Category Archives: California

Leaving the Emerald Triangle

11 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Three northern counties of California produce more cannabis than anywhere else in the US, gaining the region the name “the Emerald Triangle”. The Wall Street Journal has been covering the cannabis industry here since the 1970s, long before it was legal. We’ve spent the month of October in this gorgeous area. We head south this week, with regret, but it’s time to settle for the winter, and it’s a bit chilly here in the far North.

We’re in Eureka, CA, part of Humboldt County. Often the entire state north of Mendocino is called “Humboldt,” with an inflection and implicit eye roll, like “the back of beyond,” where all the crazy hippie growers live.

It is beautiful here, there are only 14 cases of Covid-19 in the entire county, and when you go for a walk on the beach or on a trail during the week, you are often alone. People are good about wearing masks on the street, at the Arcata Farmers Market, and in stores. The Farmers Market is really good and runs year round. All products come from within 50 miles, and yes, there’s a lot of squash, peppers, and tomatoes right now. (That’s a good thing.) We have not eaten out.

We haven’t visited all the places you can hike or walk along the shore. There are far more than can be covered in a month. However, here are a few highlights.

The best place to hunt for California agates in beach gravel: Big Lagoon County Park, Trinidad CA

My three favorite places for bird watching:

  1. Arcata Marsh, Arcata, CA–there are thousands of shorebirds that visit this area, and lots of trails.
Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, former farm outbuildings

2. Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, south of Eureka, CA. More trails and lots of birds. We’re still seeing migrating species, especially on the warmer, sunnier days.

Mad River County Park

3. Mad River County Park, near Loleta, CA includes a trail behind the dunes. Trees have grown into a kind of tunnel, and tiny warblers jump through the branches faster than you can aim your binoculars. The trail comes out on the beach, and we walked back along the shore. Fog had rolled in and we walked through ghostly gray light.

I don’t have a favorite place for walking on the beach–there are miles of beaches, dog-friendly, even horse-friendly. At the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, there are signs saying No Dogs, No Vehicles, No Runners (?). We’ve seen more deer in our yard than at any of the wildlife refuges, however.

We learned a bit about Frisbee Golf when we went for a walk in a park in Manila, CA that turned out to be a popular disc golf course.

I will miss it here. The past two weeks have been without rain and when you stand in the sun it is warm (60s). Nights are cold, but there has been no frost. There was a full moon/blue moon/Halloween moon on Saturday. It’s been perfect for being outdoors.

We took advantage of the drive south to get off Highway 101 and onto the Avenue of the Giants that winds among redwood forest for 31 miles. This was our initial cruise through the forest. On our next visit to Humboldt, we’ll stop at one of the many places where trails thread through the huge trees.

Not far beyond the Avenue of the Giants, we entered the familiar California environment, brown hillsides, patches of trees, and lots of irrigated grape vines.

We decided to avoid the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown San Francisco, but got a look at the city as we drove by.

By this time, we were ready for a break, so we stopped in to see Lyra at her new apartment in Mountain View, and to meet her puppy, Pandora. Pandora was much smaller than she looked on Skype, and cute as can be. We hadn’t see Lyra since Christmas, and that was a pleasure, and a big relief. How we all want to hug our family members! We visited with Amanda and Jim in Eureka, and we wanted to see Lyra. We don’t know when we will get back to Illinois to see Lillian and Neil, or out to Syracuse, NY to see my mom. Family–in the flesh–is to be treasured these days.

After our break visiting Lyra and Pandora, we went on to our destination in Carmel, a lovely house tucked in on a side street only two blocks from downtown. Driving due south for eight hours had the positive result that it is a bit warmer, as well as less rainy. It should be a good month.

(L) Our house in Carmel, CA; (R) Sunset from our deck

Eureka: Architecture and Art

08 Sunday Nov 2020

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I was surprised by the range of interesting buildings in Eureka. There are large Victorian showplaces, classic California bungalows, even a few old Art Deco buildings. What I didn’t know when we arrived is that Eureka is home to an Old Town that preserves much of the late 19th century central part of the city, and the entire district is on the National Register of Historic Places. Here are a few of the lovely houses I saw, and some interesting quirky things.

The pinnacle of Victorian splendor in Eureka is the Carson Mansion, built by a lumber baron back when redwood was being shipped out of the forests at an incredible rate. This house has never been allowed to deteriorate, and is now a private club. You can apply on-line. https://www.ingomar.org/

Across the street from the Carson Mansion is the Pink Lady. This is a lovely big Victorian, but it did have a period of abandonment, and is now refurbished. This is a private home and was recently on the market, if you’re interested in living in a showplace in beautiful Eureka. It has a view of the water, too.

We passed this row of three restored houses. In addition to all having individual character and nice restoration, these are not huge mansions, they are a livable size, and yet have lovely ornamentation.

Victorian houses catch my eye, but they are not the only interesting places in Eureka. There are lots of bungalows, a single story with a front porch, sometimes with Craftsman touches. This one was particularly fine. There are lots of others. Not all of these are huge, many are a comfortable size.

I was surprised to see some older family-sized water towers. In addition to storing water, the raised tank increases water pressure.

Artists abound in the Humboldt region. These metal jellyfish hang under someone’s carport in Trinidad, CA.

Trinidad is a tiny community perched on headlands that project into the Pacific. The views are beautiful, and there are days when whales spout and dive just off shore.

In front of a cafe in Bayside, this large metal lady dances in the breeze.

Bayside is another tiny community tucked in between Eureka and Arcata. We avoided the highway for the short trip between the two towns when we went to the weekly, year-round farmer’s market in Arcata. We passed Bayside on the Old Arcata Road and always admired its cafe.

On Quaker St. in Eureka, there is a man who makes sculpture out of broken machinery, tools, and old car parts. He came out to chat with us and told us that his grandchildren have made the newer pieces.

There are lots of places that have chainsaw art, too, legacy of the redwood boom times, when you could have just about anything made of redwood.

This is only a fraction of the interesting houses and artworks we passed during our month in the north. There is a bubbling creativity that comes out in many places you wouldn’t suspect. Fences, gates, birdhouses, yard sculpture; there are lots of hidden pleasures to find.

Leaves crunch, and I smell Autumn

24 Saturday Oct 2020

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Californians don’t pay much attention to fall as a season of the year. In the south, it’s the time when the heat abates–the palm trees don’t change color. In the Bay Area, a bit more fog comes in, but there’s not a seasonal shift to speak of.

As in many things, northern California is different. The leaves on cottonwoods and aspens turn yellow, pale orange, and silvery beige, blinking in the breeze. At first, while bird watching, we mistook the occasional falling leaf for a bird, starting, and turning our binoculars on the spot. A week later, so many leaves are falling that we aren’t so easily fooled.

Autumn in Northern California

I’ve been enjoying the changing leaves because they remind me of fall colors in the Eastern US where I grew up. Out for a walk on a recent sunny day, the breeze ruffled some leaves while others crunched underfoot releasing their woodsy scent. There are few more pleasurable moments at this time of year. I know the coming months will bring fog and rain, but for now this is an idyllic time of sounds and smells that remind me of autumn days gone by.

The fires have died down in the northern part of California. As soon as the air quality improved, everyone stopped monitoring the fires. There may still be fires, but they are out of sight and out of mind. When there is a sunny day on the weekend, every park fills with cars, as everyone who was cooped up by the pandemic and the smoke emerges to soak up some sun and breeze before winter sets in.

We are in the right place to see fall migrating birds, especially the warblers that are making their way south for the winter. As the leaves fall and the thickets become transparent, we can see tiny birds hopping from branch to branch once again. We spotted warblers in the spring, and all summer we’ve been tantalized by their tiny chirps, though they’ve been impossible to see. It’s fun to have them back.

One tree after another

Northern California has many environments. The famous Redwood National and State Parks harbor what is left of redwood forests. Redwood groves are dark even during the day, the trees so tall that sunlight rarely hits the ground. The trees lend a solemnity to the woods, blanketing everything in broad branches. The immensity of a mature redwood is difficult to appreciate. We’ve seen the stumps of trees cut down in the 1890s that are enormous. Again, it’s difficult to envision how such huge trunks could be hauled from the forest and moved to a sawmill. How could sawmills handle such giant logs?

The primeval-seeming redwood forests are not far from the coast, and make a dramatic contrast with the sandy beaches and rocky headlands. The coast provides wind, sun, and dunes, a sharp counterpoint to the dark green shaded stillness of the redwood forest. Our bird watching thickets are a bit of transition between the two.

There is another surprising environment here, coastal marshland. We are very near the Arcata Marsh. We knew there would be birds from what we read and our experiences in this kind of wetland. We were not prepared for Arcata, where we have seen hundreds and hundreds of shorebirds that normally we see in ones and twos. This has been a wonderful experience, getting to see species that are unusual for us in large numbers, having a chance to look at birds for as long as we want rather than getting a brief glimpse before they fly off. There are long-billed curlews, marbled godwits, long billed dowitchers, sanderlings, and various sandpipers. We took part in October Big Day, a bird counting day, and spent some time counting and recording birds at the marsh. We plan to go back now that it is one of our favorite places.

Eureka!

10 Saturday Oct 2020

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We have no permanent home in the US, and for the past six months, we’ve worked our way across the country until we arrived in Eureka, CA, where our oldest daughter and her fiance live, and where we can walk along the Pacific Ocean again. It was almost a coast-to-coast drive.

Starting in Chicago in April, we first went east to Lake Erie (to collect beach glass), when we were still reeling from the collapse of eight months of carefully planned travel in Europe. We already had our October reservation in Eureka, CA back when we thought we’d be landing at LAX on Oct. 1. As each month rolled over and yet another Airbnb property could be cancelled, we moved slowly across the US, making the best of the disaster.

Beach glass

In Ohio, there was wonderful beachcombing, and my brother and sister-in-law came from Syracuse for a socially-distanced visit just before New York required 14-day quarantine for doing such a thing.

In Minnesota, we rode on our host’s pontoon boat on the Mississippi.

Pileated woodpecker

On our way to Montana, we spent a night in Devils Lake, ND with dear friends from our old days in Southwest archaeology.

While we were in Montana, we visited the US/Canada border, and I swam in ice-cold water. I canned a dozen quarts of pie cherries and saw the woodpecker of my dreams. That’s in addition to Glacier National Park, and a lot of glorious wilderness.

A sunny day at the beach in Oregon.

In Oregon, my sister Paula and her partner came to visit. They stayed in their Airstream in the local RV resort and we tried to stay apart. (No hugs.)

We were fortunate that the weather was good enough for us all to stay outdoors. We may not have practiced ideal social distancing, but we wore masks and sat separately.

After every family visit, we went into seclusion for two weeks or more, since we have no one else to see, and we don’t go to restaurants. We shop for groceries, and we have occasionally had to do something else, like make a xerox copy for one of my monthly medical appointments. Jonathan goes into fish stores, mostly to buy crab. I don’t go in.

I fell off the shopping wagon once in Astoria, OR and got a new shirt, as both of my others with long sleeves are now frayed at the collar. I prefer in-person shopping for clothing, and resale/vintage stores particularly.

This week we crossed the finish line of our westward travels, arriving in Eureka, CA with our Prius loaded as full as we want it to get. We could see out the rear window, but not all of the rear window…..

Jim, Reggie, Amanda, & Hairy on a special occasion.

Just as we finished unloading the car here in Eureka, Amanda and Jim and their two tiny dogs came for a visit. We can’t really make a bubble because Jim has to go to the office in order to work. He’s not particularly exposed to people in his job, but it’s not the definition of a bubble.

We’re going to make the best of it, and enjoy seeing family in person, even if it’s from a safe distance.

Our home in the redwoods this month.

Eureka! We made it.

California Beaches

05 Monday Nov 2018

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It was a pleasure to find that California beaches are as well-tended in the Santa Barbara area as they were in Mendocino five years ago. I often mention the quantity of debris that we find on beaches around the world in our continuing rounds of beach combing. California beaches are a remarkable exception. Yes, they have driftwood and occasional bits of beach glass, but they are not littered with the unending stream of plastic cups and mylar packaging that we see everywhere else, not to mention orange peels, and worse.

It is no secret why this is the case–people clean the beaches frequently. There isn’t less trash, there is greater effort to clean it up. Many beaches post the meeting time of twice-monthly cleanup gatherings. Clubs and advocacy groups hold periodic beach clean-ups. In addition, the entire state of California holds a beach-cleaning extravaganza at least once a year. The most recent one was Sept. 15, 2018. Our visit began just two weeks later, on Oct. 1, and we benefited from the effort. During our stay we rarely found the kind of beach trash that we usually find. “Eternal vigilance… etc. etc….” keeps the beach clean.  All visitors should be aware that other people work hard to make the beaches attractive. Congratulations to everyone who helps keep California beaches clean.

We visited beaches from Pismo Beach on the north to Mussel Shoals on the south and found them uniformly beautiful, and not particularly crowded, especially toward the end of the month.

Hendry Beach
Santa Barbara

There is an exception, isn’t that always the case? In the Santa Barbara area, all the beaches have tar blobs that have washed ashore and cannot easily be removed.  Whether the tar floats in from occasional leaks that aren’t even measurable they are so small, or whether the tar is left over from major oil spills of the past, it’s impossible to walk barefoot on the beach and not acquire a few black spots on your feet. The thickest tar buildups were at Coal Oil Point, perhaps aptly named, though all beaches have some tar. These are the legacy of the offshore oil industry that is still visible in the form of a half dozen oil platforms on the horizon.

Interim–October in Santa Barbara

03 Saturday Nov 2018

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We left Peru with great fanfare, but didn’t get all the way to New Zealand in one hop, we stopped for a month in Santa Barbara, CA. It was a month of relaxation, walks on the beach, exploring the area, and wine-tasting–this is California, after all.

We visited the Avocado Festival in Carpenteria, and the Harbor Festival opening the season for California spiny lobster in Santa Barbara, and ate a few spiny lobster. We tasted wine in Los Olivos, Solvang, and Ojai. Ojai is a town with family history, as Jonathan attended at least part of 8th grade there during his peripatetic childhood following his artist parents around the western US and Mexico.

As if this were not enough fun, we had visits with friends and family, taking advantage of being on the west coast. It was wonderful.  We had a chance to visit Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) and see Amanda’s experiment that is the basis for her M.A. thesis. At lunch, Amanda and Jonathan made fun of my taking selfies with a regular camera. Why not?

We stayed in a lovely Airbnb, a bungalow remodeled into an open plan living/dining/kitchen area with seating areas outside on both sides of the house providing shaded seating at all times of day. We shared a bit of the yard, and the outdoor shower, with a neighbor in the apartment on one side, but that did not prove to be a problem in large part because of the delightful tenant, Jackie, and her temporary guests Lucas, Henna, and Montana (3 months). A cute baby is always nice to have as a neighbor.

Under the pineapple guava (feijoa) tree with Kneave and Linda.

Our home was surrounded by perfect contemporary landscaping, terraces of succulents down the small hillside lot made the area seem larger. The tiers and pots of plants were interspersed with just the right number of citrus trees, one of each: grapefruit, oranges, Meyer lemons, lemons, and limes, along with an avocado and a persimmon tree. The persimmons were just ripening, dotting their tree with small bright orange fruit. Jonathan made multi-citrus marmalade, a gorgeous orange-gold color and tasty into the bargain. There were days when we could easily have sat on the terrace all day. In no time, it was time to leave for the airport again.

From the back room: California

29 Monday Feb 2016

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I took notes on some of the great places we visited along the northern California coast during June-Aug. 2015. Somehow I never posted them, though I may have mentioned the excellent, Hiker’s Hip Pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast, by Bob Lorentzen. We used it regularly. My own notes are these:

Places visited on the California Coast between Pt. Arena and Bruhel Point, Westport, CA
These are listed from North to South, with the date of the visit(s), when I noted them:
Bruhel Point, S. of Westport
• Pullout at M 74.0 or 74.5
• There are picnic tables and benches and a trail to the cliff edge. If you walk the path S along the bluff there is access to the shore.
• Go at low tide to get out on the rocks. Good tidepools at low tide.
• There is a trail into the wetlands. Bring bug spray.

Lyndon La., north of Ft. Bragg  8/20/15
• Turn off Rte. 1 onto Lyndon La. Turn R (N) onto unpaved path before last house. The path makes a loop
• Park at the far end of the loop
• Take path W, cross haul road to several bluffs with rocky outcrops and beaches
• Tide pools, beach glass, very little abalone

Virgin Creek, N of Ft. Bragg
• Pullout N of Montessori school
• Woodpeckers along the trail
• Shore birds on beach and in mouth of Virgin Creek
• Phalarope, black turnstone, least sandpiper
• Tidepools

McKerricher State Park, Cleone Lake
• Entrance at M 64.87 for ranger station (no fee)
• Parking area for Lake Cleone
• Birdwatching around the pond, go counterclockwise to avoid closed section of boardwalk. On our second visit, we went clockwise and around the closed section. Not bad at all.
• Wrentit, orange crowned warbler, Virginia rail, Great blue heron, egret

McKerricher State Park, skip ranger station
• Turn off at M 63.81, W toward the water
• Parking and trail head are just S. of the street
• Wide sand beach for walking, swimming or birdwatching
• Sanderling, gulls, Townsend’s solitaire, Heerman’s gull, Western gull, hummingbirds along trail

McKerricher State Park, 7/19/15
• Turn W. from Rte 1 at mile 62.7, there’s a sign
• The beach is long and sandy with a few mussel shells. Very little for beachcombing.
• Park in furthest south lot and walk toward the seal viewpoint, or follow shore toward S. facing rocks

Coastal Access to beach south of Mckerricher State Park
• Trail from side of road goes W, crosses Haul Rd., continues W to the shore. Bluffs are low, beach is sandy
• Very good tide pools, not much beachcombing.

Pudding Creek, Coastal Access
• Just N of mile 62.0
• N. side of Pudding Creek near trestle bridge
• Large beach, good birding
• Try Boice Rd. Mile 58.50

Hare Creek Beach, S. end of Ft. Bragg, W of Hwy. 1
• Turn W. at Ocean View Dr, also access to Todd Pt. and College of the Redwoods
• Turn L (S) at first intersection, Harbor Ave. Park W. of trailhead
• OR park on Main St. Ft. Bragg by the N. End of Hare Creek ridge. Trail head is at N. end of bridge
• OR cross ridge toward S. and turn R (W) at first St, Old Coast Hwy, then right onto Cypress
• Parking and trailhead at narrow opening between board fence and split rail fence, this is unmarked. All routes descend to a very nice small beach

Belinda Point public access, terrific
• Turn W on Boice La. S of Mendocino Botanical Garden
• Turn S on Ocean Dr.
• Sign on R after Pacific Way
• Path runs between houses to the bluff
• Stairs to the beach, some glass, little driftwood, no abalone
• Continue S on Ocean Dr. just before the end at a cluster of Do Not Enter signs is great birdwatching: northern Flicker, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers, chestnut backed chickadee

Todd Point, Ft. Bragg
• Turn W. on Ocean View Dr south of Noyo Harbor
• Follow to end and park
• Pah runs along the bluffs, there are some picnic tables along the Noyo Harbor side of the park
• July 4th fireworks are here.
• We saw whates spouting and diving during August.
• There is a large cormorant rookery.
• You can climb down onto the rocks but it is steep
• Form the rocks it would be possible to fish
• We saw downy baby gulls here on 7/25/15

Pine Beach, from Pine Beach Inn
• Park by turquoise house of Ocean Ave. aprox M. 58
• Walk to far N portion of motel to start of path.
• Beach has fresh water stream and small lagoon
• No tide pools, abalone, glass, driftwood
• Lots of birds, chickadee, pygmy nuthatch, waxwings, plover, goldfinch, wilson’s warbler, flycatcher, Hutton’s vireo, yellow warbler

Jughandle N. Headlands, 7/21/15, 8/9 and 8/17/15
• Turn W. from Rte 1 onto Ocean Dr.
• Park on dirt opposite Pine Beach Inn
• We took the trail W from the parking area and came out at dramatic bluffs
• Beaches vary in difficulty of access, though the trail runs across one (Belden’s beach?)
• We walked as far as the point south of Jefferson Way and returned to the car via Jefferson and Rte. 1
• Beaches have some very private spots.
• Driftwood, no glass or abalone
• All beaches are sand.
• Pileated woodpecker along trail to headlands
• Semipalmated plover, least sandpiper, black phoebe, pygmy nuthatch, song sparrow, chestnut backed chickadee

Jughandle State Park, 6/28/15, 8/5/15
Snorkeling, sand beach
• All beaches on N side of park are sand
• To start snorkeling, turn R (N) at trail map by parking lot. Take first trail to the left (W) and follow to the trail down to the sandy beach on the N side of the point. Start on the beach and snorkel around the point toward the south.

Caspar Headlands-fishing, from the South
• Stop at station opposite Russian Gulch (E of Rte. 1) to pick up a permit for Caspar Headlands. This is annual so you only have to go once. It is probably good to do this just so the state has records that people use and enjoy Caspar Headlands, despite its small size.
• Back on Rte. 1, go N to Cabrillo Dr. (Rd. 409) just before (S of) the bridge over Caspar Creek.
• Follow road past beach and uphill until it meets S. Caspar Headlands Dr. Look for pullout indicated on Cal State Parks map and park.
• Walk toward the ocean, take the central path to areas C, D, E. We fished on the south facing rocks just after low tide.

Caspar Headlands Coastal Access, from the North
• Turn W. from Rte. 1 at Pt. Cabrillo exit
• Go in to beach
• Follow road up hill past beach
• Trail head is off S. Caspar Dr. There are three paths that branch onto the headlands
• This is where we saw abalone in a tidepool.
• To return, follow S. Caspar Dr. back around to the S/SE until you reach Pt. Cabrillo Rd.
• Pt. Cabrillo Dr. and Rte. 1 returns you to the highway by the entrance to Russian Gulch State Park

Caspar, 6/28/15
• Pacifica is the second right turn (W) off the Caspar Rd. as you go south from the Caspar Rd. turnoff from Hwy 1.
• Park behind healing center on Pacifica and you will see trail head.
• Trail goes sto an overlook over a stony beach, but there is no way down to it. The trail is bordered by a fence on one side and a huge brush pile along the other side.
• There is no beach access from Seadrift Dr.
• There is no coast access along Pacifica beyond the healing center parking and trail head.

Caspar Cemetery
• Turn W. from Rte. 1 at Pt. Cabrillo exit, Rd. 409
• Look for turnoff on the left. There is a barrier, but space to park.
• Follow path to cemetery.
• Southernmost occurrence of sitka spruce, preferred feeding for crossbills
• We didn’t see any, but it is beautiful.

Russian Gulch North Side, 6/30/15, 7/26/15
• Turn off Ret. 1 at Russian Gulch State Park, mile 53.
• Turn left, pass guard booth (pay or show tag), take right fork.
L. fork is parking, Center road goes to the beach
• Follow right fork to farthest parking area, end of road
• Follow trail past blowhole, take right hand forks
• Fish off the north side of the rocks.

Russian Gulch South side, 6/27/15
Fishing
• Turn W off Rte 1 at R 52.00, road goes about 1 m to a dead end. Scuba and abalone divers depart from a spot about halfway along. Park at the dead end and walk back to the South Headlands Trail.
• Follow this trail W to the grassy point for fishing. You have to get down to the rocks but there are a couple of steep paths. Both N & S sides have good spots
• Tidepools here: mussel, sea anemone, tiny snail, crab
Cypress Drive, north of Mendocino
• No parking in the neighborhood
• There are access paths on either side of houses at the end of the street, by the Sea Dreams motel.
• Are these ocean access even if they are marked No Access?
• Try Drifters Reef Rd.

Brewery Gulch Rd.
• Just S of Big River Rd.
• Several access points
• Entry path goes to a broad overlook of Mendocino town and Big River beach
• This is a good place to take law chairs
• No access to rocks/beach that we could see.

Spring Ranch
• Access from pullout at mile 49.0 (aprox) on Rt. 1
• Trail goes to the water and then right, follow to end to see sea lions
• Left goes to rocks for hiking.
• Peterson Lane-park off Hwy 1 in cleared area.
• Walk west to find path to VanDamme beach (S); Spring Ranch path is N.

VanDamme State Park, hiking 7/20/15
• Take Hwy 1 S of Mendocino to Little River Rd., turn East
• Park at Pygmy Forest, the road has become Airport Rd. at this point
• We hiked the Old Logging Rd. Trail
• On a later visit we hiked the Fern Canyon Trail
• 3 hrs. round trip including stop for lunch at the bottom.

VanDamme State Park, beach combing
• Easy parking access from Rte.1 just south of Spring Ranch
• Best beachcombing for abalone
• Some beach glass

Little River
• No coastal access from N of Albion to Little River
• There may be access W of Little River Post Office, very small headland can be accessed from the P.O.

Little River Cemetery
• Path runs through the cemetery from the cemetery gate.
• W of the cemetery is a blow hole and a large sinkhole. It is possible to enter the sinkhole.
• There is a trail and a rope but it is steep and a small area at the bottom once you get there.
• The trail goes to the bluffs but the overlook is very small
• No shore access
• Nuthatches, chickadees
Dark Gulch Beach and Navarro Bluff via stairs, Heritage House Coastal Access
• Turn W off Hwy 1 at M45.25. This turnoff is easy to miss, it is unmarked between a wooden fence and a driveway
• Stairs turn and end at the beach, which is invisible from the road
• Beautiful beach, little abalone, no glass
• M. 44.87 just south of this marker on the W side of the Rd (Rte. 1) is a pine tree with Christmas bulbs on it. You can pull over and look at it.

Navarro Headlands
• Pullout just south of R. 41.95 on Rte. 1.
• Beautiful bluff walk, with one area on the point furthest SW that has an especially wide range of wild flowers.

Navarro by the Sea, just south of Albion
• Mostly sand beach, some gravel
• No abalone or glass
• Huge collection of driftwood, some made into fanciful structures by visitors
• On Hwy 1 just S of junction with Rte. 128, turn right (W) at M 40.15
• Go all the way to the end of the road to park. There are restrooms and trash cans
• To climb the bluffs on the old coast Hwy trail, look for the trailhead at .35 mi from the turnoff
• A sign on the old road says “closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic” follow old road up the bluffs

Greenwood State Beach, 8/13/15
• Parking in the town of Elk, across from the store, M 34.05
• Easy downhill path to the beach
• Picnic tables on the bluff and one at the beach
• Lots of driftwood, some sea glass
• Spectacular views

Manchester State Beach, 8/12/15
• Kiney Rd. M. 21.40 goes in to parking and rest room
• Trail to beach is long
• Beach is very long, like a beach in SoCal
• Lots of driftwood, but no abalone or sea glass.

Pt. Arena pier
• We went on a cold day and enjoyed having lunch near the pier

This is Jeopardy!

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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Driving in from the north to Pasadena we missed most of the rush hour traffic and arrived around 6 pm. Unloaded most of the car at Amanda’s house, since she and Jimmy are the inheritors, willing or unwilling, of our miscellany. They are rewarded by getting our leftover kitchen ingredients and picnic supplies, and stuck with disposing of the oddments they may not want. Jimmy is taking some of my collection of abalone bits from the beach and showed me a pendant he has already made (since last weekend when they visited).
Jonathan voted for a visit to Oinkster for dinner for the best pastrami in Los Angeles, and the line was much shorter than usual, so we dined on the patio. Definitely a place to visit if you are in the Eagle Rock, Glendale, Highland Park area.
Since the young folk have day jobs we were on our own the next day and I had gotten free tickets to a taping of Jeopardy. Haven’t we all wanted to be on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune? Studio audience tickets are free. We met our friends the Riggall’s for lunch in Pasadena and then set off for beautiful Culver City for the taping. You show up at 1:30 pm and by 2:30 pm you have gone through a metal detector, handbag search, standing in line and filing through the exhibit of memorabilia to the auditorium. When the two shows we watched air on Oct. 8 & 9 we’ll be in the rear of the audience on the right side of your screen. I think they pan across us. It was a lot of fun.

9.2.15 Jeopardy.15
In LA all activities are judged by traffic or potential for traffic, so our afternoon was a success because we did not get bogged down for more than a few minutes. That was important because we had to rest up for our dinner at Racion, a Spanish-inspired restaurant in Pasadena where until recently, Amanda (our oldest) was the pastry chef. Amanda and Jimmy Woodhead, his mom Connie, Jonathan and I probably had the largest table in the restaurant. This was my second visit, Jonathan’s first, and dinner was excellent as usual. The menu is tapas style, with the size of the portion increasing from the top of the menu page to the bottom. We sampled anchovies in tomato sauce, the most delicious octopus, beef tongue bunuelos, lamb meatballs, crispy prawns, milk-poached asparagus, and the divine chicken croquettes. Chef Teresa came out to say hello and brought us a cool creation she has been developing, cucumber granita with a froth on top, a sprinkle of dried creamy bits and eucalyptus powder. My description doesn’t do it justice, but take a look at the menu and visit if you are in the area. http://www.racionrestaurant.com/

Racion: 119 W. Green St., Pasadena, CA

Mendocino to LA, via the Monterey Aquarium

05 Saturday Sep 2015

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We left our wonderful house in Little River, CA (thank you Eckhart, Birdie, Jenna and VRBO) to head south for LA and then Barcelona. Down by a couple of boxes, the car was still packed to the doors. I gave up on the bird feeder–after the raccoon visit it was held together with fishing line. I’m not sure how items expand to fill a Prius. We were like clowns in a VW bug.

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Our first stop was the Centrella Inn in Pacific Grove (Monterey). The Centrella is a fabulous Victorian house B&B. I lay in bed admiring the complex light fixture with its pipes, glass shades and ornamental brass details. When I mentioned it at breakfast I was told that they are original to the house, early dual fuel lighting—the shades that curve upward were gaslights and the shades that curve down were electric. Can you imagine the work involved in installing these?

My chat with a woman at the desk led us to exchange stories of beach combing. She recommends the beach at the end of Tioga in Sand City. I wish I had time to stop in.
Our goal in stopping overnight in Monterey was to visit its world famous aquarium. It’s $39.50 for a regular admission ($34.50 for seniors over 65…), but lives up to its reputation.

 

Monterey Bay Aquarium
886 Cannery Row Monterey, CA 93940

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 Guide books recommend planning at least three hours for a visit. We had to leave at noon or risk sitting all evening in LA traffic so we found a compromise. We only visited exhibits with live creatures, skipping all the video and photographic material (Sorry, exhibit developers). We may have seen all of them. We couldn’t spend time on the outdoor terrace where you can observe whatever is passing, including sea otters. I did pet an abalone at the touch tank, watch the keepers feed and do some training with the sea otters. It is a very wonderful place. Tore ourselves away at noon and headed for LA.
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Sea otter.
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I was about to pat the abalone.
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The aquarium also has a wide variety of seabirds. The tall bird center is an avocet.

Mendocino area highlight reel

31 Monday Aug 2015

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Best trail: Anyplace on the California Coastal Trail

Best day hike: Pygmy Woods/Upper Fern Canyon loop, Van Damme State Park

Best guidebook: The hiker’s hip pocket guide to the Mendocino Coast, by Bob Lorentzen

Best coffee shop: Moody’s, Lansing St., Mendocino

Best beach for collecting abalone: Van Damme State Beach, Little River; Mendocino Headlands, Mendocino

Best beach for collecting driftwood: Navarro Beach, south end.

Best beer tasting: North Coast Brewing Co. taproom, Ft. Bragg

Best wine tasting: A Taste of Redwood Valley (June and October)

We didn’t eat out very much, but had a nice dinner at Mendo Bistro, Main St., Ft. Bragg.

Best fish: Whole salmon caught the previous night, purchased Noyo Harbor, Ft. Bragg

Best pizza: Piaci’s, Redwood Ave., Ft. Bragg

Best barbecue: The Q, S. Main St., Ft. Bragg

Best bread: Ft. Bragg bakery (There is no bakery storefront–the bread is available at the grocery stores and farmers markets.)

Farmer’s Market: Wednesday 3-5 pm, Ft. Bragg; Friday noon-2 pm, Mendocino. Expensive but local and freshly picked. Try the strawberries.

Best fruit: Organic apple farm, just outside the entrance to Hendy Woods State Park

Best pick-your-own fruit: Himalayan raspberries and/or California huckleberries, anywhere along the California Coastal Trail, or try the east side of the main street through Leggett, CA.

Best summer music festival: Mendocino Music Festival (July)

Best botanical garden: Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Ft. Bragg

Best garage sale: Pack Rat Sale, benefit for Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens (July)

Best benefits: Art in the Garden (first weekend in August), Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

also, Bob Fest, benefit for Mendocino Environmental Center (August).

Best bird watching: Audubon society walks through the Botanical Garden on the third Wednesday of each month at 8 am.