The last day we were in Sonoma County was a busy one. Since we left Tahoe a day sooner than expected, I felt I owed ML some woods. The forests around Lake Tahoe are magnificent. Muir Woods north of San Francisco are different but also exquisite natural beauty.
And once we had decided to do that she began to look for other things in that area. (It’s so nice to travel with a computer-savvy millennial.) She found Point Reyes, a place I knew from the famous Bleu Cheese. In looking up the cheese she discovered a 25th anniversary celebration they were having at the dairy the very day we would be in the area. She signed us up and pre-paid $50pp for what I thought would be a tour and talk as well as a cheese tasting. And she found the famous lighthouse, though I was going to tell her about that anyway.
And after a day traveling an hour away, we would return to our hotel in Sonoma and visit the charming square again, before calling this trip a wrap.
Reservations are required for anything now, even a walk in the Muir Woods. When I lived at the Grand Canyon many years ago reservations and permits were needed to sleep in the canyon. Just walking through was pretty loose.The only reservation we could get for this was at 8:30am, and we were at least an hour away. We set out from Sonoma at 7 because it was Friday morning and we expected work traffic.
We also needed to leave time for the bakery quest. ML is an accomplished baker who likes to see what everyone else is doing. Who could object to chasing pastries? We didn’t have to go to all of them, just the most promising ones. There were two she found in Mill Valley, a nice suburb of San Francisco. The first of these is hardly worth mentioning. We were there for two minutes. There was almost nothing to buy.
The second was located in a single block street, kind of hidden. I wondered how much business they could possibly do, but by the time they opened at 8am there was a line to get in. We crossed the street with its squooshed rat in the middle and went into this tiny space called Madrona loaded with delicious looking things. Breads hung from everywhere. I had to get a dark seeded loaf, even though I had no idea how to get it home. We also got a biscuit, a cheddar pull-apart bread, a basic croissant and a ham and cheese croissant.
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We didn’t get too far into these before arriving at Muir Woods. All of it was fantastic. ML was impressed with most of the bakeries we encountered on the trip because of their complex practice of cross-laminating the dough. I disagree with her approval. It may make for a bigger accomplishment for the baker, but it makes the pastry more difficult for the eater to eat. The finished product reminds me of the shards of phyllo I’ve seen in dishes from the Middle East. Interesting, but I don’t want to eat sharp shards of anything.
The biscuit was sensational. The perfect biscuit texture, and buttery, crunchy toasted on the outside, and flavorful with cheese on the inside. We both loved this one. I couldn’t decide what was the best thing in this box. There was a pull apart cheesy bread that was deliciously cheesy, with a more breadlike texture. I preferred the biscuit to this because of the texture but that was a minor detail. ML liked her croissant and its cross-lamination, and I considered that a defect in my ham and cheese croissant. But I did love the Gruyere cheese oozing from the sides, and the ham.
The woods were as exquisite as we expected, and we spent a couple of hours there. It’s a good thing we had such an early resy because we would not have been able to make some of the other plans in this busy day.
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Another thing ML dug up online was a market outside the little town called Point Reyes Station. The market was called Inverness Park Market. It had sandwiches and it was insanely popular. There was nowhere to park except along the road. Inside I was shocked to see a menu like this. We got the Estero Trail sandwich, full of bacon, avocado, cheddar cheese and tomato on a local bakery (Brickmaiden) pullman loaf. It's too bad we were in such a hurry. I could have hung around the food haven. They are doing housecut fries and tortillas made in house.
We made a mad dash to the lighthouse, not knowing anything about it, my navigator trying to eat her gorgeous sandwich, and watch her GPS as I sped along. Point Reyes is the tinier of two peninsulas that jut west from the California coastline, the other much larger one being Palos Verdes south of Los Angeles.
But before arriving at the lighthouse we stopped at a station near there that was used for communications. It was a long walk down an gorgeous tree-lined driveway to get to the art-deco era building.
Morse code wires were still in the background.
This place was the ultimate nowhere land, dotted with lovely bits of nature.
The Point Reyes lighthouse was erected because too many ships slammed into the jutting cliffs in the disorienting fog. The famous fog was there when we arrived, as was the wind and mist. Walking down the 350 steps to the lighthouse was terrifying. There was a concrete path and steps with sturdy railings, and at least 1,000 foot drop to the ocean. Good thing the fog and mist made an accurate view of that impossible.
We stayed there long enough to hike it all and marvel at it, but we couldn’t linger. We had to get back on the road to make our resy at the dairy. Had I known what we were actually going to, I would have taken my time. It was just a wonderful party, and anyone can be fashionably late to a party, right?
The Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. sits atop a tall hill overlooking Tomales Bay. The sun danced off the rippling water, setting the stage for a magical afternoon. We arrived after climbing a winding single lane road. The welcome building sits across from an open air barn filled with beautiful dairy cows, each of them giving us a once-over as we passed.
Inside is a nice shop filled with merch. The lovely hostess/cashier showed us through a door onto an expansive patio filled with tables and chairs and lounging furniture.
A large table was overloaded with plates of cheese and nuts and fruit, and jams, and chocolate, and crostini. It was like some kind of cheese Heaven.
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Other tables had sparkling cider and tea, and there were charming young ladies all over to cater to our every whim. Delightful.
It took mere minutes to select the first plate of many.
There were passed around apps featuring various cheeses. I wish I had taken a pic of a dessert macaron filled with Bleu cheese. But I did get a tray of Bleu Cheese and jam crostini.
I liked the way these used flowers as garnish.
Every time I looked across the table at ML she was grinning from ear to ear in the California sunshine, balmy breezes blowing tendrils of her hair. I would have taken a pic but my phone was dead, naturally. Never mind. I will never forget her image in my mind’s eye. Pure happiness. Exactly what I was feeling.
We left when we had finished shopping, and when most everyone else had made their way down the twisty single lane road to the bay. The family patriarch had come to mingle with the guests, one of his three daughters who run the company gave us a history, and we got to meet the newest of the dairy cow brood, a little calf who needed a name.
It had been a sensational last day to a sensational trip. We drove past seafood restaurants right on Tomales Bay that I want to go back and try. We saw Hog Island, the inspiration for the oyster company.
Back in Sonoma we had ten minutes to make it to a French shop ML had been eyeing the whole trip. The housewares store had already shuttered for the night. With nowhere to go and bellies too full, we went back to the hotel to figure out where in our luggage we might stuff all the things we acquired on the trip
The next day was a quick stop in SF at Yank Sing, which was featured on nomenu.com a few posts ago. It won’t be long before we repeat this trip. Outstanding in every way.
