Jamul Haven Luxury Bed and Breakfast – Southern California
Dear Bill and Mariann,
I am sitting in the white furry bathrobe I found hanging in the closet. I am reading your magazines on Victorian homes and relaxing, while my husband is having the most peaceful sleep. For a bit, I hung out in the Angel House kitchen and ate the delicious snacks I found in the refrigerator. I drank the milk and ate the banana. Then I called my mother and told her I was having the best birthday of my life. We haven’t even left the Peacock Room because we love it so much. We had forgone dinner in town because this time is too precious at your beautiful B&B and I don’t want to waste it by eating at a typical restaurant. My heart is quieted by the stillness and history of this room. Time feels trapped here and I am so glad to have found “Jamul Haven.”
“Sometimes dreams do come true,” is what I said to my husband tonight. Thank you for having us stay here this weekend. You deserve more blessings because you have blessed others by restoring such a wonderful historic landmark. God Bless you Always.
Sincerely, Machel Penn Shull and Robin
This was my entry the weekend of my birthday at a Bed and Breakfast I had found on the Internet. Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you. You don’t realize there is an ache in your heart until something reminds you it’s still there. That’s what happened to me at this quaint B&B. I found pieces of my childhood inside the walls in Angel House. I sat there on the wraparound porch and watched the clouds drift across this hills. I listened to the birds sing that weekend I turned 39. I reminisced about what I still miss, which is the farm I raised on in Missouri.
What I want to focus on here now with you is what I discovered that weekend. I unearthed the most amazing getaway that is like something out of a Jane Austin novel. We’re talking history and romance restored inside a ranch that was established by Charles Gifford in 1890. He was the first person to can olives successfully for commercial sale in America.
The owners today — Marianne and William Roetzheim — took three years to restore this historic landmark into an already internationally recognized B&B. The Ila-chateau.com, which is an exclusive group of independently owned hotels in Europe, USA, Canada and Southern Africa, rate list only five B&B’s in America and Jamul Haven is one of them.
What you must know is there is a place within reach where you can escape for one or two days. You can find the relaxation you need and pampering in one of the finest B&Bs. You can drive to Jamul, which only 40 minutes to from Del Mar. There you can find reprieve in a forgotten time you cannot find here in San Diego.
Perched up on a hill, above the gated communities near the golf course there, Bill and Marianne have created a retreat where you feel safe from worries in the real world. Their caring nature and their suburb manor as the hosts of Jamul Haven, reassures you that good down to earth people do exist.
After one of the best breakfasts I have had in years — I had frittata, ham, fruit, homemade coffee cake, plus more — you simply don’t want to leave. What I discovered there was a little piece of my soul that still misses the red earth in Missouri. Thank you Bill and Marianne for letting me go home, albeit if only in my dreams.
This story originally appeared: Jamul Haven Getaway