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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: To some Northern California is brightly colored
hot air balloons drifting over vineyards, and purple grapes hanging
heavily from russet gold leaves. To some it's rough-barked redwoods
standing tall like sentries turning the sky green and the clock
back 2,000 years. |
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But to us, San Diegans, Northern California means
gray skies, morning fog, boiling surf and welcome rain And whales,
barking seals, fishing boats, majestic fields decorated with sheep
and cliffs that rear up from the edge of a sea that's never in repose
-- a real land full of real people. As exiled Scots, we are reminded
of home. |
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A caveat for those who know their way around
our state but have never been north, this is not California; it's
not even Oregon This is a strange hybrid heaven, a mixture of the
wilds of Ireland, the remoteness of Nova Scotia and maybe even the
quaintness of Vermont 40 years ago. Visitors will find other parallels
with Vermont. |
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The North Coast is not like Southern California
where we have to fill their tanks twice a day to get to and from
work This is human-sized terrain where distance doesn't dominate.
This is a place of small villages, country stores, sawmills and
maybe even marijuana fields. |
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Its folk have been fishermen and loggers then
flower people and artists. Now they are farmers and innkeepers, the
latter enjoying the absence of competition from the major hotel chains
and, as a result, lodgings north of San Francisco and the meals they
offer seem overpriced. |
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Yet there's a gentle style and a 19th century charm
to this part of the state that transcends any dismay at cost. They
go about their business as if nobody could really be interested
in them, quite unselfconsciously and delightfully dour. But they're
authentic: what you see is what you get.
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