Joy and I started our Mendocino Adventure in Ft. Bragg where we explored Glass Beach.
Over the years, the Pacific Ocean has weathered glass to make this artistic creation that is found near Ft. Bragg, CA. The sea glass was various colors.
Our next stop was Point Cabrillo Light House. It was put into use in 1909. The light house is still in use today as one can see from this picture.
We stayed at the historic Hill House Inn, which was the site of the TV show, "Murder She Wrote." Many famous stars stayed here during movie productions filmed in Mendocino including Pat Morita of Karate Kid 3.
Mendocino is a quiet little historic town on the coast. The whole town was declared a historic area. We really enjoyed the food there too.
There were lots of fishing boats in the bay near Mendocino also. The Big River empties into the ocean here so I think they were looking for salmon.
The Mendocino Headlands State Park was a nice walk for us on Sunday morning after breakfast. One can see the Pt. Cabrillo Light House in the distance.
This was a cool arch in the Mendocino Headlands State Park.
Here is another view of the Mendocino Headlands State park.
We went to the historic Pt. Arena light house on the way back to Sacramento.
We got to climb up to the top of the lighthouse. There were awesome views all around.
The Mendocino Coast was really beautiful!
Joy and I are pictured at the top of the lighthouse where the fresnel lens once stood.
This is a picture near Jenner. I believe the Russian River mets the Pacific Ocean here.
Those are sea lions down on the beach.
Joy planned an awesome
getaway weekend for us a few weeks before my birthday in May of
2015. Our trip took us to the Mendocino coast of
California. The drive from Sacramento took us about four hours,
and we passed through Clear Lake, Willits, and beautiful forests to the
Mendocino Coast. Our first stop was in Ft. Bragg. We
stopped for lunch at a highly rated Mexican restaurant. They were
known for fresh seafood, and we were quite impressed with the quality
of the shrimp and raw oysters as well. Then, we explored Glass
Beach. Sometime around the mid 1900s, they dumped a ton of trash
into the ocean near Ft. Bragg. The glass from this trash was
weathered by the awesome surf for years creating sea glass. The
sea glass was then deposited on the beach near Ft. Bragg. We
spent a lot of time exploring the area and looking at the various
colors and shapes of the sea glass.
Our next stop was Point
Cabrillo Light House. This active light house was built in 1908,
and it started operations in 1909. The coastline there was pretty
too. It was a one mile hike round trip to the lighthouse so we
got our work out for the day. Afterwards, we headed to the famous
Hill House Inn in Mendocino where Joy booked accomodations for
us. The Hill House Inn was the site of many scenes from the TV
Show, Murder She Wrote.
Moreover, many famous Hollywood stars stayed there including Pat Morita
when they were filiming Karate Kid 3 up there. We explored the
historic town of Mendocino next before having dinner at a nice
restaurant called Flow. Flow had an awesome view of the
ocean. Their food was great too. We also checked out some
art gallery receptions throughout the town, and we got to try some nice
Mendocino wines as well. That night, we went to an Irish pub in
Mendocino for dessert and drinks.
The next morning, we
went for a walk around the Mendocino Headlands State Park. We saw
the volunteers of the Mendocino Abalone Watch out in full force to make
sure people were not illegally poaching for abalone. Abalone
diving is very popular in Mendocino. Afterwards, we had lunch at
the Mendocino Cafe. The food was amazing! I loved the Thai
burrito with the rock shrimp in it. Moreover, the clam chowder
was awesome too!
We stopped at Point
Arena on the way back home. Point Arena has another historic
lighthouse. It was built in the 1800s, and it is the tallest
lighthouse on the Northern California coast. It was destroyed in
an earthquake in the early 1900s, and it was rebuilt on the same
site. We got to climb up to the top of the lighthouse also.
The drive down Highway 1 from Point Arena was scenic also. We
even saw sea lions near Jenner too. We had an awesome time, and
it was really nice and sweet of Joy to plan this weekend to celebrate
my birthday! Oh I almost forgot.....she even got me an ice cream
cake from Diary Queen with a baseball and the Texas Rangers "T" logo on
it since I love ice cream cakes! We had a few friends over the
Friday before we left for the trip to begin the celebrations.