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5 august 2002

Jim of Morning Dew, and his new in-house roaster.

we interrupt this program to celebrate a personal new year

As I write this at the close of August 5, and after our long journey home, I thought I would quietly grin and say, "happy birthday to me". Another year safe, healthy, and quite happy.

Another little joy: the flight today made one brief stop in Phoenix, Arizona. Funny, being as I was born there a number of years ago on this day. Yep. A good day.

Mendocino. I rest for a bit and freshen up after the trip. Had a quick bite of goodies from the health food store and visited. It was a nice way to wind down, with good conversation on a cool evening, and the promise of two lovely weeks in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in this country.

The next day, I arose and took what turned out to be a short walk into the village of Mendocino, where I would enjoy the first of many, many delicious meals in the area. Far from having a dearth of restaurants for varied tastes, Mendocino and Ft. Bragg have a diverse collection of quality cafés for everyone. If you can't find something good to eat here, then you haven't left the house. I began with lunch at the Mendocino Hotel Restaurant, a lovely Victorian place with good midday fare. I found this to be the case nearly everywhere we went: sensible portions that didn't leave me feeling like we'd eaten a bag of cement. I was also thrilled at the easy availability of vegetarian dishes everywhere, or their willingness to make a dish vegetarian.

Walking--anywhere--quickly became one of my favorite things to do here. I stayed adjacent to the Mendocino Headlands State Park, a spectacular coastal park along the seaside cliffs. There, I easily walked above the Pacific and got to see a colony of cormorands (a gannet-like coastal bird that dives for its dinner), pelicans, and a partiular osprey that held my attention for a good long time. It was mesmerizing for me to watch these birds hunt for food with the breeze and the waves. There was also nothing to distract me from them, or hurry me along. That was really one of the best parts of the trip.

I also got to check out downtown Mendocino for the first time, where I discovered Gallery Bookshop and Out of This World. Both had bunches of cool books, and Out of This World had load of neato science-y toys and doodads for kids and big kids alike. I even found my Dad's birthday present there, but I can't tell you what it is until I know he got it. Sorry.

The rest of the shops were equally interesting, from local artist galleries, to the groovy music store with lutes and dulcimers and stuff, to the candy store where we kept buying these king-size-rot-your-head-off malt balls.

Those were really good, too. Even for breakfast.

The Mendocino area is great for day trips, if you want to get out of town for some hiking among the giant redwoods in Russian Gulch State Park. This was such a great hike.

However, let's pause for a moment of safety.

Immediately upon pulling into the park, the friendly ranger hands me the maps and...er...information. Namely, a thoroughly detailed page of warning, instruction, and more instruction concerning your friend and mine, the mountain lion. Among the cheery tidbits in this handout, "If you see a cougar, don't crouch down or move--they've seen you long before you saw them". Okay, then! Hike's over! Let's go home.

Undeterred, I exited the car and walked to the trail, which would wind me through about six miles of the forest. But wait...more mountain lion warnings, this time in the form of signs. Like, five of them. You wonder whether you're just better off pouring mustard over your shirt and throwing yourself into the forest for snacktime, you know? Nonetheless, I enjoy a sunny hike in which no one gets eaten. On the rare occasion that I'd pass other hikers, there was a standard greeting. "Any mountain lions so far?" "Nope." "Al-right! Have a good day!"

Once I were deep within the redwoods, I have to say that the whole cougar thing sort of slipped my mind. I couldn't even see the tops of these trees! They were so high--like over 200 feet high--and red. Now, I know that sounds really stupid, but when the sun hits a redwood just so in the late afternoon--well, there's just no prettier color. It was something else. It was also extraordinarily quiet, and even dark, on parts of the trail because of the overhang. You don't see a lot of other trees growing lushly within a grove of redwoods--the forest floor doesn't get enough light to support much more than ferns.

Oh, and mountain lions.