One of my favorite YouTube videos recently is a 12-hour soundscape of ocean waves; I frequently use it to lull myself to sleep. When I gaze at these images from the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Fort Bragg, it’s easy to summon up the boom and crash of waves along a rocky shore along with the fresh salt air on […]
Our cold gray January weather isn’t exactly motivating me to get outdoors and start moving; I’m already longing for warmer weather. But for some reason this morning I started thinking back to early last May and the week we spent in Napa County, west of Lake Berryessa. We were almost exactly equidistant from Clear Lake and Berryessa. I found the […]
It’s been awhile since I last posted anything, and I’m just now starting to recuperate from the craziness that was my Christmas and New Year’s. Highlights included a trip to Texas and the Big Guy spending a few days in the hospital there — thankfully, his usual state of health has returned! I realized this morning that I have quite […]
I’ve stopped at the small Moat Creek parking area a number of times now, always to follow the short path to the shore. The site is just a bit south of the town of Point Arena, and the beach is popular with surfers (high tide) and with tide pool explorers (low tide). On this visit, I decided to check out […]
Below, just a few of the things I’ve noticed recently alongside of or near Highway 1 in Mendocino County — specifically, in the small town of Point Arena.
I really have mixed feelings about hiking from the Sterling Pointe trailhead at Folsom Lake. On the plus side, parking is free and the lot is usually nearly empty whenever I go. It’s also a fairly easy hike downhill to the lakeshore with great scenic views and even a bench or two along the way. Once at the bottom, you […]
Last June we went on quite a long road trip, driving from Northern California to Fort Worth, Texas, to visit the Big Guy’s parents. It was the second time we’d done this drive, and we figured we were getting to be old hands at this type of travel. So much so that the Big Guy decided on an extra side […]
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the trail known as the Ecological Staircase at Mendocino County’s Jug Handle Reserve, but it turned out to be a really great hike — not too physically demanding and yet a decent workout. All the way out to the Pygmy Forest and back, it totals about 5 miles. After taking […]
At the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, I was surprised to find so many different varieties of fuchsia, and each one of them more beautiful than the last!