West Coast Roadtrip

mar52


Samoa Cookhouse is interesting.  I drove up there looked and left.  I don't like communal eating.

Humboldt is nice just to drive around and enjoy the area.

 
You missed a great experience...and think of the "communal dining" as any other dining except that the tables are stuck together... and unless you're uncomfortable meeting people, it's a great experience at one of the LAST true "cookhouses" in the country...the other diners are just friends you haven't met yet...and folks from across the USA have made it a point to eat there... it's a genuine authentic cookhouse that used to primarily serve to loggers and mill workers...and we usually find a table with plenty of room that has a few empty seats, so we've never had to rub elbows literally with other patrons...
 
I went there for my birthday dinner, and we let it slip out to the waitress, and before you know it the entire dining room was singing "Happy Birthday"
 
They'll ask if you want a SECOND HELPING ...if you walk away hungry, it's yer own fault...
 
Friendly staff, attentive waiters, and honest American logger food...
 
Phone ahead  to see what they're serving that day...the serve only ONE menu item each day for lunch, and another for dinner, so don't expect to be handed a menu...a simple chalkboard tells you what they're serving...
 
After your meal you can wander through their museum collection of old logging gear and photo's...it's a bygone era that has been captured in a large and interesting collection...

BackRhodes

Ralph Melton

{snip}
-  I would welcome advice on a route through Oregon and Northern California. (We want to drive from Portland to San Francisco in 2-3 days.) Most of the Roadfood-listed restaurants in Oregon are near the coast, and that would fit nicely with a visit to the Coastal Redwoods in Northern California. On the other hand, driving down I-5 would give us a chance to stop at Crater Lake, which my father has recommended, and we could see Mount Shasta. And I'm sure that there are many splendid possibilities of which I'm not aware. What would y'all recommend for a combination of great tourism and great food? 

{snip}

I know this is after the fact, but here's how I would do it:

In a 3 day scenario: Night #1 at Crater Lake, and Night #2 at Eureka...

Portland to Tillamook, Tillamook to Reedsport, Reedsport to Roseburg, Roseburg to Crater Lake, Crater lake to Medford, Medford to Redding, Redding to Eureka, Eureka to Legget, Leggett to San Francisco
(At Leggett you have the choice of staying on US Hwy 101 or taking California Hwy 1)
This route would give you the Oregon Coast, Crater Lake, Mt Shasta, and the Redwoods & the California Coast...

 
This does look like a good route. I think we took almost the opposite of this route: From Portland down I-5 to Crater Lake, west through Roseburg to Bandon, then south along 101 to San Francisco.

If I knew you'd be going down Hwy 101 I would've waved...
 
On the above map I also included a detour at Healdsburg down into the Napa Valley via Calif Hwy 128...just in case you wanted to try some of the upscale city slicker food...
 

We ended up going through Napa too late to stop. I was somewhat disappointed, because there was a sausage place just off the main square in Sonoma that I remembered fondly from our honeymoon, and I'd hoped to find that again.

BackRhodes:  I might have missed the food part of The Samoa Cook House, but I did experience everything there except for the food.
 
I would not have been comfortable eating which would have ruined all the other good I experienced there.
 
It's a wonderful place and I did reccommend stopping there as it's more than just the food.
 
I loved the glimpse into how things once were.

Ralph Melton
       We ended up going through Napa too late to stop. I was somewhat disappointed, because there was a sausage place just off the main square in Sonoma that I remembered fondly from our honeymoon, and I'd hoped to find that again.      

 
St Helena has changed from when I lived there decades ago...we sometimes think of it as "Sausilito North". Calistoga has also changed...it's now all about the tourists, not much left for the locals anymore...one sad indicator is when the Donny's auto parts store closed...if you now need auto parts you have to drive to Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, St Helena, or Middletown...we also lost the baker, the shoe man, the clothing store
 
I don't know IF it's still there but in Yountville there was a Yountville Diner, run by a lady named Cassandra...another place that may or maynot still be there is the Yountville Saloon...
 
I used to get a lunch and a "barley pop" at La Luna mexican market in Rutherford and stash it in my saddlebags and ride my horse down to the shade of the Napa River, and teach our horses how to swim a river...(some fo our horses have never seen a river in their life). It used to be that the river at the Rutherford Crossroad had gentle banks...but then the Army Corps Of Engineers came along around 1978 or so, and "improved" the river by putting washer machine sized rocks all along the banks, which meant that we could not make it down the banks with our horses anymore...
 
I used to live in The Valley Of The Moon...the Valley Of The Moon Saloon was where the late Norton Buffalo got his start. Just off the square in "Slonoma" was Wooden Nickel Records. The Square is where the Bear Flag Revolt started against the Mexican authorities  (California and Texas are the only 2 states that were Republics)...

Hopefully next time you're in the area it will be daytime and you can explore a bit...

mar52
        BackRhodes:  I might have missed the food part of The Samoa Cook House, but I did experience everything there except for the food.

I would not have been comfortable eating which would have ruined all the other good I experienced there.

It's a wonderful place and I did reccommend stopping there as it's more than just the food.

I loved the glimpse into how things once were.   

 
I don't know IF there is an individual table in any of the other dining rooms (they have 3)...if so, would that make a difference...???
 
Yes, the preservation of the history is unique because so much of it IS recent history to those who still work in the logging industry...so many of the mills have shut down in the last 20 years (yet the demand for lumber has not decreased), and the lumber used to be hauled out on the Northwestern Pacific RR, but it's also now shut down (due to several massive rockslides in the Eel River Canyon between Willits and Scotia)...
 
The Harwood mills in Branscomb shut down but the equipment is still in place...in other places the equipment in former mill sites has been removed for scrap or resell...
 
Yet...someplace around Duncan Mills (Sonoma County) there is a STEAM powered mill that still operates...it was featured on Huell Howser's tv show California Gold
I was raised with horses and have always felt a very close connection to the history of California...my grandparents survived the 1906 San Francisco quake (my other side of the family were Texas oil drillers)
 
So much to explore in my (native) state...some places like Eureka I know only a small amount about...I'm not there all that often, but I do know how to find my way to Lola's Mexican food, and Porter Street BBQ, and I've eaten at a few downtown Eureka restaurants, but there's more to explore and learn about...it's just a matter of time...my ranch is in the Deep Boonies, up in a rugged bunch of mountains, so I don't just "drive to town" for a loaf of bread...the nearest food store is a 28 mile round trip, but that's the scale of things out here...
 
I really try VERY hard to avoid ALL urban area's, but I did see a food joint featured on DDD in Sacto I'd like to try...