We slept in a whole hour the next morning, as we didn’t have far to go to reach our next stop - Petaluma in Sonoma County. The initial itinerary had us going into Big Sur for Friday and Saturday night, but accommodation was a problem so we headed into wine country instead.

We had breakfast at the Little River Inn, which was very sweet, but we were very young patrons. Nummy eggs bene, except for the untoasted english muffin which drives me nuts.

We had originally thought we would take a direct route to Petaluma, but decided to take the coast instead so we could visit Bodega Bay.

The highway to Bodega Bay was almost as insane as the route between the 101 and 1 when we headed to Mendocino, but slightly less twisty so our speed was more consistent. We finally saw people walking on beaches for the first time, as well as plenty of surfers.

We ended up in Bodega Bay (you Hitchcock buffs would recall this as the location of “The Birds“) in time for lunch. Coincidentally the first restaurant we hit was the Tides , which is no longer the tiny diner used in the birds. Now it’s a huge complex with the seafood restaurant, a market, inn and gift shop. Lunch was fine, but nothing special after all the seafood we’d been having along the way.

After a short drive, we made it to Petaluma where the inland temperature was over 100. We were happy to have splurged a bit by booking into the Sheraton Sonoma County with full facilities - including air conditioning and a nice pool area.

First stop was the hotel pool, which was refreshingly cool. After we dried off, we headed into town for a snack and looksie.

After hitting a couple of stores to buy presents, we made it to Sooze Wine Bar and Cafe in time for happy hour, which meant I felt okay about trying a couple of $20 glasses of wine at half price, along with a cheese plate with a local selection. Sooze lived up to the great reviews, but we wanted to ditch the car back at the hotel (not walking distance from downtown) so we went back for another dip and then dinner and wine at the hotel dining room overlooking the pool area.

We had great steaks at the hotel restaurant and we stuffed. The beds were so big and comfy we curled up happily for the night.