Fort Bragg- the continuing awesomeness of getting away!!!!

Fort Bragg continued to amaze us with waking up for our first full day in town!  Previously, we went to Glass Beach and the trestle and loved them!  Lunch/dinner (because they gave us so much) at Sea Pals was excellent!  Now, we had days to fill up!!!

First, a bit of exploring the town!  Fort Bragg was known for the timber and logging business, but is now known for the incredible Mendocino coast!!  First, the weather: we spent 3 nights here in May.  1 day the sun shined and it was incredible!!!  Rich and Cody were in short sleeves and I ran around without a jacket!!  The rest of the time it was foggy and chilly and we all wore varying layers of clothes and jackets.

The town is very cute, filled with shops and galleries and restaurants, and a couple good coffee shops- Headlands Coffee was our favorite.  The people were all easy to talk to, and were more than willing to give you the history of the town and recommendations of what to see and do!  Very comfortable place to be.

The Noyo Harbor wharf has multiple restaurants to choose.  The guy at our hotel recommended Sea Pal Cove!  Yum!!!  The largest prawns I have ever eaten, and huge amount of fish!

A cross section of the largest tree they cut down.  Thank God citizens moved to save the redwood old growth!!!!  Otherwise they would all be gone😢

After a tour of the town, Cody joined us and off to Mendocino we went.  Although we had to make a stop- LoL!  Everyone loves a lighthouse!  

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse!  (https://pointcabrillo.org/ ) The one thing I learned from this cute lighthouse that I never knew before- there is a lighthouse group that made a lighthouse passport!!!!  Yes!!  They have a passport with stamps!  All the lighthouses we have visited, I never knew this.  So guess what I got.....

Pretty cool, eh?!!!!  Now to go back to every lighthouse I have ever visited... LoL!

Back to the lighthouse!  Amazing!

Mendocino

After stopping here, then we went to Mendocino!!  So who knew that Mendocino is the cutest town!!!  We didn't!  In talking with people, Mendocino is every bit as cute as Carmel, but there are not tourists because it is so hard to get to!  Totally worth a visit!  We recommend it!  Plus- they have wineries!!  We only went to in-town tasting rooms, not to actual wineries, but from the pictures, really picturesque!!!

These water towers are everywhere in town!!  Artists actually create whole art pieces with views of and from these water towers.  They are very cool!!!!

The town is, of course, right on the bay!!!!

The tasting room we went to- Meyer Winery.  It was good👍🍷

These incredible trees are everywhere!!!!

Then back to Fort Bragg for sunset and dinner (we ate at North Coast Brewing company: avoid like the plague!!  Their food was so bad!!! The fish and chips were greasy and over cooked and ceviche flavorless! Except the wedge salad- it was delicious).  We also went to MacKerricher State Park- as they have a whale skeleton at the entrance!!!

And back to the Trestles for sunset!

Saturday, we had a full day planned!  One of the other things we love to do: ride the train!!!!

Skunk Train (https://www.skunktrain.com/).  With the pandemic winding down, the train rides started opening up.  The only one offered at this time was the 1 1/2 hour Fort Bragg to Redwoods and return.  30 minutes each way and 20 minute stop for a 1 mile redwood trail and a collapsed tunnel.  The train is late 19th century and very cool!!!  The trail is through the redwoods and beautiful!!!  Rich walked the entire trail, Cody and I went to the tunnel and walked much of the trail before the trail whistle gave us 5 minutes to return.  It was a beautiful ride through a beautiful area!!!

To break up this trip into smaller pieces that are easier to go through, I will stop her, and write another post for the rest of our trip!  So the first full day and 1/2 the second day, we walked through the town, went to the Cabrillo lighthouse, visited the town of Mendocino (totally cute!!), drank wine, had lunch at Sea Pals Cove for the second time because it was SO good!  Had one of the worst dinners at North Coast Brewery🤮, but did drink their delicious beer, watched an amazing sunset and took the Skink Train into the redwoods!!!

Stay tuned for part 3!!!

Fort Bragg, CA- Our 1st post-pandemic trip! Day One!!!

Yea- The pandemic is almost over!!  We 3 are fully vaccinated, as are most Californians, so time to travel. Cody gets to choose a trip for his birthday, and he found this weird place I had never heard of- Glass Beach in Fort Bragg CA.  Looked interesting (NOT!), so did a little more research as he was pretty insistent😎.  Looks like a real place, although it says the glass is pretty depleted, and there is tons to do in the area (including wineries!! (I'm sold!🍷), plus we have never traveled north of San Francisco's coast!  So off to planning we went!!

First stop- Chico CA to visit our awesome family: Judy, Holly, Mike, Josh and Max!!!  I have such pride in being related to them!!!!  Just seeing their smiling faces brings peace!  We LOVE you (and Happy Birthday to Judy!!!❤)

After an excellent night in Chico and visit with Judy in the AM- off to Ft. Bragg we went.  It's a 4 hour drive through several counties, mainly 2 lane roads, so take a breath and enjoy the scenery- you are at the mercy of the slowest vehicle who refuses to give way.  The drive goes through farm land, little towns (many who saw better days), dryer areas, hills with trees, windy roads, and the most beautiful forests ever!!!  The temps went from 91 in Chico to 53 in Ft. Bragg- so dress accordingly!!!

Fort Bragg- the Trestle!!!  

An old trestle train bridge from the early 20th century thankfully not destroyed!  It is now part of the headland walking trail!!!  The beach areas are wonderful, rocky, cold, filled with life!!!

Glass Beach!!!  

Reading about Glass Beach: (Is there still Sea Glass at Glass Beach?

Yes, there's still lots of glass at Glass Beach! The beach – actually three of them – was created over decades as the pounding surf and passage of time turned broken head- and tail-lights, apothecary and soda bottles, and discarded household trash into today's treasure.) 

Seemed like a cool thing to see- especially since Cody wanted to see it- LOL.  Takes a little climbing down to the beach- but not much!!!  And the crashing waves, sea birds, and rocky out-croppings are the perfect back drop to finding glass!!!  Surprisingly, there was far more glass than we expected!!!  Certainly more glass than moon stones in Cambria- which made it really enjoyable!!!  The beach area includes trails above the beaches with growth of plants to prevent erosion, so there is lots to see!

The glass is very plentiful!!!  Both within the rocky shore and in the sandy areas!!!

Fallen weathered trees make for beautiful sights!

And art work from these trees are wonderfully present

Looking for glass all along the beach was very fun!  There's so much of it,  we tried finding different colors of glass: clear, white, green, brown, even purple!!!

Food!!!

As we are in a beach and fishing community, fish, of course😋

The fish and chips were awesome, but the prawns!!  Incredible!!!

The clam chowder was excellent!  But not the milky type of chowder- it had rice in it!  Very good!!

So this is Day One of our trip- wonderful time with family in Chico!!!!  Spending the night and visiting with Judy the next morning- always awesome with her kind, positive soul!!!  We drove  to Fort Bragg, ate, went to the beach and loved it!  Oh- the town litteraly closes at 8:30!!!!  

Day two is coming!  Can't wait to see what she brings!