6000 Mile EV Road Trip - Stay 26
Healdsburg, California | August 1 – 4, 2024
Written by John Martinson
Continuing south on the 101 from Eureka, the redwood highway extends to about 150 miles south of San Francisco, with by far the greatest concentrations of redwoods occurring in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This includes the 10,000-acre Rockefeller Forest, which according to Humboldt County’s Visitors Bureau, is “the largest remaining contiguous old-growth coast redwood forest in the world.” So, it was another 200+ miles day of mostly redwood forests from Eureka to Healdsburg, in Sonoma County.
We arrived at the charming 12-room Healdsburg Inn on the Plaza (a member of Four Sisters Inns) around 3:00 PM and checked into a nice room on the second floor, which could not have been more convenient. We had dinner that evening at Barndiva, a farm-to-table restaurant and event venue, just a short walk from the Inn. Dinner was delicious! We shared the Deviled Egg with Russian dressing, shallot and chive; Goat Cheese Croquettes with tomato jam and lavender; Onion Bhaji with coriander & mint chutney; House-Extruded Bucatini Pasta with broccolini, sun-dried tomato, chanterelles, and pine nuts; and Tikka Masala with tofu, lemon rice, paratha, and raita. To top it all off, we stopped at The Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar and shared a cone of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.
The next morning at 8:00 AM, we met Sergio Ruiz, owner of Prestige Auto Detailing, at nearby parking lot for a 2-hour exterior detail of our Model X, which, after 5100 miles on the road, had picked up a lot of road grime and dead bugs. His service and attention to detail was excellent, and so now we have a clean car. This is necessary and preventative because, according to our home auto detailer, Kyle Franko of Scottsdale’s Bulldog Detail, baked-on grime and bugs might damage the paint if they are not removed before hitting the desert heat.
On Saturday, we got together for lunch with friend Carey Sweet, a food and culture journalist from Phoenix, who now lives and works in the area. (Carey is also a wonderful foster-mom for rescue pups and farm animals!) We also joined her for a wine release tasting event just off the Healdsburg Square. On Saturday evening, we visited treasured cousins on my father’s side of the family for a small family dinner of home-made watermelon gazpacho, grilled peaches and pineapple, rice, and smoked tofu. Thank you, Dov, Melissa, Penny, Frankie, and David. It was a marvelous evening!
