Weekend Getaway

I’ve wanted to plan a weekend retreat for Eric and I for quite some time. With my spring semester looming right around the corner, I thought the long weekend with the MLK Jr. Day holiday on Monday would be the perfect opportunity. Plus, we just had to take advantage of the amazing (yet odd) weather patterns we've been having lately. At first, I thought that Carmel or Monterey would be a good destination, but since we’ve been there so many times, I thought it may be better to trek to a new place that neither of us had been before. So I decided upon Mendocino. Some friends of ours traveled up to the area not long ago and came back with some beautiful photographs. So with just two days to plan our adventure, I managed to book a decent hotel room in-between Mendocino and Fort Bragg that had a vacancy and researched some fun activities to do while we were there.


At about 8:00am on Saturday morning, we packed up the Acura and headed north. I decided that we would opt for Highway 1, since I had never traveled along the northern coast. What an amazing day and a beautiful drive- we could not have asked for any better! With our sunroof open to enjoy the 70-degree weather, we winded up and around the highway, marveling over the beauty of the ocean and its crashing waves right beside us. We passed through Bodega Bay, with their quaint inns, tiny shops, and marvelous views- we decided that our next mini-vacation trip would be here.


Unfortunately, my camera battery died just as we reached a family of cows nestled in the grass just steps from the highway. What a sight! Quite upset over the camera incident, I insisted that we stop in the next town- Point Arena- to buy a disposable camera at their general store. We passed by the lighthouse to snap a few photographs before we made our way back to the highway. Unfortunately the lighthouse and the museum were closed for renovations, but we did enjoy driving past the tiny café with its sign that proclaimed, “Last café ‘til Hawaii” since the Point Arena Lighthouse is the western most point of the state of California.

We arrived in Mendocino just in time for an early lunch and found our way to the botanical gardens, since check-in time for the hotel wasn’t for a couple of hours. With a picnic lunch in hand, we walked through the botanical gardens, which were not as lush as they would have been during the spring or summer months, yet beautiful nonetheless. We found a bench overlooking the sea and relaxed as we munched on our lunch.



After checking into our hotel for the night and taking a quick nap, we decided to head down to our hotel’s private cove to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sight. As the coastal chill started to set in, we walked back up to our hotel room and got ready for dinner. I envisioned a romantic dinner somewhere in Mendocino, but we were shocked as we drove through the tiny town at just past 6:00 in the evening to find but one restaurant with lights on. After looking at their small (and expensive!) menu posted out front, we decided to keep looking. We drove through Fort Bragg to find the same- very few places open. It was early on Saturday evening, but oddly, there was no one out on the streets. What sleepy beach towns! A little disappointed, we finally settled on Round Table when we found that it was one of few restaurants open.



We headed back to our hotel and to our surprise, Eric found that our hotel television had CSN+ with the Sharks hockey game on. So we watched a few minutes of the last period. I had brought some supplies to make s’mores so we then went out onto our patio and roasted some marshmallows over a fire as we marveled over the stars. It was amazing how many stars could be seen when we were far removed from the glaring city lights- I even saw a shooting star.

The next day, we checked out the hotel’s tiny continental breakfast before packing up the car and driving up to “Glass Beach.” I had read online that an old bottle factory once inhabited the shoreline near Fort Bragg and disposed of their unwanted glass and debris right into the ocean, as did the locals. After the city intervened and the bottle factory was long gone, it seems that Mother Nature decided to reclaim her beach- all of the old glass pieces from years past have been transformed into millions of tiny rounded pebbles that sparkle in the water and wash onto the shore. I couldn’t help but collect a few pieces for myself as we explored the reef area, snapped some photographs, watched the crashing waves in the distance, and snapped some more photographs (I remembered this time to charge my camera the night before).



Our next activity before calling it a day was a kayaking tour. Neither of us had been kayaking before, and since my previous research on yelp.com had given this particular company great reviews, I decided to make a reservation. We met our guide and another young couple on the beach, suited up in wet suits and life jackets, and pulled the kayaks into the water. Cruising on a tandem kayak, Eric and I quickly learned that I was not particularly coordinated with my paddle (surprise, surprise!). But we made do. The original plan was to tour the sea caves in and around the area, but since the swell was high that day, our guide decided that it wouldn’t be safe to do so. Instead, we paddled around and saw starfish on the reefs, learned how to catch a wave (we almost fell twice, but it was great fun), and witnessed what our guide called “the blowhole.” It was a hollowed rock near a large reef that spouted just like a whale each time the swell rose. Although the kayaks were not the most comfortable things to ride on (think leaning back, knees bent, and no back support for almost 2 hours), I think we both enjoyed ourselves. Completely drenched in salt water, we quickly cleaned ourselves off and changed our clothes before settling back into the car for the long drive home.



When we returned home, we were pleasantly surprised that the kids were happy and fine (we have never left home for more than a day without arranging a sitter to check in on them). In the end, it was a fun and exciting getaway, but I think we were both happy to be home.