Left Garberville and within 6 minutes stopped off hwy 101 at a cute tourist trap with wind chimes, Bigfoot signs & statues, planters, and other knick knacks.
Drive through Redwoods, beautiful drive & trees.
I wanted to stop at the Mendocino Brewing Co. (Red Tail) in Ukiah, but the brewery wasn't open. We found the Ale house, but it was pretty much just a bar, no food.
We found downtown Ukiah and stopped at Ukiah Brewing Co. also known as Ritual Restaurant & Lounge.
ukiahritual.com
I had to have an IPA with lunch. They have fish tacos, burgers, sandwiches & even pizza for lunch. Yum!
Mom & I decided we'd have dessert too.
We had the flourless chocolate cake! So good! It was like choc fudge.
I would definitely come here again.
I believe Ukiah is on the tip of Wine Country. Here's some fun facts about Ukiah that I didn't know.
- Ukiah is surrounded by more than 20 organic wineries and acres of biodynamic vineyards.
- Home of the first certified organic brew pub in the U.S.: Ukiah Brewing Company.
- Seat of the first county in America to ban the use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in agriculture.
- One of the few courses where you can see spawning steelhead and grazing wild turkeys while you play golf.
- Home of the first Carbon Neutral winery in the U.S.: Mendocino Wine Company.
- Ukiah spelled backwards is haiku
(These little facts were found on Ukiah's home page:
Visit Ukiah
Cute town - it was a bit warm there, warm for me anyway. 80 degrees or so.
We continued down 101 South through Wine Country.
I figured since we got to stop for me, a Brewery we should stop for Mom and go to a Winery. Frances Ford Coppola Winery was just up the road about a 1/2 hour, right off the 101.
https://www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com/
Mom having a glass of Chardonnay.
Outside. Nice seating area & view.
I didn't take a picture but they have a pool area. Of course you have to pay for day use, but I guess if you don't have a pool and you live in the area it would be worth it. Seemed more of a social thing to do. Check it out on their site.
From the winery, I decided to drive since Mom had been drinking. Ha Ha
Only 3 more hours to go. However, you see all the yellow exclamation points on the map below?
A 3 hour drive home took I think about 5 hours. We got stuck in traffic through San Rafael. The traffic on the 101 to the 580 was crazy! We went on the bridge over to Richmond. I love the architecture of bridges, but I don't like driving on them and then seeing them doing construction on them. Argh!
I know this is dangerous, but had to get a couple pics.
Mom is used to it by now, me taking pics while driving.
Made it across the bridge and with a small "oops" (almost went back over the bridge again) we got back going the right way. It's ok. I got it! Smooth sailing back home from here. Got back to Aptos about 8pm. Yay! Made it.
