Tuesday, April 14, 2026
We got up and went back to Rustic Bakery for coffee, and I stocked up on their cheese coins before we headed north to Petaluma, California. The drive was less than an hour, and Petaluma put us closer to both Sonoma and Napa.
It was too early to check into the hotel, so we headed into Petaluma’s historic downtown district to walk around. I was surprised by how nice it was — historic, charming, and filled with fun, upscale boutique shops and restaurants.
Our first stop was the Sonoma Spice Company. I try to hold off buying spices at the grocery store so I can splurge when I find fun shops like this one. After that, we found a culinary store, which is always fun to browse through. We then found the Petaluma Pie Company and stopped for a snack, sharing a couple of small savory pies.
Before we left on this trip, we had talked about some of the foods we wanted to eat. We both thought we would run into a lot more clam chowder and fish and chips, since we both love them, but so far we had only had them once. I had seen several places on Yelp in Bodega Bay that served fish and chips.
There was another reason I wanted to see Bodega Bay: I knew that Alfred Hitchcock had filmed The Birds there. I get a kick out of seeing filming locations.
Forty minutes later, we were in Bodega Bay, having enjoyed the scenery along the way. We found a great place right across the street from the marina, ordered fish and chips and clam chowder, and sat outside at a picnic table to enjoy it.
Afterwards, I had to find the Potter Schoolhouse used in Hitchcock’s film. It wasn’t hard; it was right there in Google Maps. Today it is a private residence, but it still looks a lot like it did in the movie, except the tree on one side is now significantly larger.
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