Yesterday we took a long ride on
Highway 20 to Mendocino. We saw a lot of evidence of the destructive
wildfires that hit the Clearlake area last year. Fire scars on both
sides of highway 20. You could see where care had been taken to save
houses. We ate lunch outside at the
Boatman Bar and Restaurant in Nice.
The place has 2 separate owners. One owns the bar and one owns the
restaurant. They were just hiring and training new wait staff, so
that was confusing. But overall everything was fine. Food and beer
were very good.
The last part of the highway over the
mountains is very winding. Bill says it helped to keep him awake
after a weekend of partying and not enough sleep, on his part.
The
Sweetwater Inn was our destination,
because we like the garden cottage where we had stayed before. The
cottage has a full kitchen and a comfortable bed. The hot tub is out
in the garden, which is kept private by a high fence.
We stayed here
for about our 35th anniversary and at that time they were
discounting the cost of the room by how many years you had been
married. No such deal this time for 50 years.
After a relaxing evening snacking on
the fruit and cheese basket left for us, we retired not too late and
slept in. Warm homemade pastries are delivered in the morning, so no
cooking so far for us, except for using the coffee maker.
Off to spend the day at the
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. The rhododendrons are in full flower and we
walked all over the Gardens and explored every trail. Sat on every
bench, almost. Glad I wore a hat as the sun was bright.
As we head
back we came upon a guided tour. The guide was explaining about how
to plant rhododendrons. They like to be planted loosely in bark to
give them the well drained acid footing they like. Interesting, since
we had thought about a few near the tiny house.
For a late lunch, we drove down into
Noyo Harbor and had a delicious lunch at
Cap'n Flint's. Scrimshaw
beer on tap is a pilsner with a light but tasty flavor.
We drove around Fort Bragg and decided
that it is definitely looking a bit ragged from the last time we were
here in 1997 for Frank and Robbin's 25th anniversary. Back
then Robbin and I did walk in some shops on the main street and
bought a few things. This time I drove past and didn't notice a lot
that looked interesting. We drove around a lot of the small roads on
the way back to Mendocino, just looking at the houses. Some looked
like they might be vacation rentals, others looked like they might
have many families living in them, the ones with 5 working cars
parked around them in midday.
Back to the Sweetwater for a short nap.
I plan to look around the shops in Mendocino. I walked around a bit
on Sunday. A few stores were open after 5, but not the one on the
corner that I wanted to go in. We'll have dinner in again. Enough
stuff around for a light meal after a big lunch.
