mendo

From Auburn, we continued our drive north up the coast to Mendocino County.  The road to the town of Fort Bragg is a bit curvy and when you're towing a 27-foot camper, it can make for a serious white-knuckled adventure.

At this point on the drive, we were praying that the brakes didn't suddenly give out....

Charlie's brother, George, has lived in Mendocino for the past 30 years and it is a spectacularly beautiful area along the Northern California coast.

George is a custom cabinet maker and incredibly talented woodworker.  He is currently living in a house that has breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.

There has been a bit of erosion on the cliffs around his home in recent years and while the house is safe to live in - it has rendered one side of the house unsafe to walk around.  Henry's looking out the bedroom window on that side of the home -  which had me mesmerized as a geologist, and slightly terrified as the mother of a rambunctious 12-year old.

This is the view from the upstairs bathroom window. Gloria, Gloria Hallelujah!!  

I might never leave the bathroom.

This is the view from George's back patio at sunrise ... I set up my laptop at 5:00 AM and was able to work for several hours while the sky became progressively lighter.   When I took a Zoom call from this location at 6:00 AM, none of my colleagues believed that my background was actually my REAL background.  I'm still in awe over this view!

This is the view from George's back patio at sunset.  

This is the view of Quarantinny in George's front yard, where we thought about staying for the next forever years.

And this is a view from inside George's house where the family had a jam session one night. George plays bass with a band in his spare time, and has quite the assortment of guitars.  Charlie brought a small travel guitar with him on the trip - William brought his ukulele - Liz had her Cajon drum - Henry was on the bongos, and Gracie had her beautiful vocals.   Which she didn't use because MOM! STOP! I'M NOT SINGING! 

This is a better picture of George trying to tune Liz's guitar.  He's a super cool cat.

We stayed in Mendocino for three glorious nights and had the opportunity to take a beautiful hike along the mosquito-rich Big River Road. The mosquitos didn't get too bad until we realized we had packed our sunscreen instead of bug spray. 

We also spent a day hiking along the coast.  

And exploring the beautiful outcrops of graywacke along the beach.

All of these rock formations present in the water off the coast, which extend nearly 1000 miles, are part of the California Marine Conservation Area and Sanctuary.    It was awesome to get close and be able to examine some of the structures up close, when the tide went out.

We also dropped in to Glass Beach ... 

Which as the name would suggest, was comprised entirely of glass.

Handfuls of brightly colored sea glass! 

We dined out for a wonderful seafood lunch in town ...

And had the opportunity to meet our newest cousin, the adorable Sylvan - son of Crescent and Lucy (George's daughter); and baby brother to 3-year old Orla.

It was wonderful to see everyone, but with COVID we really kept our distance.  Which was probably for the best because I'd want to hold on to this little one .... 

Tighter than he was holding on to his dad's microbrew beer!