An Inspired Cook

September has always been our favorite time to get away. After Labor Day, traveling is less expensive, less tourists, and cooler weather. It’s the perfect time for a coastal vacation. Joe and I have been longing for a relaxing few days near the water and after many considerations we decided on Northern California about 3.5 hours north of San Francisco along the Mendocino Coast. We stayed in a vacation rental located in Westport along scenic Hwy 1 on the California Coast. The rugged ocean cliffs, sea glass beaches and beautiful flowers were the main attraction on this holiday. We spent a week taking in the beauty of the rugged ocean seaside, exploring the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens and Muir Woods. And on our last day we spent a day in San Francisco retracing some of our favorite spots from our last visit in 2014. We so enjoyed this magical place where we could explore a little piece of the California coast away from the most populated tourist areas and still be wowed! Tag along on our journey and you too might be persuaded to visit the Coast of Northern California.

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Having a room with a view is quite lovely, especially when you have such a beautiful sunset as this one. As it turns out this would be our only chance to see a colorful sunset as every other evening was foggy. I would highly recommend if you book a vacation rental on the coast, get a place right on the ocean. It is truly magical to hear, smell and see the ocean waves from your room.

Westport is a tiny little community with only a small grocery store with a gas station, a few homes and vacation rentals. Each day we would travel south on Hwy 1 to Ft. Bragg or Mendocino which is approximately 20 – 25 miles. The drive is beautiful with hairpin curves, some on the edge of a cliff so it’s a slow pace back and forth each day. There are numerous turn outs to let people pass who want to travel at a faster pace and also places to stop and look out over the ocean. We traveled through trees sculpted by the wind to make a canopy as we drove through them.

Ft. Bragg is a small town that has all the amenities you will need plus a small touristy district with many charming shops to peruse through. Many of the shops are landscaped with native succulents and flowers. There are so many species that I had never seen before and some that I recognized; I enjoyed the flowers as much as the shopping and had to take photos of every flower.

Each day the temperature was in the mid 60’s. Even though the wind would pick up now and again we rarely wore more than a long sleeve shirt and windbreaker. After lunch we would go for a walk along one of the many trails that follow the coast. We could see the fog in the distance but as as we walked it began to catch up to us and swirled around us. We could see the ocean close up but it was a gray fog in the distance. Even with the fog it’s quite beautiful.

I’ve always wanted to see the sea glass beach and it was a highlight of our trip. I could have sorted through the glass for hours. It is magical when the waves go over the glass and it becomes translucent and the colors fairly sparkle. From up above you may think it’s just a pebble beach, but when you see it up close you begin to see the specks of green and brown among the white glass. And if you are lucky you will find a few tiny pieces of dark and light blue pieces. I found a peach colored piece but soon lost it; some of the rare pieces are so hard to find and if you drop it it just blends in with the rest. The bigger pieces are pottery or ceramic. They are so smooth and some still have the color that they were painted in.

From 1906 to 1967, this area was used as a dumpsite for glass bottles, jars, and other debris. Over time, the glass was smoothed and polished by the tides, turning into the colorful sea glass that we see today. There are signs along the path that say it is unlawful to take any glass from the Sea Glass Beach as it is now considered a natural resource and protected by the state of California. The locals mentioned that it has been picked over so much through the years that it is hard to find the rare colors. Mainly what is left is white glass, brown bottled glass, green glass pieces and a few blue shards are left. Oh how I would have loved to take a few pieces home, but we only took pictures and found a few places in town that sold sea glass that we could take home legally. The Sea Glass Museum in Ft. Bragg is a wonderful place to see a display of all the colors of sea glass and they have a nice little gift shop with faux tumbled glass plus a few authentic pieces that you can purchase.

One day was spent wandering around the small community of Mendocino. It’s a charming little town with lots of gift shops, eateries and of course some trails along the coast line. The flowers always captured my attention and I found myself taking more floral pics than anything else. I had over 300 photos of flowers that I hope to share with you in the coming days.

As we made our way over to the trailhead, a Raven came nearby and posed for me. The fog was thick and hard to see but was mesmerizing at the same time. The dew on a spider web was beautifully crafted in the tall grass with the town of Mendocino in the distance as we looked back on it.

The trail along the Mendocino cliffs are like traveling along the winding road of Hwy 1. We traveled back and forth with many arches and caves carved into the rocks. It was a Saturday and there were more tourists in the area on the trails as well as local fishermen casting their line off the side of a bluff.

We saw many seagulls and heard sea lions in the distance but we never spotted them. Sound travels and we couldn’t always distinguish where the sounds were coming from and of course the fog made it difficult to see very far out. There were foghorns that were going off every few seconds and after awhile you just get used to it. Even though it was foggy and mist in the air, it maintained a consistent temperature in the mid 60’s and was cool but not unpleasant. We enjoyed our last walk ever so much.

I thought we had booked an am flight home but the day before we were to head home we discovered that I had actually booked it as a pm flight so we wouldn’t get home until almost midnight. Having an extra 12 hours, we took the public transportation from Oakland to San Francisco to see the sights. Ironically our last visit to California was exactly 10 years ago. almost to the day when we walked Bakers Beach with the iconic view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I hope you enjoyed the Northern California Coastal area. Joe and I certainly loved our time there and will most definitely go back for another visit if we get the chance.