Wow... it appears we have chosen wisely for this stay in Fort Bragg. Every day through Thursday, until Friday morning as we departed, was bright, blue sky sunny with day time temperatures in the high teens and low to mid 20's C. Nights have cooled off nicely. Great weather.
After Sunday's drive south to Mendocino we decided to start this week off with a painting/sketching morning south at the Mendocino State Park where the rocky headlands are somewhat of an artist's (at least a wannabe/newbie painter/sketcher) dream. For this morning we chose the north end of the park looking northward into a bay with some pretty cool rock outcroppings...
On the way back to Fort Bragg we stopped in at the Casper Beach RV Park which we spotted yesterday. We asked, in the office, if we could have a drive around the park as we are always looking for new places to stay. Very friendly folks were obliging and gave us a park map, explained a few things including rates and off we went for a drive through. Small park, not bad looking restrooms and showers, nice and close to a beautiful sandy beach (right across the road). A bit open compared to the POMO park in Fort Bragg but might be worth a try sometime. Later in the day we scoped out some other possible painting spots including the Noyo Harbour headlands and the rocky bluffs across the top of the famous Fort Bragg Glass Beach. Both possibilities for later in the week.
For lunch we tried Eggheads Restaurant on the main drag in Fort Bragg for lunch. They only serve breakfast and lunch so we decided to try an omelet even though it was early afternoon. Excellent choice. To use the restroom in this restaurant you have to walk through the middle of the kitchen, out the back door then follow the "yellow brick road" to a building across the parking lot. A bit unusual to say the least, although the entire restaurant has a wizard of Oz theme, so I guess it is in character.
Bought some nice steaks for a grilled dinner, but before heading back to the RV park we stopped in at the new Heron's for a couple of glasses of wine on their large patio looking out through the mouth of the harbour. We chatted with a new waiter (Gabriel) for awhile as well. They just moved into this new larger spot late May this year. Although their signs up by the entrance to the harbour road state they are open 7 days, Gabriel explained that the owners are Italian and they like to close Tuesdays to be with family... so not quite 7 days. Anyway, still a nice new spot. Oh... and on the way down the road to the harbour we drove past a recently smished skunk (or "special kitty" as we refer to them) but lucky no smell eminating from the carcass... but more on that later...
Tuesday we decided to take a drive further south and headed down highway 1 to Gualala just under 2 hours away. It is a pretty drive along some very dramatic coastline and very very wiggly parts in the road with some tight "S turns". There is a lot of construction along the way with traffic down to one lane in some places so the drive ended up taking a while longer than anticipated. Gualala is a small artists community with numerous galleries all of which are, unfortunately for us, closed on Tuesdays. Go figure! For lunch we decided to try Bones Road House a place advertising Texas BBQ. We tried the smoked chicken wings appetizer. Not bad at all. The main courses of Texas brisket and St Louis ribs were rather large servings and, for some reason, drenched in what they think of as their "famous" sauce... real Texas BBQ has the sauce served on the side if at all. All in all, a bit mediocre. Someday we'll convince ourselves that for real good Texas BBQ one must actually go to Texas (or at least request the sauce on the side)! However, it was a big enough lunch that we didn't need much for dinner.
On the way down to Gualala, just before the tiny town of Elk, we passed by a cemetery (not unusual) that had a great iron gate with the word "DRUID" embedded as part of the ironwork...
DRUID...what?...hmmm now that's a bit unusual (for us anyway). Further along, in the small town of Point Arena, we passed by the "DRUID HALL"...
... humm, this bears investigation. Later that night Kris used Dr. Google to see if we could find any info... sure enough... Druids in California!
Arriving back in Fort Bragg we went down to the harbour to find Heron's was indeed closed, it being Tuesday and all, so went over to the lounge at Silver's at the Wharf instead and while there tried their crab cakes... highly recommended. After that we stopped in at the Harvest Market deli and picked up a couple of thick slices of their meatloaf, only one of which we were able to get through for dinner.
Wednesday was another painting/sketching day. We decided to start out back down in Mendocino State Park, this time overlooking an arch carved out of the headland...
... what a beautiful location. While we were there a woman came over and chatted. She was agog with the view. She told us that she had just moved from Florida to Fort Bragg and couldn't get over the beauty of the west coast. She said that while the east is very pretty etc this part of the west coast is so much more dramatic. Awesome, she said as she looked out over the ocean. Yeah... it is pretty awesome!
After going back to the wee trailer, for a lunch to finish off the meatloaf, we headed over to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, always a great place to visit. On this day we took our painting/sketching supplies and headed into the back of the gardens to the Dahlia Garden...
... where the flowers were out in full colour. We picked a nice spot in the shade and sat down to be the "artists". Several people came by to chat and see what we were doing. Met a nice couple from Ohio (Cleveland area) who are on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the west and are having an absolute great time. After the Dahlias we walked over to the veggie garden and set up for another round of painting and sketching...
Later in the afternoon we drove back down to the harbour (yes it is habit forming) to Silver's for the another round of crab cakes and wine. On the way back to the trailer, as we left the harbour area, we noticed a man striding purposefully along the road in what appeared to be a hospital gown and slippers. Clearly a man with places to go and things to do. In the next block we drove past the Mendocino Mental Health Facility just as two police cars with lights flashing roared by. We could see, in the rear view mirror, that they stopped right about where hospital gown guy was... hmmm... might explain something.
Thursday morning we decided to try one of the local spots for a couple of hours of painting. Our search took us once again down the harbour road. Remember that smished skunk we noticed on Monday? Well, it appears the carcass sat there long enough to send aromatic signals to a large wake of buzzards. There was about 15 buzzards milling around beside the road. One of them had clearly punctured the remainder of the scent gland. What a stink! It made us wonder which one of the vultures was the "lucky one". We decided that the harbour was no longer of interest for this trip and ended up choosing the headland at the mouth of Pudding Creek where the old train trestle has been converted to be part of a hiking/biking trail from downtown Fort Bragg to several miles north along the coast. The headlands are a beautiful spot looking north across the sandy beach formed at the mouth of the creek...
While there we met a woman (Jan) who is a budding painter from Los Angeles. She is up here visiting a friend and is just thrilled with the painting opportunities afforded her in this area. Rightly so!
Since we are going to depart Fort Bragg early Friday we decided to head back to the RV park, make reservations for Cloverdale and Petaluma, clean up the bbq griller and do some laundry before going back into town for a last look around then off somewhere for dinner.
While walking along Laurel St a funny thing happened... I, Brian have been looking high and low for a new denim jacket to replace the old rather sad looking one. It seems that all the new Levi and other name brand denim jackets are made for tall thin people. I am not that big (easily fit into a 36" pant) but a new size large Levi denim jack falls at least two inches short of going around me while an XL almost gets around me but the arms are about 2 inches too long... good grief... Anyway, we walked into a local "funky" clothing shop that was closing down and having a large discount sale. There on a rack Kris found one men's size large denim jacket. Hey, try it on she says... ok... I try it on and lo and behold the thing fits like a glove. The only thing being that it has been adorned with a large "dove of peace" on the back... hmmm. BUT, it fits, so how much is it (all the ill-fitting Levis etc were in the $100+ range at a minimum)? The lady says it can go out the door for $40 as she proudly proclaims that it was a collaborative effort with another local artist and she is so happy someone wants it. We buy it, then later Kris adds to the collaborative effort by masterfully removing the dove of peace. All is well!
Well as it turns out we decided to risk the skunk reek and go back down to Silver's at the Wharf for some dinner. You know, those buzzards had totally cleaned up the skunk including the stink... nothing left and nary a whiff of "Eau de Skunk" either. Buzzards are truly one of nature's great garburators! Had an excellent dinner of grilled cod and Shrimp Louis salad.
Friday morning we packed up everything then left the trailer at the RV park as we drove back to the wharf to see if we could pick up some nice oysters for dinner. No such luck...no oysters available so we will have to go to Cloverdale and eat like a local. Back to the RV park, hook up the trailer and off we go. We took highway 128 inland to Cloverdale. This is such a beautiful drive, covering 3 distinct topographical regions. You start out going south along the dramatic coastline, then head inland through the fabulous Navarro River Redwood Forest then start to hit the inland highlands of rolling grassy, partially forested hills into Sonoma county and the vineyards of the Anderson Valley then the Alexander Valley . Way cool. We stopped for a walk around and lunch in Booneville before heading into the KOA up in the hills overlooking the valley south west of Cloverdale. Eating like a local in Cloverdale turned out to be some excellent chicken wings and wine at Ruth McGowans Brewpub followed by equally excellent grilled steak back at the KOA.
Overnight Friday it rained quite hard and by morning it was still sprinkling so we decided to head into Healdsburg for a Starbucks coffee. By the time we finished our coffee the rain had totally stopped so we had a pleasant few hours of wandering around this beautiful little town. For lunch we drove back a bit north to the Francis Ford Coppola winery where we had the usual excellent lunch although, a word of warning, the place gets very very busy on weekends. The only reason we were able to get in as quick as we did was that we were willing to take a chance on the rain and sit outside on the patio. The hostess guessed the indoor seating wait to be at least a couple of hours. Got sprinkled on a bit but nothing to worry about. They make an excellent grilled salmon salad. Pretty lazy rest of day.
Sunday we had a quick one hour drive south to the KOA in Petaluma where we'll spend the next four days. However the drive was not without it's perils... since we had lots of time we decided to head into Santa Rosa, took the off ramp into downtown and ended up on a one way street towards the "Santa Rosa Mall". Ok, maybe we'll find a place to park and go look around the mall for awhile. BUT... the one way street took us into a parkade area where it was real dicey as to whether or not the trailer, with the new vent cover, would fit. We went under two overpasses where there was no more than an inch or so clearance.... and we were continuing into the bowels of the place... yikes! At one point they had chains hanging down with a sign saying "if you hit the chains you will hit the overhead walkway" and we just touched the chains. Finally we saw a large container truck and Kris exclaimed.. if that thing can get in here then go where it is because then we can get out for sure. We turned a corner and there it was.. a large opening... out we went. WHEW!... and that's with just a little trailer. Too much excitement, we just got back on the 101 and continued on. We got to Petaluma too early to "check in" at the KOA so went over to a new mall (no overhead passes) in Petaluma where they have a new Target, Dick's Sporting Goods and a plethora of other stores. Should be able to kill at least an hour there and we did. After that we went over to our favorite Petaluma cafe, Aqus, for a nice lunch before finally heading to the KOA.
Got settled in then decided to drive down to San Rafael to go to Dharma Trading. Afterwards, back in Petaluma, we stopped in McNear's for some munchies and a couple of glasses of wine. When we were here in the spring, these folks offered shuttle rides into San Francisco to the Giants' games and we thought we might do one of those one night next week to see the Dodgers. Apparently once the Giants were eliminated from playoff contention interest dwindled and the shuttle was no longer offered. Too bad... all the games, this week, are night games and we have no desire to have to drive 40 miles back on the freeway at midnight.
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