1. Northern Light Surf Shop
City: Bodega, CA
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (707) 876-3032, (707) 876-3110
Address: 17191 Bodega Highway
Description: Of the few businesses in the tiny town of Bodega, this one has the most personality. Owner Nick Marlow built a surf shop that began as 200 square feet into a store chockablock with surfboards, wetsuits, and everything you could want for surfing the Sonoma coastline. The staff always knows the wave conditions and can steer you to the right spots at the right time. Rentals begin at $15 for a surfboard, bodyboard, skimboard, or wetsuit.
2. Ragle Ranch Regional Park
City: Bodega, CA
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (707) 565-2041, (707) 823-7262
Address: 500 Ragle Road
Description: This 157-acre park offers the usual family-oriented facilities—baseball diamonds, playgrounds, a soccer field, a volleyball court, and picnic sites—but also claims hiking and equestrian trails through rugged oak woodlands and marshes. There is a parcourse too. Each August the park hosts the annual Gravenstein Apple Fair (see the Festivals and Annual Events chapter). The park is off Ragle Road, 1 mile north of Bodega Highway on the western perimeter of Sebastopol, and is open sunup to sunset. Parking is $5. Your dog must be leashed outside of the dog park.
3. Wooden Duck Antique Shop
City: Bodega, CA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (707) 876-3176
Address: 132 Bodega Lane
Description: You’ll spot the big yellow house (once a Druids hall) from the highway as you head toward the ocean. The store is open only Saturday and Sunday, but you’ll find some fine 18th- and 19th-century furniture, plus a lot of Americana—pewter, glass, silver, whale oil lamps, and some English Staffordshire china. There’s also a fine collection of antique guns. It’s across the narrow lane from the old Potter School, made famous in the movie The Birds.