Mendocino Botanical Gardens

When I was a child, I loved family trips to the Arboretum in Arcadia, close to our home in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora.  We also spent time at other arboretums and botanical gardens in the area; it was something my mother loved.  When I mentioned to my father that Brett and I were going to Mendocino for our anniversary, he asked if we had been to the botanical gardens there on one of our previous trips.  We had not.  He highly recommended it; adding that my mother had particularly enjoyed it there.   So, of course, we had to go.

From the road, the botanical garden looks small -- not any larger than a garden nursery.  But, the gardens fan out from the road becoming wide and stretching half a mile to the edge of the bluffs.

There were beds of perennials for me to admire; and statues for Brett to enjoy

We walked through a forest of pines, across a multitude of bridges, and through beautiful gates.  Wouldn't a gate like this be beautiful in my garden?  Brett asked me to take pictures of its construction so he can talk to our artist friend, Tom, about building one for us.

The view from the bluff was beautiful and we could see homes perched along the coast.  Talk about a view!

One had a stairway to ... no where.  Seriously, it just ends halfway down the bluff and hovers above the rocks.  You could not get a boat, or a kayak in there safely -- and even if you did, there is no way to reach the stairs.  We were there at high tide and the gap was still to large.

After our visit at the gardens, we headed to the harbor for fish and chips.

We spent the remainder of our stay exploring more beaches, bluffs and driving further north, along the coast.  We ate and ate, and then ate some more.  Mendocino has wonderful restaurants.  We even managed to do a little Christmas shopping in the village.  As we drove home Sunday afternoon, we agreed that the trip was a complete success and one of our very favorite anniversaries.

Glass Beach

We started our first full day in Mendocino with a trip to Glass Beach.  Unfortunately, the stairway down to the beach with the most glass was fenced off.  The bluff had eroded to the point where it was no longer safe.  Instead we walked down to a beach adjacent to it with some glass bits sparkling in the sand.

Glass Beach is known for the glittering bits of polished glass mixed into the sand; amber, green, white and blue.  Although beautiful now, it was created out of an ugly past.  When the town of Fort Bragg was founded in the late 1800s, the townspeople pushed their trash over the edge of the bluff into the churning sea.  This practice continued until the early 1960s (hard to believe, I know).  There are bits of twisted metal encased in rock, cement embedded in the surf, and glass smashed, pounded and polished to glitter in the sand.

Much of the glass is gone; collected by artists who fashion it into jewelry and by tourists who take it home by the pocketful.

The tide was coming in and the surf was wild.  With the monster full moon, the tides have been exceptionally high -- wrecking havoc with the roads.  We saw a seal resting on a boulder while the waves crashed and swirled around its perch.  The seal is the white blob on the rock in the photo.

We spent some time walking along the bluff, breathing the salty ocean air, and admiring the view.

Then we hopped back in the car and drove a few miles south to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens; which I will show you in the next post.

Celebrating in Mendocino

Friday was our 16th anniversary.  The week started off with a call from the front desk at work.

Guard: "How is your day going?"
Me: So far, so good.

Guard: "Would you like it to get better?"
Me: Sure
Guard: "Come down to the front desk"

Thursday morning, the sky was magical -- full of mist and clouds -- when we went out to do chores.

After feeding, mucking, delivering Kersey to the neighbors and packing the car full of wine, cheese, champagne and fruit we headed west to Mendocino.  We stopped in Sonoma to taste some wine and then cut over to the coast at Bodega Bay, just north of San Francisco.  It was a long, twisting drive up the coast with spectacular coastline on our left and pines on our right.  We drove through small towns -- population 200 -- of seaside cottages and a general store.  We arrived at our bed and breakfast just in time to catch the sunset from our room.

Sidebar: Mendocino with Camille

Every year, for the past four years, Camille and I have been taking a mother-daughter vacation together.  We both prefer to be in the country rather than the city -- last year we went to Yosemite.  This year we went to Mendocino, a small town perched on the rugged northern California coastal cliffs.  Mendocino is a magnet for artists and the restaurants are renowned.  There are a few hotels south of town, but almost all of the lodging is in small bed & breakfasts, painted sunny yellow or pale blue with white shutters and porch railings.  Camille and I stayed in the attic room of a B & B, at the top of a steep narrow set of stairs.  Our beds were snugged underneath the sloping walls and our window was open to the sound and scent of the ocean.

Our drive to Mendocino took an entire afternoon; we drove west from Sacramento to the coast.  We drove through the northern perimeter of the Rocky fire, which was 85% contained at the time we went through.  Fire crews walked across the road and disappeared into the smoke, which was choking us despite the windows being closed up tight.

We checked into our room and then went down to the restaurant for a drink before going for a walk along the bluffs.  Camille is 21 now so having a drink together (in public) was a new twist.  My elderflower martini was outstanding and Camille enjoyed her drink as well.

We walked along the bluff until the sun set into the fog hanging on the horizon.  We took a set of steep stairs down into one of the small coves and explored.

When we weren't eating, or getting a massage, we were walking on the bluffs or the beach.

Other than getting a massage, our itinerary was short.  We wanted to go to Glass Beach.  At one time a dump, the waves over time crushed and polished glass bottles and depostited them on the beach.  We read that much of the glass has been taken as souvenirs by people hauling bags and buckets.  We made a point of going early in the morning, while the tide was still out, to see what remained.  We were pleasantly surprised to find there was still quite a bit of glass on the beach; especially below the high tide mark.

It collected in crevices of the rocks and spilled into the water.

We looked for small, heart-shaped pieces.

At night, we sat on my bed with a glass of champagne and played Crazy Eights.

We laughed and talked; we ate fresh seafood; we explored beaches.  We had a great time.