Family Visit & Leaving Mendocino

Sister Pat & her little one VF

Pat's husband Gary enjoying a break from paddling

JT & SS resting

Very photogenic VF...possibly a future actor?

One of the stars of our upriver adventure...a great blue heron

Gary's sister Pat, her husband Gary and their three girls came for a week long visit as they do every year at this time. It is great to have them here although the girls are tough to keep up with. They have high energy levels and love to do anything and everything they can during their short time up here. We love it though as they are a great deal of fun. Unfortunately during this visit, the Mendocino Music Festival ran longer than normal so their uncle Gary wasn't able to spend as much time with them as he wanted. We did all rent a big canoe and spend close to three hours going up (and coming back down too) the Big River just outside of Mendocino, which seemed to be a big hit with the kids (and uncle Gary too!). They have done some family trips on their own. They went horseback riding on Thursday and took the Skunk Train yesterday. Today maybe we can fit a trip over to Glass Beach in between our packing up duties.

Yes, it is that time of year again when we say goodbye to Mendocino. Our leaving is being accelerated a bit due to a major repair to our refrigerator that has to be done on Monday morning. If we did not make it then, we would have had to wait for another week so we are making a real quick packing job...in between spending time with the family and working the Music festival. Ain't life grand?

Mendocino Music Festival

We are again in the midst of the Mendocino Music Festival. It last for about two weeks and features a wide variety of music from classical and opera to folk and tango music. The Ford House is the dressing room for the performers which means long days for Gary but the music coming out of the tent (which you can see by the pictures is very close by) makes it all worth while.

Ain't life grand?

Grandikids Visit

Putting up the tent

Getting everything ready for smores

The best part...eating the smores!

Everybody in the outrigger canoe

The Intrepid Explorers

Our grandkids, C & J, came for a weekend visit and brought both of their parents with them. We had a great campfire waiting for them when they arrived...had barbecue kabobs for dinner and then stoked up the fire for some smores. It's always great when they come visit. This time they decided to set up a tent with wall to wall air mattresses and, all in all, they seemed to be very comfortable in there.

On Saturday we decided to rent an outrigger canoe and paddle up river a ways. We went upriver for about an hour and then slowly worked our way back down to the dock. This was the kids first time on the water. They seemed to enjoy it although C was anxious to get back...staying in one place for two hours was tough on her. The outrigger canoe was extremely stable and there was no way, barring a dam break, that we were going to tip over. Thank goodness there are no more dams on the Big River!

Ain't life grand?

Fourth of July in Mendocino

Cecile waiting for the hungry crowds

Getting the grills ready

The masses awaiting the parade

Just one of many interesting parade entrants

One of the creative costumed attendees

There were much bigger crowds than during past years attending the Fourth of July parade and festivities in Mendocino. We probably had a lot more visitors from the Ukiah and Santa Rosa this year because of smoke from all the fires.

The Ford House put on it's annual hot dog sale and it was a big success. We sold out of all our hot dogs and roasted corn by 2:oo. Everybody seemed to have a good time and the parade was as quirky as it always is. Seems like there were many more 'entrants' than in past years.

Ain't life grand?
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Big River Hike

Looking up Big River

Remnants of the area where the logs were boomed, waiting to go into mill

Remnants of one of the main dams on Big River

A beaver chewing on a tree he/she fell

A Great Blue Heron takes to the air

Although Big River has always figured prominently in the history of Mendocino, it is only about thirty miles long. I've always wanted to take some long hikes up the river along the old lumber company 'haul road'. I have been taking longer and longer hikes around Russian Gulch & Point Cabrillo so I decided to tackle at least part of the Big River trail. Even though there have been mountain lion sitings up there, I set out (with my handy dandy air horn, of course) to go about 3 1/2 miles up the trail yesterday.

I had the trail all to myself early in the morning and what a treat the hike was. The nature viewing was terrific. I first saw a nesting pair of great blue herons and a couple of osprey heading down river to go fishing in the ocean. About a mile up river the redwoods started. Being this close to the river, these redwoods were probably third and fourth growth trees...meaning that the forests had been clear cut two or three times before these redwoods grew up. They were still big and beautiful. The rest of the fauna that I saw further up river were a red-tail hawk, a family of beavers, a family of quail with babies no more than an inch high and the assorted rabbits and chipmunks. It was a very interesting walk and yes, I was very tired when I had finished the seven miles.

Ain't life grand?
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