The hook
The schoolhouse and church from Hitchcock's "The Birds," still standing in a sleepy inland town that looks eerily unchanged sixty years on.
01Why it's worth it
The seaside terror of Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed partly in the little farm town of Bodega, inland from Bodega Bay, and two of its landmarks still stand: the Potter Schoolhouse, the one the crows mass on in the film's most famous scene, now a private home, and St. Teresa's Church next door, whose steeple appears throughout. It's a small, specific thrill, standing where a classic film staged its dread, in a town that looks almost exactly as it did on screen. It leans just slightly into the association without becoming a theme park. Combined with the working fishing harbor at Bodega Bay a few miles west, it makes a good offbeat coast stop, and knowing the scene as you look at the quiet schoolhouse does the rest.
02How to experience it
The schoolhouse and church are in the town of Bodega on the Bodega Highway (not Bodega Bay itself, which is out on the coast). The schoolhouse is a private residence, so view it from the road. Pair it with Bodega Bay's harbor and the Sonoma coast beaches.