We took off on one last little exploring expedition this weekend. William took Friday off and we set off before the crack of dawn up the coast. Our destination was Fort Bragg and Mendicino. It was really beautiful and a lot cooler than home! Of course the kids wanted the beach first.
Matthew and Brittany had rock chucking contests. We think Matthew was punishing the ocean for some reason, he had to yell every time he threw one.
Matthew also created "homemade sea" in his lunch baggy. Neat huh? Unfortunately had to be left behind.
Joshua spent a lot of time singing and talking to the rocks. He was happy here for a really long time!
Then the fog started to roll in. We learned from experience this area ha.JPG)
s a lot of fog in the morning and evening. Who is that handsome guy emerging from the fog?Which is why this was an important, but really pretty structure. We walked the half mile out see the lighthouse.
The kids tried to make friends with this squirrel. He was frighteningly friendly too!
We got to the station just in time to see the Skunk train too. (called the Skunk train because of the smell when it used to run in the old days). Our first real steam train up this close. Thomas must have been a lot noisier than he is portrayed!
Mendicino was a gorgeous little village. East of Eden was filmed there and so was a lot of Murder She Wrote. I want to see East of Ede
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n now.Everywhere you turned there were gorgeous buildings and gardens.
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I loved this sculpture on top of a church there. I think it was an angel with a young girl. It took us a minute to realize the bird on the angel's head is a r
eal seagull!I wish we had time to see this stained glass from the in
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side.We came home through part of the redwood forests. Those trees really are big and this wasn't even the portion where the "giant" redwoods live.
Oh, before we left Mendicino we found this portion of the largest redwood harvested in the area. Big isn't it? It was over 1000 years old!
The forest really did seem magical. There is something about sunlight coming through all those leaves that makes it seem like fairies really could live there!
Wow, I guess we really did do a lot in two days!
7 comments:
gorgeous pictures, great trip and God I love the beach! I miss those trips from when the kids were little.
hugs
vivian
We did Hwy 1 trip two Summers ago from the coast of Oregon down to Monterey and stopped in Ft. Bragg.it's a fun town. Did you go on the "Skunk train"~we didnt go on it and I want to take Andres on it sometime (I did as a kid). Mendecino is a sweet town to. Did you go down to Bodega Bay (that where the Birds was filmed).Thanks for sharing those fun pictures! I bet the fog felt great compared to the bay area heat:)
I love that you're doing all the fun stuff there is to do in your neck of the woods. I wanted to go to see Redwoods this summer, but it was a 12 hour drive. That's six figures in gas!
PS: I stayed up until 2:00 last night reading Sister of My Heart. Just tell me what happens in the sequel so I can get some sleep! Did you feel sorry for Ashok? I did! And Sunil was kind of creepy!
Good for you! I love it when you guys go out exploring your new digs. Looks like fun!
Homesick again!!! (oops...that's not really my home.) Don't you love the coast? I remember when we first moved there the fog just made me cold, later it was like a big blanket and I really grew to love it! Looks like a great family weekend. Josh is really growing!
You live in such an awesome place. I love going to the beach. We went camping and to the beach last weekend. It was awesome I want to go back. It would be nice to skip the cold sleepless nights though. Smiles again.
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