Mendocino dreamin’

Cool memories of the ocean on yet another hot summer day in the Sacramento Valley.
Cool memories of the ocean on yet another hot summer day in the Sacramento Valley.
I could really spend hours gazing at the ocean off the Northern California coast, and I sometimes manage to shoot a few pictures as well! We were fortunate to make it over to the coast on three separate trips last year, in April, September, and November. It was the first time in ages that I’d seen the coast in springtime, […]
I’m a little disappointed that during our recent stay in Mendocino County I didn’t capture more shots of the high, wild surf rolling in off the Pacific. We had some pretty blustery days, and I’m sure there were at least a few surfers out during the week, waiting in the water for the perfect wave to come along. I never […]
I found these photos from December 2004 in my Google Photos and was going to post them, until I realized I already shared them back in November 2017 as part of Memory Monday. So instead, here is the post as it appeared back then: I spent most of this Christmas holiday trip playing with my Nikon Coolpix 5700 — exploring the depths of color in stones and shells sprinkled with sea water and experimenting with the varied settings while shooting a gorgeous view of the sunset. I still can’t decide which version I like better.
It was late September of this year, and I was enjoying a morning hike along the southern edge of the Point Arena Stornetta Public Lands. Although the hour was nearing 11 o’clock, the misty fog still lingered, obscuring my view of the horizon; but just below me the rugged beauty of rocky reefs and ledges pounded by the surf more […]
Since I’ve featured episodes about abalone for the past two weeks, I thought it was about time to look at another edible marine creature living off the coast of California! It’s actually quite interesting to compare the recent histories of the abalone and the sea urchin; while the public’s taste for abalone exploded decades ago and led to its near […]
The Point Arena Pier was closed to the public during our first visit in November of last year. This time around, the pier was open and we were able to walk out to the end and have a look around. Things still seemed a bit quiet — but maybe that’s because we’re so used to seeing tourists teeming around Bodega […]
I’m really not a daredevil, at all. But to look at some of the photos I shot along the Mendocino coast, you might get that impression. I will admit that I did rather foolishly pick my way across the rocky “bridge” in the photo below. But in my defense, I was following the Big Guy; and when we reached the […]
Wednesday morning saw a brief lull in the gusty winds along the coast, and I walked from our motel to the cliffs above Timber Cove. Long ago we would climb down to this rocky shore to fish for perch in the surf, but now the Big Guy prefers trying for rock fish in deeper waters. During our stay this week […]