Dinner by the sea

Once we left the wineries, we decided to drive to the coast for dinner.  It didn't seem right to come out to California and not see the ocean, even if it was far too cold to even dip your toe.  Drew had heard of a restaurant called River's End and wanted to try it out.  I had wanted to visit Madrona Manor at Tanja's suggestion but alas, the day we were to have done that was the day of the meltdown and we were staying south for the next couple of days.  However, River's End turned out to be a wonderful surprise!

Sleepy little coastal town

How awesome would it be to have a house on the water like that?

As most coastal roads are, the road we were on was narrow with lots of twists and turns.  I noticed no streetlights overhead and was so very thankful we were there in the daytime.  Since streetlights would ruin the aesthetic, they just used a lot of reflectors at eye level, but those did nothing to comfort me.  I was exceedingly grateful when we arrived at the restaurant.  It was right on the water and we were fortunate enough to get a table by the window.

The service was wonderful, the view was breathtaking, but the food!!  We started with half a dozen of the best oysters in the world.

The best oysters in the world.

I ate one before I got out my camera because I wanted to remember

how awesome they were.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of the food because I turned into a total pig and started making pig-noises and slurping and gulping.  Okay, not really.  But there may have been some moaning and eye-rolling.

The oysters were followed by an amazing clam chowder and for dinner I had a great ahi tuna steak, cooked just right.  Drew had a beet salad with gorgonzola cheese that I did not touch - I'm not crazy about beets and by now I'd learned my lesson about fresh cheese.  For dinner, he had roast duck - they served elk and he was really tempted but the $55 entree price was a little steep, although I told him he should go for it.  According to him, the duck was great - I took his word for it.  I've only had duck once and it was super fatty.

I refuse to give up trying to learn how to take good pictures

If only I could find a cooperative subject

Fine, I'll just take pictures of the ocean

The ocean is far more cooperative

Dinner was so great - we had awesome conversation and we were bonding!  Getting to know each other!  Talking about random stuff that draws you closer together!  FINALLY!  We skipped dessert in favor of coffee and tea to extend our great dinner.

Please help me y'all!

What is this thing?  Where can I get one?  There was a website on the bottom of the glass,

but dumb me didn't write it down!

There's an inner chamber for the loose tea leaves with holes in the bottom for the water to flow through and it's insulated.  

Drew got the crazy idea that we spend the night in Jenner because River's End had cabins next door.  Although it would be fun to sleep by the ocean and be spontaneous like that, we would have had to pay out of pocket for the rooms which were nasty expensive.  If we could have cashed in some frequent flier miles or hotel points, it would have been ON!  But, we settled for taking the long way home, driving down the coast and taking pictures along the way.

Leaving Jenner

To me, it looks like the ocean isn't that far away but it was at least several hundred feet

down!  Drew wouldn't let me get any closer to get a better shot.

The drop was super steep

Unique flowers

The drive home was mostly pleasant, although Drew took those twists and turns in the road a little more quickly than I would have preferred.  The lack of streetlights made me incredibly nervous and at times we were so close to the ocean I was convinced we would just slide right off the road.  I'm such a city girl - I'm most comfortable with four lanes in each direction with tons of lights.  When I wasn't worrying about sliding to our watery death, I was scared going through the mountain roads, which were just as dark but with giant scary trees.  Y'all know Jason and Freddy live in the woods right?  Yeah, I'm scared of the dark.  I said it.  Sometimes I get scared of my own backyard when Drew isn't home and the landscape lights haven't come on yet.  I don't like going back there at night and I always triple-check that the back door is locked before I go to bed.

Dude, how did I go from oysters and the ocean to Jason and Freddy and ax murderers? 

 OCEAN!  Pretty ocean.

Won't hurt you at all!

Unless you can't swim - then you'd probably die.

I give up.  I'm going to have nightmares tonight.