April 2004 Trip to Ukiah - Day 2
Healdsburg to Ukiah
We checked out of the BWDRI and used our Garmin GPS-V to 'find' the nearest Starbucks. Then we went downtown Healdsburg to wander around the historic plaza. There was a large number of Mexican day laborers hanging out at every corner of the plaza. About the only place open before 10:00a.m. was the Oakville Grocery. We bought some more artisan cheese. Mmmmm. Chris shopped for a while in Fabrications. We both went into the Regal Rabbit and shopped and chatted with the owner Diane McGregor.
In Hopland we made our usual stop at Real Goods for another stretch-and-shop, and then had a so-so lunch in the Crushed Grape Grille inside the Brutocao Schoolhouse Plaza.
We took the very twisty Mountain House Road from Hopland to Highway 128 and then on to Navarro Vineyards in the Anderson Valley where we bought three cases of wine and grape juice.
We back-tracked several miles down Highway 128 until we got to the intersection with Highway 253 which we took over to Ukiah.
We checked into the Hampton Inn - Ukiah.
Pros:
We checked out of the BWDRI and used our Garmin GPS-V to 'find' the nearest Starbucks. Then we went downtown Healdsburg to wander around the historic plaza. There was a large number of Mexican day laborers hanging out at every corner of the plaza. About the only place open before 10:00a.m. was the Oakville Grocery. We bought some more artisan cheese. Mmmmm. Chris shopped for a while in Fabrications. We both went into the Regal Rabbit and shopped and chatted with the owner Diane McGregor.
In Hopland we made our usual stop at Real Goods for another stretch-and-shop, and then had a so-so lunch in the Crushed Grape Grille inside the Brutocao Schoolhouse Plaza.
We took the very twisty Mountain House Road from Hopland to Highway 128 and then on to Navarro Vineyards in the Anderson Valley where we bought three cases of wine and grape juice.
We back-tracked several miles down Highway 128 until we got to the intersection with Highway 253 which we took over to Ukiah.
We checked into the Hampton Inn - Ukiah.
Pros:
- It's the newest hotel in town.
- They have a kick-ass free buffet breakfast.
- They have free wired Internet access in ?every? room. (don't forget to install something like ZoneAlarm on your laptop in these situations)
- The room was quiet...except for the noise caused by people using the pool/sauna outside of the posted hours (one night at Midnight, the next at 4:00a.m. and one morning before 8:00a.m.) Surprisingly, we did not hear any noise coming from the adjoining lumber mill or the nearby Ukiah airport. Apparently, the airport is the most 'famous' place in town. But I think that Alameda does it better!
- There were dogs *everywhere*. Annoyingly (and illegally), even in the breakfast buffet.
- There is only one elevator for three stories - and it's not in a convenient-central-location. We spent a lot of time walking from the parking lot to our room.
- We had a constant battle with the air conditioner in our room. It wouldn't turn on until the thermostat was set to 69 degrees. After a few minutes, the thermostat would reset itself to 75 degress and start heating up the room.
- The front desk told us that engineering needed to get in our room to replace the shower head and shower curtain. We did get a nice & shiny new shower head, we still had the old & stained shower curtain.
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