A friend and past co-worker surprised many of us several years ago by picking up and leaving the SF Bay area and moving up to Boonville, California, to become an innkeeper with her husband Jim. Their place is the Anderson Creek Inn. This was our first visit, as our very active son, David, was now old enough to appreciate the environment.
We were in need of a quiet and restful couple of days, and this
sounded like just the thing.
There's an airport at Boonville that is actually pretty close to the Inn, but, alas, there were no rental cars to be found anywhere nearby, so we decided to fly up to Ukiah and get a car from Enterprise there.
We loaded up N811TW (a Cessna Skylane) and departed Palo Alto on a sunny but windy Friday afternoon (May 9, 2003). After picking up the car I realized I'd neglected to add the local detail for the area to our Garmin Street Pilot III GPS, so while I had the address, I didn't know how to find the Inn! Fortunately a quick call to the Inn netted directions and it was very easy to find.
Our first impression of the Inn was of peaceful farm house. Coming down the driveway with sheep on one side and horses on the other, while Jim was parking the tractor over between the house and barn, built that feeling. But the rural earthiness stopped at the gate to the house, where charming elegance is the main theme. The rooms are neat as the proverbial pin, complete with comfortable furniture, gorgeous fresh flowers, and even some tasty chocolate treats.
What you won't find are things like televisions and phones. It's just
not that kind of place.
After we got settled in, Grace had a treat for David. She took him
out to the cabaņa where a family of birds had set up housekeeping on
top of a wind chime under the eaves. The baby birds were the first of
many interesting wildlife encounters. (Click on the picture to see
the full-size image.)
Probably the goofiest of all the wildlife was this hollow-legged
gap-toothed diddie found cavorting on the soft, luscious grass...
For dinner we followed Grace's suggestion to visit Lauren's in Boonville. Amy was talking up the gorgonzola and walnut salad when the waiter walked by with a great looking cheeseburger. She changed her mind... David had the 4-Salsa Nachos (yes, he loves the jalapenos). I tried the meatloaf (I wondered about the fried mashed potatoes; they were great!) All of us selected beer to drink; Amy one of the local brews, Henry Weinhards Root Beer for me, and Dad's Root Beer for David (who later agreed that the Henry's is actually better...)
All those dishes were
quite tasty, but paled next to the strawberry-rhubarb shortcake we had
for desert. Yum!!!
After a bit of strolling around Boonville we returned to the Inn to
enjoy a bit of reading before a very peaceful night's sleep.
One of the things I really appreciated about the Inn was how
unobtrusive it was. While the temperature remained very comfortable
throughout our stay, the heating/cooling/venting equipment was very
quiet, never interfering with the quiet or natural sounds.
We had gone to bed early, so we were all up by 7. As I hope you can
see in the photo, the mist laying over the hills gave a beautiful soft
light to the countryside. We set out on a stroll down Anderson Valley
Way.
The sights, smells, and sounds were wonderfully
pleasant and too numerous to list. This bit of weathered wood that
looks like a pair of geese is just one example. Check out how the
light plays with the texture of the wood. Beautiful.
Soon we were getting hungry, though, so we headed back to clean up and
meet the other guests for breakfast at 9am. Yummy! Ham quiche with
fresh from the oven blueberry muffins, fresh fruit, and fresh orange
juice enjoyed by the lovely courtyard.
After breakfast we tempted Grace away from her duties to get a tour of
the grounds and meet the other locals. David was quite taken with
Bill and Blondie, the draft horses, and can be seen here with Blondie discussing topics
of great depth and import. (Carrots?) Like many of the pictures on this page, click on the
picture to see more of the shot.
We meandered around the pastures until we were below the south side of
the house were there is one of the most stunning single trees I've
ever seen. A giant oak filled with life from woodpeckers to squirrels
to moss. It's truly magnificent. The small image here doesn't do it
justice, and neither really does the larger image you can get by
clicking on the small one. You'll have to see this one for yourself.
One funny thing about this tree is that the trunk has many small holes
in it, presumably made by woodpeckers, and in many of them squirrels appear to have stuffed acorns. The overall effect is like the tree is looking at you out of many eyes, according to Amy.
Here's our wonderful hostess helping find some of the creatures that
David enjoys!
Amy says Grace won't like this picture, but we think it's darling!
And here's one of those creatures. "Hey buddy, got any spare bugs?"
David had decided he couldn't wait another day to give Amy the Mother's Day present
he'd made for her, so she got it before we got out of bed. So we were
celebrating mother's day early in this picture, but then he rarely waits for an excuse to show his mother how much he loves her.
(Once of the nicer candids I have of them!)
Amy joked that it was appropriate that the "Sneezy" part of her 7
dwarves hat was showing; she'd forgotten to take her allergy meds and
with all the plant life around she was pretty sneezy until the
medication kicked in.
Grace showed us the way down to the creek, and after a bit we took off
our shoes and waded across (it was just a bit too big to jump), and
followed Con Creek down to Anderson Creek, finding lots of interesting
stuff along the way.
This is one of the views from the Meadow Room, and you can just see Con Creek in the bottom right.
Later in the afternoon we went into town, had lunch at a taco truck
(yep) that actually had some really wonderful food; fresh,
nicely spicy, and very good.
We were lucky enough to be visiting at the same time as the circus, so
we took in the show, and Amy (who just loves elephants) took her
ride on Barbara.
In the afternoon we stretched out by the pool and David took the honor
of being the first person to actually venture into the pool in 2003.
It's not heated!
On the way out to dinner we stopped to admire the hummingbirds making
use of the several feeders.
The coloring on the birds was incredible, but only visible in just the
right light.
We quite enjoyed our pizza dinner, and then Grace was kind enough to
indulge David and me in using her fancy apple corer/peeler/slicer
machine to prepare the apples for the fresh homemade applesauce she was
making for breakfast.
We slept in a bit more on Sunday, and basically relaxed around the Inn
most of the morning. Here are 3 mother's enjoying their Mother's Day
by taking in the view and ambiance in the garden.
We took a walk down to some of the other houses nearby, passing by
Blondie, the "Pasture Princess". Her job is to be pretty...
After lunching on our left over pizza, we packed up and headed out to Hendy Woods and had a grand time climbing around among the giant redwoods. Then it was time to head back to Ukiah and the flight home, but we took a few minutes to get this aerial view of the Inn first.
I hope you've enjoyed this story and my pictures. Drop me a note (please, no spam) if
you did (so I know if it's worth the time to make this kind of web
page :-), and consider making your own visit to the Inn.
