Mar Vista Cottages

"My personal favorite is Mar Vista Cottages, which feels better than ever this time around the recession block. I've spent half a dozen weekends hidden away in one of the perfectly retro 1930's cottages, which are scattered across a field on the Mendocino County coast. Thanks to Renata Dorn's long career as a manager in some of San Francisco's finickiest hotels, the cottages are sparkling clean and full of unexpected touches you won't find anywhere else, like sheets that are clothes pinned up in the sun over lavender plants, then hand pressed before being smoothed across your bed, fragrant and crisp. I loved my cottage's window linens, accented with bits of vintage fabric, so much that I tracked down the Englishwoman who makes them and hired her to design a set for my bedroom at home."