Road Trip - Driving video

Driving the tree-lined roads between the coastline and the inner freeway 5 and the wine country. We'd look for deer (see video) and noticed all the random, middle-of-nowhere "No Trespassing" signs and sudden dirt roads leading into the forests. Pot-growing establishments, no doubt. The week we returned we heard someone got shot for trespassing on one of those dirt roads on that 14 highway.
hehhe I love how quietly I am speaking so as not to scare them off :) I was really worried they were going to get hit head on by another car in the opposite direction!

Road Trip - Day 4 - Westport, CA, Howard Creek Ranch

Bright and early on Day 4 we left quaint Mendocino, had breakfast in the not-so-quaint Fort Bragg up north on Highway 1 and then overshot our next stop - the highly recommended Howard Creek Ranch. Upon our first evening in Oakland with cousin Maddy, she spoke of the Ranch and said how unique it was and with animals running around.




Well, we found it and luckily during the middle of the week it had it's best room (the suite, actually) available. We took the Captain's Quarters and marveled at the old place. There is a small house that serves as an office for the ranch hotel as well as 2 small dining rooms where the small amount of guests that can stay there eat at every morning. A DELICIOUS, fresh breakfast. It did NOT disappoint - especially the bisquits!

Our room was on the 2nd floor of the Carriage house - literally. An old carriage house, you could see where they would drive in the horse and buggy and leave it parked there in the middle of the building (there is a big open space for it - see video). Animals run around, sheep, horses, a llama, for example. It is old, musty, completely decorated in antiques. You can walk down to the beach or up into the foresty hillsides. Sally, the owner, would leave random hidden guest books or books open to write poetry or thoughts down. One was even wrapped in plastic in a hollowed tree at the end of the lovely Magic trail. It was so relaxing and beautiful! I am so pleased we stayed there! At night we took our firewood and went to the beach where we made a fire into the wee hours of the night - we had done this once before in 2006 in the Big Sur (see blog). Patrick took long-exposure photography of the waves crashing and the moon was out. It was priceless and such a joy--

Road Trip - Day 3 - Mendocino

From there we continued onto artsy Mendocino - which we had heard plenty about and was highly recommended. It was a lovely town and we had the best time walking around the main cliffs, around the quaint buildings and shops. Stopping into an organic pizzeria and ice cream parlor I almost lost my mind how good and fresh it was. So much so that P took pics of me enjoying myself!

After walking the cliffs behind the big jazz music festival tents that were set up we decided to drive up to the Lighthouse and trail up the road about 20 minutes near Caspar. This was a long walk, but very nice and we saw deer.


After that we decided to stay in Mendocino after all and drove straight to the oldest and largest (although small, by most standards) hotel there: The Mendocino Hotel. It wasn't cheap, the room was smaller than anything I'd ever had, no TV, and you had to share bathrooms and showers down the hall, but it had a magnificent decor, old bar down below, and a wonderful patio that overlooked the cliffs and festival tents across the streets and big, cozy white robes to wear and lounge around in.

We found the Irish pub a couple blocks away (there's always one everywhere in the world we go to) and enjoyed a beer and cocktail before retiring the night. It's interesting how much tourist traffic is there in the town during the day, but by nightfall it became a ghost town as most tourists opt to drive within an hour for cheaper hotels. So at the pub we were mostly with the locals - an entirely different feel.

Road Trip - Day 3 - morning in Manchester Beach

After leaving the Bay Area we continued without a plan, itinerary, or reservation anywhere. It was exciting to do a road trip like this! We stayed on the inland freeway passing countless vineyards before cutting across west to the coastline. (No, we drove through but no wine-tasting for us - it's not our thing although the countryside is lovely and I certainly appreciated that!)

Patrick loves the sea, of course: growing up in a seaside town in Northern Ireland and being in the navy... he adores being by the water. I enjoy it, too - don't get me wrong. But I love trees. Trees are my thing. Even more than the desert and coastline. Heck, I even partly chose my college: UC Irvine, just because it had huge, luscious, gorgeous trees all over campus and especially the center park.

So, we needed a little break and a place to figure out where we were and what our plan for the day was. We saw a sign and pulled into Manchester State Park - which was a pleasant, empty beach save the white carcasses of dried and washed up huge redwood trees on the sand. Patrick immediately started shooting his black and white film. We made the mental note that we might actually spend the night there at that beach - - there was a campground and we had brought our tent and gear in case we never found hotels. After a bit of photography we decided to see what was up north, noting we could always return to camp at the beach.

Northern California Summer Road Trip!

Patrick took a week off work in early July so that we may take a road trip to Northern California. Neither of us had been north of the Bay Area so we were quite anxious to see more of our beautiful Golden State. There wasn't much of a plan outside of the first day driving straight up to the Bay Area where we spent a wonderful evening at the home of my dear cousin, Maddy, her baby boy and her gazillion cats - - she has 4 cats of her own but outside she traps to fix and feed ferrel cats. (heheh and you all thought I was a crazy Cat Lady).

After a relaxing time at Maddy's we left the next day to have lunch and visit Patrick's 91 year old 2nd cousin Dick. This is the 2nd time I've enjoyed visiting with him and it is just a joy to hear his family stories, see how meticulously keeps photograph records and what not. I told him that he should leave all those photos to Patrick as he is worried what will happen to them. I do hope that he does. All those stories he tells us are just wonderful and will one day just be forgotten if not passed down.

He showed us his music room which he hadn't on our previous visit. I couldn't believe he pushed me aside and started playing some old ragtime tunes - challenging, because the left hand (or bass line) jumps back and forth. God bless him - what a show!