Travelogue

St. OrresI was really looking forward to spending the night at Saint Orres, a hotel plus cabins, and cottages along the stunning Mendocino Coast.

Besides the hotel with a unique Russian architecture, there were several cottages and cabins situated on a hill above the hotel, some of which had balconies overlooking the ocean.

We had booked the Rose Cottage because of that promised view, and it was absolutely lovely. The cottage had a breakfast nook, a sitting area with a Franklin Fireplace opening out to the sundeck overlooking the ocean, skylights, and a bedroom on the second floor looking down on the area below and also out to the ocean.

Rose Cottage at St. OrresThere was such an attention to detail everywhere we looked. Even the bathroom windows framed fabulous views of the surrounding trees.

For the past 37 years, this place has been a labor of love for Rosemary Campiformio and Eric Black, the co-owners. Eric designs and builds the unique structures that honor the area’s Russian heritage, and Rosemary is the Executive Chef serving her highly acclaimed North Coast Cuisine in the Saint Orres Restaurant.

View from our sundeckUnfortunately for us, the restaurant is only open on weekends, but we knew that ahead of time and packed some sushi, sesame noodles, and salad. So that night we sat on our ocean-view sundeck sipping wine and eating our modest dinner. Not bad.

Afterwards, we took a walk around the grounds and across the street to the small Cook’s Beach to watch the sunset. Then it was back to our cozy Rose Cottage.

When we checked in, we were told that a vegetarian breakfast would be delivered to our door between 8:30 and 9:00.

Rose CottageWe woke up to a view of the ocean from our bed, which was pretty unique. Herb made some coffee and then, right on time, there was a knock on our door with our breakfast delivery.

Out on our doorstep was a very large wooden box. I felt like it was Christmas morning when opening it and just as thrilled. There was a veggie omelet, granola and milk, melon, kiwi, and other fruits. It was delicious.

I have a funny feeling that we will be back, but next time when the restaurant is open!

When I returned home, I did some googling to find out a bit about St. Orres history and how it got its name:

In the 1830’s a man named George St. Ores immigrated here from Russia via Canada and homesteaded on the property that is now the St. Ores hotel.

Cook's BeachDuring the gold rush years and beyond, this area of the California rocky coastline was filled with dozens of settlements that shipped goods to the fast-growing city of San Francisco.

However, many of those harbors and ports were so small and rocky that only small, two-masted schooners with shallow draft could navigate in and out of them. These schooners were called dog hole schooners and the ports they entered got the name dog holes because they were so small that only a dog could turn around in them.

Well, good ole’ George St. Ores built and designed the wire-rope “chutes” that were used to load the dog hole schooners along this challenging shoreline, including the one used at Bourn’s landing just to the south.