Day 28: The Home Stretch - July 12

Today's breakfast was probably our least inspired of the trip (the free continental breakfast included bowls of cold cereal and store-bought pastries) in one of the most inspiring settings (on the top floor overlooking the Mendocino headlands and the ocean).  Though the WiFi wasn't working in the guest rooms at Hill House, there was WiFi in the lobby area so we gathered around my laptop in the main lobby to watch Season 1, Episode 4 of Murder She Wrote, in which many scenes were shot right where we were sitting.  Surprisingly little has changed since it was filmed thirty years ago!  And, not surprisingly, it was an episode I'd seen before.

view of our room from the front garden

Cabot Cove (Hill House) Inn

We drove through town on our way out, stopping by Jessica Fletcher's house (called Blair House).  For some reason, Mendocino does not advertise the series the same way that Astoria proudly claims the Goonies, but that didn't stop us from finding her home!

Our route back to Mountain View took us right through Healdsburg, CA in Sonoma County, the perfect bookend to our trip.  The first day took us to lunch at Rachel's favorite Napa Valley restaurant, Farmstead, and our last day took us to her favorite Sonoma County restaurant, Shed.  After a delicious lunch we swung by our other favorite stop in town - the Mustache Cafe - for cupcakes.

While we were polishing off our dessert, Julia's good friend Ari from South Pasadena let us know she and her family were in Petaluma (about 40 minutes away right on our way home) and invited us to meet them for ice cream.  Even though we had just polished off several cupcakes, the girls managed to step up their game for the last day with a stop for frozen yogurt.  It was great to get to see Ari and her mom for a few minutes and catch up, in a pretty unexpected place.  From there we went to pick up Shaggy at the Pooch Hotel.  Even though we were gone 28 days, we only had to board him for the last two, thanks to Jim being home and to our many house/dog sitters: Hannah, Mary, Mary's family, and Elizabeth and her girls.  We are so grateful for their love and care of Shaggy and at the same time very happy to be home with him now.  We are starting a healthy eating regimen tomorrow...right after we finish this dinner of In-n-Out.