SF, Mendocino and the CA Coast

We really enjoyed spending the day in San Francisco with Nancy. We took a long walk along the cliffs bordering the Pacific from Land's End to the Cliff House. It was a beautiful day so the scenery was spectacular. Later in the afternoon we wandered around the area near Katelyn's place, had a little al fresco wine and olives and then a light dinner. Back on Fillmore we stopped for dessert and some time at the cafe.

After saying our goodbyes to Nancy, we shot over to Sausalito and had breakfast at a nice, sunny place with a cool view of the misty city. We headed north along the coast highway for quite a while and caught lots of switchbacks with clifftop views of a rough, windy Pacific. The views from Muir Beach were amazing. We switched over to “the” 101 after a while and made it to Mendocino around 4:00.

Mendocino was just what we needed - looks like a quaint New England village - small and quiet - as one guy there said "no where to go and no one in a hurry to get there". We lucked out by getting a room in "The Blair House" a beautiful old B and B built in 1888. We soon learned that it is the house used as Jessica Fletcher's home in the old TV show "Murder She Wrote". Mendocino was the location of the fictitious Cabot Cove. By the way, our room in Blair house contained the most comfortable bed we have ever slept in - bar none! But I digress, Mendocino sits on headlands that overlook the craggy cliffs of the Pacific, with a beautiful beach just around the south side of town. It was cool and breezy our entire stay, perfect for walking around the headlands and kicking back. We decided to stay a second day. Sunday night, the Persiod meteor showers were due so we set an alarm for 2AM and crept out of the B+B to go down to the cliffs and watch. Wow I haven't seen a starry sky like that since the badlands. We enjoyed the meteors but have to admit that we cut the show short because we were not prepared for how chilly ( cold ) it was.

Monday morning we left Mendocino and drove up the California coast to more and more spectacular scenery. Coupled with that we had the treat of going to several sections of the Humboldt state and national parks that contain the Coastal Redwoods. These are sisters to the great Sequoias. The Sequioas have wider trunks but the coastal redwoods are taller. The groves of redwoods in the cosatal forests were amazing and wonderful to walk and drive through.

Monday night was spent in Crescent City, a beachtown and commercial fishing port on the northern end of CA. We are looking forward to Oregon, Crater Lake and the Shapiros!