You probably have heard of the Heritage House in Little River just south of Mendocino on Coastal Route One. It stands out as our favorite inn in this country. We stayed there a number of times. Tucked in between the redwood forests and the Pacific, the main house has a spacious lounge with huge fireplace and heavy-beamed ceiling plus a long, wide, window-walled dining room that overlooks the rocky cove. Scattered around the hillside are the cottages, varied in design and décor, and placed so that they do not block one another's view. Some are little more than a large bed/sitting room with bath, but all have decks for dining and sunning. As if to hear the ocean crashing against the rocks of a former smuggler's cove isn't enough, there is the FOOD. Beautifully served by candlelight, dinner is magnificent. I checked their website but think you would do better with a phone call. If you do not stay at the inn, please have one memorable dinner (not open for lunch.) This is if you have not had your fill of crashing waves during the hurricane. I experienced Hurricane Alicia in 1984 in a Houston townhouse and have never forgotten that suffocating fear.

Another time we stayed in a cottage offered by St. Orres in Gualala. It is a place of unique architecture influenced by the buildings of Russian trappers in the nineteenth century. The cottage dot the meadowlands behind the main lodge, so although the ocean is just across the highway, they offer breathtaking views but not the exhilaration of being on the cove of Heritage House. http://www.storres.com

Rent the dvd of Same Time, Next Year, to get a look at the Heritage House. The film with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn is a history lesson in itself with plenty of nostalgia.

You will have a wonderful trip if you take a warm windproof coat!

Jane Estus in Tulsa, Oklahoma