then we headed inland. First stop: Dave and Ann's Farmlet in Petaluma. We traveled with Dave and Ann (and Wynne! she's 2 now!) during last year's Canadian Caravan and it was so nice to catch up with them! They've got a beautiful farm just outside of Petaluma, with sheep, chickens, a rooster (a rooster that Wynne named "Chicken" … how confusing is that?), and a sweet and friendly pig named Petunia.

That's the chicken called "Honey" there next to to one of the Suffolk sheep:

Petunia:

Here's where we had lunch. Oh, and lunch: brussels sprouts and kale salad (delicious), brie, crackers, strawberries, and some cured pork from one of Dave & Ann's farm pigs…the ones who don't have names.

And here's Wynne, totally pushing the boundaries of this rocking thingy, but then watching carefully that she didn't go off the back edge. She's adorable.

After we said goodbye to the Dave and Ann (and Leslie and Chris, who joined us at the Farmlet today, and who we also met up with in Bodega Bay at Gourmet au Bay a few days ago) we headed into Calistoga to our next location. This is such a beautiful area! We set up camp, did some more work, and then took a before-dark bike ride to explore a bit (another 7 miles).

We ended up grabbing dinner at Bosko's Italiana Trattoria in town and it was really good: spinach salad, chicken marsala, and a rigatoni dish with chicken breast, peas, prosciutto, and a cream sauce.

I've been working out a plan for the week…one that works with our work week to include bike rides and wineries. Also…this place!!

TENNESSEE FAINTING GOATS??? We are SO there.

A Post for Bike Nerds

Laura Domela — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:40:16 +0000

Alright, so we got our new Bike Friday Silks in Eugene last week and we LOVE them. (Mine is the white one, Kevin's is the black one.) I love it more than any other bike I've ever had, and I seem to have done the same thing with this bike that I did with my Fuji x100s travel camera: I've accessorized the hell out of it to make it PERFECT…and BONUS! I got to accessorize Kevin's bike too!

Each bike was hand built to fit its rider by the fabulous team at Bike Friday in Eugene, Oregon. They'll help you customize your bike with just about any components or accessories you can imagine. For our purposes, one of the most important things is that they fold. They do a quick-fold which takes about 10 seconds and puts the bike into a little clump that we can easily put in the back seat of the truck for traveling with the Airstream so we don't have to have bike racks. They also have a more elaborate way of folding them that puts them into a nice, airline-checkable Samsonite suitcase so you could easily take them as regular checked baggage (somewhere, perhaps, like ITALY!!!)

Usually you give up a lot in ride quality with a folding bike, but Bike Fridays ride as well (or better!) than any full-size bike we've ever ridden. (This isn't just us, either…pretty much anyone who has ever ridden one of these says it feels like a full-size bike.)

We had our bikes fitted with front and rear racks painted to match the bikes, and chose Nitto Dove moustache handlebars, for a bit of a retro city bike look. The handlebars have Brooks Slender Leather Grips (the right one was already shorter to accommodate the twist shifter, but it still didn't quite fit the curve of the Dove, so the geniuses at Bike Friday expertly cut it down and fitted it perfectly to the handlebar. What bandsaw?

We both have Crane Sakura spring bells in copper.

My bike has a Brooks B67 saddle in Antique Brown, and Kevin's got the Brooks B17 Special on his in Honey. Both bikes have the Brooks Large Toolbag to match the saddles (of course). The seats sit atop Thompson Elite seatposts. Apparently, these are the shit. How do I know? Because rather than change seatposts when my first $100+ Brooks B72 leather saddle didn't fit because it was a two-rail style, it was recommended that I buy a different (one-rail) Brooks seat to go with this seatpost. That's how I know.

Here's my Brooks B67 saddle:

Here's Kevin's Brooks B17 Special saddle, with hand-hammered copper rivets (and you can't see 'em, but there are copper rails under that leather). So pretty!

For our bikes, we chose the Rohloff Speedhubs. (Mine is silver annodized, Kevin's is black annodized.) These are 14-speed internally geared hubs, so you don't see any gears like you would on a conventional bike. All the shifting happens magically inside the sealed, oil-filled hub. No mess, no adjusting, supposedly lasts forever. The shifing is controlled through a single twist knob on the handlebars, and with the internally geared hub you can shift even when the bike is stopped. The 14 gears of the Rohloff give you the same (or more) gear range as a 27-speed derailleur, and it's much more convenient because there's only one control and you don't have all the overlapping gears with different chain rings.

We paired the Rohloff Speedhub with a Gates Carbon Belt Drive (instead of a chain). Again, these require no maintenance, no lubrication, pretty much last forever, and are way smoother and quieter (and cleaner!) than a chain. The "cleaner" part of this equation is really nice because when you're folding and unfolding a folder and putting it in the car or wherever, it's easy to get grease all over stuff (and yourself). The whole drive system makes the Silks look more like single-speed bikes, because the belt just loops around the two cogs. There's no tensioner, no visible gears, etc.

Connecting the drive to the pedals are Sugino cranks. They are light, stiff, durable, and look cool. (Everything you want in a crank, really.) The pedals are Shimano A 530 hybrid pedals (in black). One side is flat for regular shoes, and the other equipped with SPD for clipping in. So you can ride the bikes in flip flops, or you can ride the bikes in bike shoes. I love these pedals.

And you may (or may not) have noticed in the photos that we've got Chris King NoThreadset headsets. I didn't even really know what a headset WAS until now, but apparently this is the last headset we will ever need, ever.

The wheels are built with Sun CR18 rims (Kevin's are black annodized, and mine are silver), fitted with almost flat-proof Schwalbe Marathon tires.

The brakes are Avid Disc Brakes. Quiet, smooth, and low maintenance. (These are the Rohloff rear discs.)

The front hub is a Schmidt SONdelux Dyno Hub. Mine is shiny silver and Kevin's is stealth black.

This generates power as you pedal down the road, operating the headlight, tail light, and "The Plug," which puts a USB charging plug at the top of the handlebar stem. Since we use our iPhones as bike computers and maps (and so we can text while cycling through traffic…oh, wait, not that)…The Plug will keep them nicely charged during long rides (which is awesome, because the iPhone bike apps drain the battery like crazy!)

Our headlights are Schmidt Edelux II headlights (mine is silver, Kevin's is black), which are the best, brightest headlights we've ever seen on a bike. You cannot believe how good these headlights are. The tail lights are Busch & Muller Toplight Line Brake Plus. These are nice, bright tail lights with a wide viewing angle and a cool feature that makes them get brighter when you brake (like a car brake light!)

Both bikes have custom wooden fenders hand made by Cody Davis of Woody's Fenders (in Bend, Oregon). Cody custom made them for us with our choice of wood and design, and fitted them to our particular Bike Friday Silk fender hardware. Both of our designs are made with mahogany, wenge, and maple. We've got Sykes wooden water bottle holders in mahogany, made by Paul Sykes (from Portland, Oregon), and Kleen Kanteen Reflect stainless steel water bottles (shiny!!)

Check out Kevin's fenders:

I found us a couple of Vintage Swiss Army saddlebags (we can use them as handlebar bags or front or rear panniers) at the Reclamation Department here on Etsy. I keep my bag on my handlebars with my wallet, keys, and my Fuji x100s in it. The bags have shoulder straps so when you stop for lunch somewhere, just unbuckle them and they double as shoulder bags.

Today we drove down to Tomales Bay, had some lunch and then rode a few miles up the road to pick up some fresh oysters at Hog Island Oyster Co. Here we are with a bag of 50 Hog Island Kumamotos, a dozen Hog Island Sweetwaters (extra small), and a bag of ice…bungeed to Kevin's rear rack:

Back at camp…eating oysters and watching the sunset:

Sunset with bikes:

Told 'ya it was going to be nerdy!

Bodega Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 01:35:56 +0000

We really really love Bodega Bay. You know when you go somewhere and the place just resonates perfectly with you? For whatever reason…this place did that. The combination of all the hiking trails along the coastal bluffs, the funky Hitchcock history (The Birds!!!), the friends we met the first time we camped here (hi Sissy and Bob!), and the clam chowder at Spud Point Crab Company…it all just came together and we love it here every time we return.

We left…um…where did we camp last night? Oh yeah, a Walmart parking lot in Anderson, CA where we stopped right before midnight…just south of Redding. It sucked. Seriously. At about 2am (maybe that's when the Sonic there at the edge of the parking lot closed?) some douchebag in a big pickup parked one row over and four spots down from the three or four of us RVs there for the night, and then, with all his doors open, BLASTED Alice in Chains for about an hour (maybe it was 5 minutes…but I think it was an hour).

So anyway, we got to Bodega Bay around 2pm, got situated in our site here at Porto Bodega Marina, got our new bikes out and rode up to Bodega Head (testing out the Rohloff's low gears on that hill). The bikes are fantastic!

Here's mine:

Here's Kevin's:

Rockin', aren't they?

We stopped at Spud Point Crab Company on the way back to camp and picked up a couple bowls of clam chowder (second best only to Ox's chowder in Portland…I know, weird, but true) and a cooked crab to have for dinner later. Then, we headed over to say hi to our friends at Gourmet au Bay (a fabulous bayfront wine shop/wine bar, definitely go there if you're in the neighborhood and like wine and awesome people), had a glass of wine (and picked up the Nespresso pods they so nicely let us have delivered to their place, because we forgot to bring enough coffee on this trip, dur). A lovely evening.

Here's the perfect glass-of-wine-sipping view we had (with crazy Hitchcock birds!):

And here's sunset from our campsite:

Tomorrow our plan is to head down to Tomales Bay to pick up some fresh oysters, ride our bikes some more, then go back to Gourmet au Bay tomorrow evening to visit more with Sissy and Bob (and meet up with Airstreamer friends Leslie and Chris of Tin Can Tardis).

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

The weather is trying to make us stay

Laura Domela — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 00:28:53 +0000

and then (looking the other way):

Big Trees at Armstrong Redwoods Grove

Laura Domela — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:43:28 +0000

Today we thought we'd check out the Armstrong Redwoods State National Reserve just north of Guerneville. We stopped at had lunch at a spot called the Garden Grill in Guernewood. Food was great! We had bbq sandwiches and a salad and some garlic fries and everything was fresh and delicious. Beautiful outdoor patio, too.

We headed to the redwood grove and when we got there, it was 101 degrees. When we left Bodega Bay it was 61 degrees. That's a 40 degree increase, 10 miles inland. Crazy. We hiked a bit, and yes it was in the shade, but whoa it was still super hot. We headed up the steep trail and after a while decided that we'd turn around, since we didn't really pay attention to how long it was or if it was a loop. We did have water with us, so that's a plus.

Came back to the Airstream, showered, and went over to the fish market at the Tides and picked up some fresh local salmon and some prawns for dinner tonight. Then we stopped at Gourmet au Bay and surfed some wine and said goodbye (temporarily) to Bob and Sissy. It's a beautiful evening here in the bay tonight, and not very windy at all. I think we'll grill some fish and then make a big fire. Heading north tomorrow…aiming for Patrick's Point State Park.

Oh Alright, More Food Photos

Laura Domela — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:32:37 +0000

Last night's Hog Island Kumamotos:

Today we're mainly working at the Airstream and doing laundry (they've got a really nice laundry room here that's about half the price of the machines over at the Candlestick Compound). We took a break to run to the store and get a couple of ingredients for dinner tonight, and stopped and had lunch at the Terrapin Creek Cafe. We both had crab cake salads (SO good) and shared a small cup of the green garlic soup (also SO good).

Now we're back to work. Tonight we'll be using the last of our Hog Island Sweetwater small oysters in an oyster chowder. We'll smoke them first just like we've been doing, and add the smoked oysters to the chowder. If it turns out good, I'll post the recipe.

Also, we stopped over at Gourmet au Bay today and picked up some more green/blue farm eggs, and Kevin took the hex out over the water to get a few aerial shots of the place for Sissy and Bob. Hope they turn out good!

I like our marina view.

Today’s Office: Porto Bodega Marina

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:01:57 +0000

And this one didn't turn out exactly as I'd planned, but it's kinda cool anyway:

Our New View at Porto Bodega

Laura Domela — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:48:15 +0000

We decided to stay here a few more days. You're surpised, I'm sure. We got a spot with a marina view this time. Not bad.

(Click image for larger view)

SF to Bodega Bay

Laura Domela — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:59:49 +0000

So happy to be back here.

We are over at Porto Bodega Marina this time, parked right on the bay. (Looks like sunset with a martini is in our near future, doesn't it?

Just the sounds of seagulls and sea lions. No screaming children. Ahhhh.

The spots are large, with picnic table and fire ring and full hookups. There's plenty of room between spots to set up our chairs, but right on the water seemed ideal (and there's plenty of room for that as well). They have (pay) Wi-Fi if you need it, but we're using our Verizon data card, and we have great AT&T cell coverage here as well. (The shot below is as we were pulling in past the boat docks.)

Before we left San Francisco I pulled off on a side street and snapped a photo of this parking garage I'd been passing each day. I love how the shapes of the openings in the wall form these cool shadows:

Oh and I kinda dug this skyline shot with the Coca-Cola billboard:

As we were coming over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, I noticed a large structure over on the left and wondered what it was. I consulted my map: San Quentin!! What d'ya know? So I spent the next half hour reading from Wikipedia who all had been in San Quentin (current, and past) out loud to Kevin. Nice on-the-road entertainment, right?

When we were passing through Petaluma again, we opted to stop for another lunch at Bubbaque's BBQ. We pulled onto a side street and Kevin waited while I ran in and got us some lunch. (There's not really any good spot to park or pull over with the Airstream here, but a not-very-busy side street with the hazards on did the trick just fine.)

We had a pulled pork sandwich, a brisket sandwich, and apple sodas, and all was outstanding.

Now we're back to work, but in a MUCH nicer environment. Bye Candlestick Compound!

The Boathouse for fish & chips, then hiking Bodega Head

Laura Domela — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:31:10 +0000

Today we went out to grab some lunch and on Kyle's recommendation we stopped in at The Boathouse for some fish & chips. They were great…good crunchy batter, good fish…although I did hear the guy at the counter tell another customer that the cod they're using right now came from Oregon. What the heck? Those sneaky Californians using Oregonian cod!

Inside this place there's a wall of fish pictures and it's super faded and looks great so I shot a quick photo of a very small part of it (colors not adjusted):

Here's what the outside looks like:

We thought we'd do a little hike after lunch and so we headed out to the Bodega Head trailhead. I think there was one main, mellow path that was about a mile and a half, but we didn't take that. Or maybe we took part of it at some point, but mainly the paths we were on looked like this:

and this (yes, there's a trail through those flowers):

With views like this:

and this:

We hiked about 3 miles (and according to the FitBit, the equivalent of 45 flights of stairs). It was just gorgeous.

I took a few map screen grabs of where we were (see our campground loops on the other side of Campbell Cove?). The car was parked at the end of West Side Road at the trailhead.

And now, back to work.