Discovering Beautiful Bodega Bay

This delightfully serene fishing village is an hour's drive north by northwest from San Francisco. Once known as a storage area for pelts, grain and agricultural products, it's now a quiet retirement community, home of many country inns, B&Bs and seaside hotels.

Quick Tips:

• Bird watching is a favorite activity here. Look out for snowy egrets, ravens, crows, black birds, starlings, raptors, and seagulls.
• Walk the tidepools and view sea otters, shore birds and great blue herons.
• Play golf at the Bodega Bay links, a challenging course similar to Scotland's St. Andrews.

Best Way To Get Around:

• Walking is easy since the town is so small, but getting here is best done by car because of its remote coastal location.

• Each room has a sweeping ocean view, a mini-bar, a large bedroom with armoire, table and chairs for reading or dining on room service, and a spacious bathroom.

• Robes are provided for guests to wear while they walk to the covered spa and outdoor pool.

The Duck Club is an elegant, warmly appointed restaurant, complete with fireplace and sweeping ocean view. The food is upscale California Cuisine, featuring fresh locally-grown produce (organic mixed greens, baby spinach salad), today's fresh catch (sea scallops, lobster bisque, dungeness crab cakes, herb crusted pacific salmon, wild mushroom and panko crusted escolar-sea bass), duck (soup or wild rice and duck crepes), meat (filet mignon or prime rib), and incredibly delicious desserts.

This local landmark was established on its present site in the 1920s. Then, it was the first restaurant on the Sonoma County coast and quickly became a hangout for fishermen and their families. In 1963, it was the location for the filming of "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock. Even today, they have framed photos of Hitchcock and Tippi Hendron on the walls.

The food serves the finest, freshest seafood available. With their own docking facilities, the fishing boats pull right up and bring them a large daily selection of fresh fish, often caught and prepared the same day.

Imagine being buried up to your neck in 100 degree camphor-scented peat moss for 20-30 minutes... and not wanting it to end. That's what people the world over enjoy at Osmosis. This wonderful refuge for tranquility and renewal is about an hour north of San Francisco, and just minutes east of Bodega Bay. With beautifully-landscaped Japanese bonzai gardens and gracious service, you can step into a rejuvenating form of heat therapy from Japan that soothes and energizes your body. The enzyme bath generates heat biologically through fermentation, nature's purification process. The bath contained fragrant cedar fibers, rice bran and over 600 active enzymes. It produces a special quality of heat that actually improves circulation and metabolism, helps your body break down toxins, and thoroughly cleanses your skin. You can follow it with an aromatherapy facial, a gentleman's facial, anti-aging eye treatment, or Swedish massage. Don't miss it for the world!

There's a loop on a state park that you can walk in high or low tide. Kids will love to discover what's in this pool of water, or identify the different birds.