The Unofficial Guide to Bed & Breakfasts in California by Mary Anne Moore and Maurice Read

In an attempt to follow some sort of calling I thought I might have had, I went back to school for a 14-month audio engineering program in 1999. While the intensive course load involved eight to ten hours of class a day, most of the learning took place inside the school’s recording studios, and homework was minimal. On weekends I found myself with not only a lot of free time, but a yearning to escape my hive-like apartment and my (entirely wonderful) roommates.

I don’t know what possessed me, but for a few months that winter, I was consumed with the idea of exploring the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco. On my first trip, I threw a duffle bag in the trunk of my Miata and headed for Bodega Bay with no overnight reservation. Luckily for me it was off-season: at the bed and breakfast I stumbled upon, I was the only guest. And they had a cat.

Before my next trip, however, I bought The Unofficial Guide to Bed & Breakfasts in California by Mary Anne Moore and Maurice Read. I found the guide extremely helpful. The listings are grouped by geographic zones, the descriptions are clear and full, and the reviewers give every B&B a “value” rating in addition to all the other traditional ratings. With my student’s budget, this was a great help.

I went as far north as Fort Bragg twice that season, visiting every town along Highway 1 on the way. It’s only been seven years since that crazy winter, but now I feel like a different person entirely. I look at my comfortable, mortgage-holding-married-with-no-Miata life and I wonder if it’s still in me to just throw a duffle bag in the trunk of my car (a Prius now), grab my husband, and head north with no overnight reservation. At least I still have the book.

The Unofficial Guide to Bed & Breakfasts in California by Mary Anne Moore and Maurice Read

tags: travel guides book reviews bed and breakfast Highway 1 Pacific Coast Highway California

Filed in: non-fiction travel