In Northern California...

...there is a place by the ocean that I like to call my left coast hideout. It's only accessible via the most mind bending roads I have ever seen. You can make the run up from San Francisco in a day. At night the chilled fog will slip in, so go warm your happy bones by a fireplace made with massive stones tossed ashore years ago by the raging pacific that churns less than 100 feet away. Hungry? Eat indigenous food grown within a mile radius of where you are standing. Drink wine made just down the road. The colorful locals have come to grips with the fact that they don't subscribe to the same values as "normal folk", and they all seem to comfortably walk a little off the beaten path, so most conversations are friendly and always interesting. Nor Cal is one of my many heaven's on earth. Soon I will be returning with throttle in hand...