time to EXPLORE

Gold standard

- 

Our first stop is bedtime. We arrived at The Inn on Knowles Hill, a gorgeous boutique bed and breakfast hotel overlooking the town of Sonora. It's been 14 hours since I last saw Ireland and I was looking forward to my bed.

We were immediately greeted by owner Rhonda Buess, who runs this charming hotel with her vintage car-obsessed husband Fred.

The couple have been married since 1992 and have spent over $1 million renovating The Inn on Knowles Hill - and boy does it show.

The Inn is 12,500 square feet of home away from home. I've never slept in a bed with softer pillows and it had the most comfortable mattress. It was so big I joked I'd need a ladder to climb in.

After a peaceful night's sleep, it was time for breakfast. But this was no grab-and-go situation — I was in America now.

For every guest, Rhona prepares a two-course breakfast that sets you up for the day. For our first course, Rhonda served us organic bosc pear poached in cardamom spice, filled with vanilla bean creme with raspberry coulis and toasted almonds.

Our second course arrives as Rhonda serves us Aebleskivers (Danish pancakes) served traditionally with raspberry jam and Chantilly cream. The dish was accompanied with Knowles Hill eggs florentine, a recipe designed at The Inn, and some turkey bacon.

The food isn’t the only thing that kept us talking on our trip — The Inn is steeped in history.

Rhonda tells me: "The house was built in 1927 for a Swedish man called Charles Segerstrom.

"He had stock in the west in a lumber company. He was president of Royal Bank. He had hotels in San Francisco, but his primary money-making was from mining."

Rhonda explains that each of the eight rooms at The Inn are all named after the famous people who have stayed there, including President Herbert Hoover, Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, author Helen Keller, politician Ruth Bryan Owen and 'King of Torts' lawyer Melvin Belli.