my favorite drive

When I think of my Dad, I think of him behind the wheel of his car, with a muffin in hand, driving. He loves to manage his stress by taking long drives through the whindy + twisty roads of Northern California, under the guise of “looking for real estate.” He knows every hen house and coffee house along the Marin and Sonoma coastline. He is my favorite kind of Sunday driver, the kind that shamelessly trespasses in pursuit of the perfect vista, perch, grove or canopy of trees, and glimpse of sunset.Amusingly, my sisters and I live to go on long drives too, usually a perfect excuse to talk about our husbands! Yount Mill Road, in Yountville, is typically the starting point.

On your way out of Yountville, follow Yount Street, north, until you run into Yount Mill Road. During the spring, if you look to the west, you’d swear you are in Ireland; and if you look to the east, your eyes are blinded by a carpet of Technicolor mustard canvassing the valley floor. This little country road is a daily pilgrimage for our children, and one of the most gorgeous drives in all northern California, complete with 14 owl boxes and a very large herd of long horn cows at the bend. We spend our days tracking down all the “moo babies” and our nights parked along the creek, listening to Yountville’s magnificent chorus of male tree frogs. Beware: they are loud, and will get silent at the first sight of head lights!

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