Final Days on the Mendocino Coast

Gary's sister and her family came up to visit us for a week. She has three beautiful daughters who are always a joy to have visit. They have so much energy and we have a hard time keeping up with them...but it is fun trying. The first day Gary took the two older girls on a three mile through the woods just north of the campground. They had fun pretending that they were being followed by mountain lions (they had their stick swords to keep the beasts at bay) sampling some wild huckleberries and trying to catch a wild rabbit that happened across our trail.

The second day we all went out to the lighthouse at Point Cabrillo. Gary took the older girls for a hike down on the rocks above the ocean and we all took a tour of the exhibits in the lighthouse. That afternoon Gary took them to Mendocino and we went down to Portuguese Beach where the girls had lots of fun picking up shells off the beach and trying to avoid (although not always successfully) the incoming surf. We came back to the trailer that day with the girls very wet and sandy but with lots of shells for those 'later projects'.

Yesterday we went on about a seven mile hike up Russian Gulch to the 36-foot waterfall there and beyond. We were all very exhausted by the end of the hike!

They will be all leaving this weekend. We will then have to work our butts off to try and get ready to leave by August 1. We have a few stops to make up in Oregon before pulling into Cascadia for a long visit with our good friends the Ryders. Below are just a few of the many pictures that I took during our travels.

New Member of the Family

We finally decided to take that big step and add a member to our traveling family. Her name is Mittens and we adopted her a couple weeks ago from the Fort Bragg, CA Humane Society shelter. From what I understand, this is a no kill shelter and Mittens had been a resident there for quite some time. The shelter people said that she was four years old but, having owned quite a few cats in the past, we think that she is much younger. She is definitely Cecile's baby as they have done a pretty complete job bonding with each other.

Visit From Friends

Dennis & Elaine Evans braved the windy roads to come visit us here in Mendocino. We have a big enough site to be able to park another big rig in front of us so our little community grew by one. We all did some sightseeing in the area, had breakfast at the Heritage House (site of the movie Same Time Next Year), went to the Anderson Valley for some wine tasting, had a taste of classical music at the Mendocino Music Festival (from outside the tent) and played lots of Pegs & Jokers. Dennis even went to our only local golf course, at the Little River Inn, and had a good round of golf. They are leaving this morning, heading to the RV park adjacent to the Benbow golf course and then working their way on up into Oregon. We hope to catch up to each other again in late September at Winchester Bay when we go crabbing.

Mendocino Fourth of July

One of our favorite times of the year to be in Mendocino! The Ford House, where we volunteer, always has a big hot dog sale. Being right there in front of the Ford House gives us a ringside seat to one of the most unique 4th of July parades we have ever seen. Ain't life grand!