A beauty of a little trip that takes less than a day from Santa Rosa in Sonoma Co. through Petaluma, over hill and dale to the ocean village of Tomales Bay, down Rte 1 to Marshall and back via the Marshall road, with a stop at the North Coast Natives Nursery, then on to Petaluma and back to Santa Rosa.

We get restless sometimes here in paradise and need a little change of scenery. Today was a gorgeous, sunny, end-of-the-summer day. You could not pick a better day to take a day trip from Santa Rosa (California) out to the coast and back. Many choices for scenery, food, and entertainment around here. Lucky us. So a couple times a month we jump in the old wagon (and I do mean old wagon, its like driving a land-boat).

We like to take beautiful drives through these landscapes that have been protected by open space coalitions and land trusts and national parks and so stay unchanged and unspoiled. There are many spectacular scenic, back country roads to travel. On a weekday on these deep country roads you can go for an hour without seeing another car. Today we took the loop from Santa Rosa through Petaluma and out to Tomales Bay, a lovely, 4 hour scenic loop drive no matter what the weather is like. This trip is best started kind of early in the day when the sun is slanting down the hillsides and there is a little dew in the air. If you're feeling like you need some space, you'll find plenty of it out there. Take your time, drive slow, use the pull-outs. Stop and have coffee or do some little errands or shopping in Petaluma on the way. Savor the day. That's what we did.

Restful, beautiful, tree-lined two-lane roads up and down hills, through trees and meadows and over rolling hills - that’s Sonoma and Marin. I was the driver and yet, I couldn’t make myself stop to take photos to show you of the road and the vistas. Sorry, but we were headed to Nick’s Cove for lunch and like Poo's honey pots, the fish n' chips there was calling to me. We passed vineyards, olive orchards, old funky looking cypress trees towering over the road, the wide-open ocean and the waters that flow down to the beach. If you Google a map you’ll find the route we took from Petaluma, out Bodega Ave. on to lovely, newly paved Tomales Road to Tomales Bay and at the Tomales turn off there’s a sign that says “3 miles Nick’s Cove”. Go left.

I have to say something about signs. The signs around there, some of them very old looking, some new and hand-painted, are all just great. I love elaborate signage. You'll see that they add so much to the sense of place there. I find them entertaining, each carrying some of the history of the coast . These northern California coast villages must all be in love with signs - there are so many whimsical, colorful, happy signs making the sea towns look uniquely western and American. And Nick's Cove has about twenty, I think.

Try to time it (and this is a weekday, not a weekend - we never try to buck the crowds on the weekends) so you get to Tomales Bay around 11:30 when Nick's opens for lunch (we go for lunch cuz the price is right and this is a day trip. Right.) And you'll have the whole place practically to yourselves.

We like to sit in the bar because I like to look at all the stuff on the walls. Lovely artwork. It's why you eat out, for the scene, the design of the place, the food, for me is secondary, but still important. Or you could pick a table by the window or by the fireplace or you could sit at the oyster bar. Best designed bar I've ever been in. Really. Been in some nice bars, too. It's functional - not too kitchy, with rope wrapped around the bar and very interesting wood railings that separate the seating between bar and dining room. It looks like its been this way forever, but actually its been re-designed recently. You will find the history of the place on their lovely website http://www.nickscove.com/ Go there for all the info about chef and staff and design and history and directions and much better photos than I could take with my little camcorder.

The wall art includes some stuffed deer and there's also a huge stuffed sea turtle over the fireplace - it looks way old, so it didn't offend me, still, I'm not a fan of stuffed dead things. But that's the only minus of the whole place for me. Oh, and on weekends they open up the deck water-side for dining al fresco. They also have cottages which look very comfy for bed and breakfast - would be perfect for a cozy winter night holiday right on the waters of Tomales Bay.

Ok. Lunch. Lunch was fish n chips for my companion (they call it Wild Alaskan Real Cod with French Fries and Red Cabbage Slaw or something fancy like that - they have a very talented chef, you know.) My friend said those were the best fries he's ever had. I agree. Great crispy fish - fried with oil that was just the right temp. And I had the shrimp tacos with the garlic aioli and the cilantro on house-made tortillas. Perfect. (I'm really not a real food reviewer, could you tell?)This place has the right ideas, quiet attitudes, organic food, perfect portion sizes and history.  I've been impressed both times I ate there.

After lunch we made our way to Marshall, a place that holds much nostalgia for my friend, where he brought his family and friends on many picnic and boating excursions. He likes to go to the boatworks where they used to put in their boat.  He says nothing has changed - except maybe there are even more derelict boats at the being repaired or stored or whatever they do with old boats in sea towns. (They plant flowers in little dingys, I know that much) A couple local sea lions were barking and laughing. I took about a hundred photos of boats and the boatworks, most were not as interesting as I thought they should have been. There are lots of quaint old sea shanty buildings, and if you love oysters there's the Hog Island Oyster Co. which sells some of the best.

The story with the sea lions is that these sea lions were playing around a boat and getting on it and a guy there rowed out to it but they wouldn't let him on. I missed the main action with the guy in the boat, but got a nice little vid of the sea lions posing and cavorting. The third one was "it", I think - it looked kind of like a game of king-of-the-mountain.