Tweetown

On our northern excursion, we explored the quaint little town of Ferndale, California for a morning. Ferndale is one of those towns, like Mendocino or Healdsburg, where it's not really for everyday life - it's a town that owes its living to tourists and getaway weekenders. It's simply too cute for words, with many shops that add an extra e onto their names. Ye Olde Antique Shoppe; you know what I mean. Even the grocery store is quaint and you just know that the Safeway and the Home Depot are in a strip mall somewhere out of sight.

Having said that, I did get a kick out of poking through the cutesy shops while My Beloved conducted some business via telephone and we had a delicious lunch in Curley's restaurant in the Victorian Inn. Curley's has a delightful decor with mismatched tables and chairs, table settings of bright mixed-color napkins and Fiesta ware. Each table is graced with a different whimsical salt-and-pepper shaker set - ours sported Dagwood Bumstead and his Dagwood Sandwich.

My lunch of chanterelle mushrooms, kale, cherry tomatoes and Parmesan cheese over angel hair pasta was richly creamy and redolent of garlic, and was too large to finish. My Beloved had the meatloaf special and, being a connoisseur of meatloaf, he felt well qualified to say that it was delicious.

Take a little time out from admiring the redwoods to tour the Main Street in Ferndale - it's an enjoyable town despite its self-conscious cuteness.