REFRESH

The restored marshlands around Bodega Bay

 "I miss the pubs," our server exclaimed with his Cockney-accented English, "I miss all the conversations you can have in a pub."

People have asked us if we miss anything since our move to San Francisco from an East Bay suburb. While we are in the City, we are surprised to find we don't. We are close enough to keep in touch with old friends, and the City offers us so many new opportunities to explore. But like our time living in Paris, we need to refresh and get away from city life for a while. We used to take the Eurostar to London so that we could surround ourselves with English. Though the Parisians spoke English as well as natives and often with what we call an English accent, our attempts at French made communications sometimes a funny and/or frustrating exchange.

We took a few days in Bodega Bay, north of the City. Bodega Bay lays along the coastline and in June is often foggy like so many beach communities. Bodega Bay, though famous from the movie, "The Birds," is still a quiet place compared to other California beach towns. On the deck off of our hotel room, we sat and heard the mooing of cattle in the fields around the corner. In front of us, separating us from the rest of the low-slung hotel buildings was a slope filled with Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans), those plants with large cone-shaped spikes of small flowers that bloom bluish purple all spring. Some of the flower stocks near us reached above our heads with cones of flowers three of four feet in length. We saw bumblebees darting around them and heard the calls of finches, sparrows, and black birds within the silvery-green shrubs and a nearby cedar tree. Off in the distance, we could see the bay which has been a home to a small fleet of fishermen and crabbers for many years. We noticed at our dinner the difference in freshness and taste of the petrale sole and halibut caught nearby, but that local offering is changing as local fish and crab supplies have dwindled by overfishing. Many of the boats now provide whale-watching tours instead. After another dinner at a different restaurant, we sat around the fire pit and looked out over the restored marshlands to the ocean. We could barely see the waves break against the sand in the distance. We could close our eyes and enjoy the peaceful moment.

Pride of Madeira at the Inn of the Tides

The next morning we ate breakfast at a restaurant perched on a wharf. We watched fledgling swallows huddled on a metal section of the wharf beneath our window. The adult swallows swooped in and out from under the wharf. The bay was sleek and quiet as a lake.

Fledgling swallows looking out over Bodega Bay

We found while visiting Bodega Bay what we miss: birds in abundance, a firepit to sit around, gardens, and, best of all, quiet.

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Photos by Bill Slavin

Good spots in Bodega Bay:

Inn at the Tides:   https://www.innatthetides.com

Lodge at Bodega Bay:   https://www.lodgeatbodegabay.com/

Ren Brown Gallery, specializes in Japanese printmakers and ceramists. Open Wednesday to Sunday. Ask to see Ren Brown's Japanese gardens:   https://renbrown.com/about/

We missed the highly rated Terrapin Creek restaurant and several other places because they are closed early in the week. Plan ahead!

The Russian River Estuary where Harbor Seals tend their young