Manka's

We had a nice getaway weekend this past weekend. We took Friday off work and headed to the coast on Thursday night to stay at Manka's Inn. Manka's is in Inverness right off Tamales Bay by Pt.  Reyes.

We had been looking forward to our weekend for a while now. We both needed a nice break. Each day of the week leading up to our trip, Rick left me a little present for our trip (what an adorable husband). One of the gifts was a vanilla. lavender, sandlewood soy massage candle. I LOVED it. If you haven't tried a soy massage candle before and you like body massages, I highly recommend you get one. You light the candle and melt it down. It smells decicious while it burns. Once it has melted down, you pour the wax on your body (it's a warm wax not a hot wax) and masage. The wax turns into a moisturizer which feels amazing on your skin. It was a DCT (dream come true). The wax felt so good on the skin, I even enjoyed giving the massage. I woke up the next morning and my body still felt silky smooth.

Manka's is an old fishing and hunting lodge in the mountains. Our first night, we stayed in a cozy room with a firelace and a private redwood hot tub on the balcony. It was pretty cold outside so the room and the fireplace made it real cozy. The bed was so comfy we didn't want to get up.

The second night they upgraded us to Manka's cabin which was their cabin suite for $700 a night. Our chimney in our old room wasn't working properly and fire was coming out the top. Our new cabin had a nice big bathroom with a large claw bath tub and an outside shower. The family room was large and comfortable with a fluffy couch (which ended up being perfect for soy massages by the fire), leather reading chairs, a breakfast nook, high ceilings and a very large fireplace. We had two decks one on the front and one off the back with a redwood hot tub.

In the morning they drop breakfast off in an old fashioned crate. The first morning we had granola with whipped yogurt, honey and fresh fruit, homemade cinnamon scones, herbal tea and homemade apple juice. The second morning they dropped off some local cheese -brie and camembert with fresh fruit, homemade cinnamon bread, and homemade apple juice. Our second night we ordered dinner in. Each night the dinner menu changes depending on what the chef finds fresh at the local organic farmers. They drop off dinner, set it up and come back for the dishes. We had a caesar salad with butter lettuce, radish and asparagus, chicken with a mixture of couscous, vegetables and potatoes, bread and for dessert we had Scharffenberger chocolate mousse. It was all delicious.

We stayed in for most of the weekend, played some games, watched some movies, read by the fire, took hot bubble baths with the lavender Kiehl's products that they left us in the bathroom, and of course had wonderful soy massages by the fire while listening to some romantic music. What a perfect, cozy, romantic weekend - can't get better than that. 

Saturday afternoon we explored the area a little bit. We checked out the lighthouse at Pt. Reyes. However, it was so windy outside that they closed it down for the day. We went to the visitors center and to downtown Pt. Reyes. We went to the Cowgirl Creamery and saw them making Red Hawk cheese. We bought some cheese, baguettes, fresh produce, delicious local root beer and then found a place for a picinic. Rick noticed a small gate in the middle of a barbed wire fence on the side of the road so of course we headed in. We drove through beautiful green rolling hills to the middle of no where. We parked the car, made a delicious lunch and played a little smash ball on a green hill. It was a very enjoyable day. We drove along highway 1 down the coast to get home. Great Weekend!