Another early breakfast at 7 am, but this time we have to go back to the room to pack up as well. We are leaving Napa and heading west to the Pacific Ocean. One thing you learn from these bike trips is to keep all your belongings organized so that you don't have to worry about leaving anything behind. The leaders wanted our bags outside our room by 8 am, but the van was so close to our door, we just walked them over ourselves. It might be hard to see, but this is our map for the day.
We started with a 30-minute shuttle ride to Wilson Ranch, a park in Sebastopol. The guides mentioned that Charles Shultz, "Peanuts creator" established his first studio in this town. There were memorial plaques for him in the town. At the park, we picked up our snacks and filled our water bottles to start our trip to cycle 16 miles (only 600 ft elevation) to our lunch spot at "The Barlow". The Barlow was a small village within Sebastopol. Lunch was on our own today and there were many options for lunch, but Mark and I chose just our granola bars and I added a cold brew coffee to my lunch.
After lunch, Mark decided to continue biking while I chose to shuttle over the hill. It was 12 miles up a large hill of 3000 feet to the town of Occidental. When we met up, he said it was a hard climb. From there, we had 30 more miles with a 1950-foot elevation. The second part of the afternoon was cruising down to the Pacific Ocean. Riding over the small hills and seeing the Pacific made me so happy. We rode for about 14 miles down the Pacific Coast Highway to our lodging for the night at Bodega Bay. As you can see from the pictures, we did go through some redwood forests.
The Lodge at Bodega Bay sits on a small stretch of land on Bodega Bay. Due to its location on the bay, this lodge is a perfect spot for bird watching. There are marsh and seagrass areas where you can find herons, ducks, and geese. Although it was very chilly at the Lodge at Bodega Bay, we had to try out the infinity hot tub. Once in, we did not want to get back out again and freeze. Back in the room, we had a wonderful view of the bay from our balcony. Dinner was on our own, but we had the choice of the dining room which required a reservation, or the lounge. The menu was the same for both locations, so we chose the lounge and had a delicious seafood meal. As the night got colder, we went back to our room to try out the fireplace. Each of the rooms has a small fireplace with a duraflame log that would last about 3 hours. Unfortunately, our tv was stuck on and we couldn't get it to turn off. I called down to the lobby where the man said to use the power button. Of course, we had tried that, but with no success. The second staff member tried to fix it. He gave up, just pulled the plug and it went off. The room also had a sound machine which we set to forest sounds which enhanced the atmosphere with the fire burning. All we needed were s'mores. Below is the map from Mark's Garmin watch.
Comments