Wanting to get out of the city we drove up to Jenner to spend the weekend. It’s a sleepy little town up past Bodega Bay, a fishing village in Sonoma where Hitchcock filmed "The Birds”. It probably hasn’t changed much since the 50s and that's why we dig it.

We like to stay at this inn who's claim to fame is that it sits on top of an energy vortex. Being vortex adjacent, it's supposed to bring feelings of peace and well being. I’m not so sure about the peace vortex but the cottages are nice and it’s always quiet and that’s all I ask.

However, many others are drawn to the vortex as a place of healing and romance as many an entry in the guest journal and dedications in the front of questionable literature left behind clearly state. Case in point, the cottages don't have phones or TVs but they do have fireplaces, books and board games. One of the most questionable board games I've ever seen, a game called Probe.

As the box says: Probe is a game that adults play together and thoroughly enjoy.
Uhm, I think that type of fun is still illegal in about 15 states.

I’d made reservations for Sunday to get kayaks from an outfitter in Bodega Bay. When I called the guy on the other end of the phone was giving weather reports to people calling in and tossing out advice on how to touch up a photo to make it more "angelic'. My instructions consisted solely of meeting Johnny down by the Sizzling Tandor at 10am. He’d set us up. We’d know Johnny when we saw him.

Well, when Sunday morning came it was too windy to go out. So we never got to meet Johnny but it looked like a good spot to explore so we’ll probably come back closer to spring.

Will Creek, Russian River

It was so windy there really wasn’t much point in trying to get on the water or walk on the beach so we drove and checked out areas we don’t normally go.

For lunch we ran across a crab stand off the Spud Point marina. Spud Point isn't a San Francisco style fisherman's wharf, it's a working man’s marina, with fishing boats going out mostly for crab and salmon. The Spud Point Crab Company fits right in. It's owned by a guy named Tony, a fisherman who goes out in the morning to haul in the catch and then his family serves it up the rest of the day. We didn't want to wait around for the next boil time, when they pile on the cooked crabs, so we got the chowder and crab sandwiches. They were pretty good.

Spud Point Marina

I was still fighting off my cold so instead of taking a long hike we went to the Bear Valley Visitor Center to find out if anyone had seen anything interesting, poke around the center. No whale sighting to report and it was so windy the coast guard was called in to find some kayakers in trouble. So it was probably a good thing we didn't go out. I try and keep the coast guard out of my weekend plans if possible. We passed by the Hog Island Oyster Farm on the way back but I was seafood'ed out so we skipped it and drove home.

It's unlikely that Lincoln or Washington celebrated their office with a game of Probe and crabs sandwiches, history is silent on the subject, but they should have because we had a good time.