Around the world with two suitcases
We walked along the beach and took photos of the town.
Tonight we watched the intro to an episode of “Murder, She Wrote”, now that we know it was filmed in Mendocino, not a town in Maine. Many of the buildings look the same now as they did when the series was playing, 1984-1996.
We found a nice bench on Main Street.
For a real change of pace, I made dinner tonight, a variation on a Peruvian recipe called “pastel de acelgas”. Chard pie sounds so much less appetizing, but it was delicious.
We are having fun with birds. Not only did we see a new bird on the beach, and a bobcat, but when we came home Jonathan was watching the bird feeder and said,
“Get your binoculars, there’s a new bird out here.”
It was a family of red crossbills, male, female and 3 chicks. These are the weirdest birds. The tips of their beaks cross, and overall their beaks are bigger than you’d think for the size of the birds.
Despite the photo, I got a good look at them–very cool.
We visited two state beaches over the past couple of days. Manchester State Beach is very, very long and sandy, though the path to the beach is not too clear:
We sat on a big log and ate lunch, and browsed through the driftwood for interesting pieces.
We watched the sunset from the Mendocino headlands. It was clear to the horizon with whales spouting.
Spent much of the next day at Greenwood State Beach, a peaceful beach in Elk, CA. On our way down to the water I saw an animal cross the path. It looked odd, like a brownish dog, but funny-looking. I pointed it out to Jonathan and then it was gone up a side path. Just then, a woman came by and said “Did you see it? The wild cat?” It seems we saw a bobcat. It was bigger than I expected.
Beautiful view of the water from the picnic tables.
The beach has a lot of driftwood and even some tiny pieces of beach glass. There is a stream that empties into the water here, and a lagoon behind the sand bar. We saw a least sandpiper. (They are tiny.)
You can spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether the sun is coming or going, whether you are in fog, low clouds, sea mist or rain. Here’s the fog coming in:
In 30 minutes it can go from clear to socked in. But 30 minutes after that, the sun can be back out.
How many harbor seals are in this picture? Hint: There are usually more than you first notice.
Today we had a picnic at Navarro Point, where there is a wonderful bench. All along the California coastal trail we find benches with memorial plaques on them. It is a reminder of all the people who enjoyed these trails and worked to make the system possible. This one has an inscription on a small boulder in front of the bench, so your eyes fall on it as you sit and look at the ocean.
We did some binocular beachcombing. That’s when a beach is impossible to access from the bluffs (you could visit with a kayak). We check them out for interesting driftwood and abalone shells. Today’s had both. I had to restrain Jonathan from climbing down to get it for me…
I made an amazing discovery on Saturday. There used to be so many abalone that people paved their driveways with the empty shells. There is a house around the corner that is for sale where I noticed the driveway after seeing a lot of crushed abalone fragments in the street.
I went to the beach on Saturday and there were a number of people diving for abalone. I spoke to a couple who were packing up and showed me two of their three. They said it was fun and the water wasn’t as cold as you’d think (!). the man said that he saw a lot of abalone–in the hundreds–during his swim. Again, i was very surprised. I think I have to go snorkeling myself and have a look.
I somehow skipped over the most recent low tide beachcombing. The tide is not particularly low but it is fun to go out and walk along the tide line and see what’s there. We began at Jughandle State Park, walking along the rocks, and ended up on the beaches there. Low tide was around 10:20 am, so we left home around 9:30 am, early for us these days, and started our walk before low tide.
The sea was pretty rough, no boats out, but the wind wasn’t bad, and the beachcombing was excellent. I found two complete abalone shells right on the beach. Jonathan saw them from the bluff above, but he couldn’t get to the beach before me.
The freshness of the shells and the fact that they still had abalone muscle clinging to them in places strongly suggests these are poachers’ leftovers. Each shell has a chip broken off the side, as though roughly pried off the rocks. Legally obtained abalone aren’t removed from their shell on the coast. The legal tag runs through the shell and cannot be removed until the abalone is being prepared to be eaten–someone who pried the abalone out and tossed the shell in the ocean in shallow water is almost certainly a poacher.
If this wasn’t enough, we walked along the bluffs near our house in the afternoon and saw a herd of deer grazing in the field covered with fog.
We decided not to go down onto the rocks when we saw that someone had arrived before us:
Today is beautifully clear and warm, unlike the past three days that were overcast, misty with coastal fog, or both, and downright cold at one point.
We walked all over the south half of the Pt. Cabrillo State Historic Monument, taking the hiking path south from the lighthouse. It was a glorious day/walk/view.
We saw jellyfish in all the eddies–it looks like the recent round of jellies is receding. We saw cormorant chicks on a ledge huddled together as though they would never fly away. A yellow bird that may have been one thing or another–yellow birds are more difficult to identify than you’d think.
I’m puzzling over what makes a good guest. If we are all going to save water, recycle and tread lightly on the world, how are we supposed to do it?
We’re in California right now where the big issue is saving water. Should visitors try to save water when there doesn’t seem to be a water-saving shower installed in a single motel or rental unit we’ve stayed in from Mendocino to Reno, Nevada? Is it ok to take a long shower/use a lot of towels because we are away from home? (I’d say no, but it’s tempting. In a hotel you’re not charged by the gallon for water.)
When we stay in a hotel or rental place we are often on vacation, reinforcing the idea that someone else will clean up because we’re temporary visitors, and have paid for the privilege. Do we really have to recycle? What if there are no bins–do we have to carry our empty plastic containers across state lines?
In addition to hotels/motels/rentals, the most surprising place where you’re unlikely to see recycling bins is in a marina. Isn’t that a contradiction? Wouldn’t you expect people who live/vacation/play on the water to be the most conscious of pollution and related issues?
Rental properties are my current home, and I’ve been considering them particularly closely. The issues are the same: how much water to use/save (should we use the garbage disposal)? The ants were here before we arrived–they just reemerged when they smelled crumbs. Do I have to buy Raid?
At our last rental, we were asked to wash all the sheets and towels before we left–a previous tenant commented on having to do that since we are all charged a cleaning fee. Finding the right balance is not that easy, is it?
The sun has been coming in and fading out, creating special effects.
Jughandle state park
Blowhole on the Mendocino Headlands
Picnic friend
This is a goblin castle.
It’s only visible on the calmest day on the water.
This is what the sea looked like the next day (today).
Tomorrow’s forecast is for gale force winds and 11 ft. waves.
Go figure.
Once we moved back in to our Mendocino house, we had a busy day. We’d decided to attend the benefit for the Mendocino Botanical Garden called “Art in the Garden”. It’s held on the first Saturday in August each year, and this year it was Aug. 1. The flowers were gorgeous, dahlias and begonias among the showiest.
Though the juried art show was more crafts than art, there were some very fine artists present and we enjoyed looking at their work in all media from watercolor to dye-infused metal plates.
We met Marian DeGloria, painter of the logo work of art for the show (above). She had a planter of similar composition beside it. She’s been a volunteer at the Garden for seven years and seems to know her way around plants both on an easel and in the ground.
We used my short cut sketch to make a quick trip two the water’s edge on Saturday evening–it was as stunning a view as ever.
On Sunday, we walked down to Van Damme State Beach where Jonathan tested out how he’d look if he grew his beard into the most popular shape locally:
Llywindatravels 2026 