O REG O N'S LGBTO N EW S M A G A ZIN E
travel
OCTOBER 21. 2011
►
S I N C E
1 9
ypXC«*
?
6
Mobile West takes
I
5
ÿ
^
/ r
¡n your car stereo.
Above: Korbel Winery
Right: Mendocino at sunset
mal— the tasting room experiences are more
comparable to what you’d find in the W il
lamette Valley. This is especially true in the
AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) that
emanate from the town o f Healdsburg, 15
miles northeast of Guerneville: the Russian
River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Alexan
der Valley. You’ll likely have the most fun if
you focus on three or four good vineyards
each day— my favorites include Porter
Creek, Michel-Schlumberger, M erry E d
wards, Seghesio and Passalacqua. In the
upscale Healdsburg, superb restaurants
abound (Cyrus, Bovolo, Barndiva), and
you’ll also find some outstanding luxury ac
commodations, among them H onor M an
sion (honormansion.com) and— overlooking
the leafy town square— Hotel Healdsburg
(hotelhealdsburg.com).
The small city of Santa Rosa lies 15 miles
south of Healdsburg and makes a handy base
for exploring the entire region. M ost o f the
county’s chain hotels are here— I like the
Hyatt Vineyard Creek (vineyardcreek.hyatt.
com) downtown, partly because concierge
Ramon Meraz knows so much about Sono-
ma’s wineries, restaurants and gay scene. It’s
also an easy walk to several very good restau
rants. O n my trip with Pennie, we enjoyed a
particularly stellar meal o f contemporary
California-Mediterranean fare at the brand
new Petit Syrah Bistro. Nearby, Stark’s Steak-
house has a great food-oriented happy hour,
and A’roma Roasters coffeehouse is a favorite
hangout of the city’s LG BT community. On
this most recent trip, we stayed east of down
town at Flamingo Resort (flamingoresort.
com), a reasonably priced, retro-hip hotel
that’s been handsomely renovated and has
rooms set around a fabulous pool.
From Santa Rosa you’re close to several
other appealing towns. You can drive south
east along Highway 12 through the Sonoma
Valley, a swath of vineyards that includes
some o f the most storied wineries in the
country, among them St. Francis, Kunde
and Benziger. Be sure to spend time stroll
ing around the historic square in the actual
town o f Sonoma as well as the village of
Portland
Glen Ellen, both of which abound with tony
boutiques and fine restaurants. And up in
Kenwood, the Vineyards Inn is one o f the
county’s most dedicated practitioners o f
farm -to-table cooking, with a menu focused
on Spanish recipes.
And then there’s Mendocino (visitmendo-
cino.com), the stunning coastal village that
stood in for the fictitious Maine town of
Cabot Cove in Murder, She Wrote and still
feels like the sort of folksy, enchanting hamlet
you might see Jessica Fletcher snooping
around (albeit without frequent murders).
Pennie and I spent a night here on our way
driving back up the coast— it’s just a 90-
minute, beautiful drive from northern Sono
ma County. O ur room at the handsome Little
River Inn (littleriverinn.com) looked clear
across a rolling lawn and Van Damme Beach
to the Pacific. For dinner that night, we
noshed on burgers and an artisanal cheese
plate at the dapper MacCallum House Inn.
If you’re still unconvinced of the wisdom
in driving 600 miles from Portland to Sono
ma and home again, consider the conve
nience o f hauling several cases of wine with
you back to Oregon, which Pennie and I did
on this trek. I’m already running low, and
plotting my next adventure. *101
Read more about the
A ndrew C oiuns
503 . 227.1212
vancouver
exercise
free will
October 15 ■ May 2012
November 12
Finders Keepers
Glass Floats on the Beach
Chowder Cook-Off
tmwfa
(At tk m m h ik tM ttK tv m
japAwNfata* wm.
•%/
S 4 i 9% 1274 <* 800 4S2 2isi www oregoncoast.org