Auf der Straße nach Mendocino (On the Road to Mendocino)

 Why a German title?, you might ask. "Mendocino", the German adaptation of the song with the same name by the Sir Douglas Quintet, was a German Schlager (hit song) by Michael Holm back in 1969 and the biggest selling single that year. I was nine years old at that time, right before I started high school (high school in Germany starts with 5th grade). At that time I was still listening dominantly to German pop music, which changed a couple years later when I had learned enough English to at least understand a little bit of all the British pop music that was swapping over to the continent. But in 1969 it was German Schlager for me, and "Mendocino" was a real earworm. Of course I had never heard of a place with that name, had no idea whether a place like that actually existed and had no clue where it would be located.

Fast forward 32 years, when we moved to Santa Rosa in Northern California. On the map I saw that up north along the coast on Highway 1 there was a place called Mendocino. My childhood came back visiting - guess where we took one of our first bigger trips that summer of 2001? 

We fell in love with Mendocino right away when we first saw it sitting on the cliffs. It's a quaint little town, often shrouded in low clouds and coastal fog, with cute little shops - a wonderful independent bookshop, a fantastic optics store where many years ago I bought my binoculars and later our scope, and a delicious chocolate "Haus" among them - and a trail out to the Mendocino Headlands. Mendocino has become our annual Mother's Day trip.

You can drive up Highway 1 to get to Mendocino, but we usually opt to take Highway 128 for the trip to Mendocino (and back along 1), and so we did on this year's Mother's Day as well. After a very good breakfast in Cloverdale, we drove up into the mountains on a very winding road, trundled along the vineyards of Anderson Valley and finally dipped down into the Redwoods.

This is a favorite part of the drive for us. Driving through the forest with those towering trees is truly magnificent. See for yourself:

Of course we stopped several times. It's not just what the forest looks like, but the way it smells. I have always loved the scent of a forest.

It's not only the towering trees that capture my attention, but also what happens beneath them, on the forest floor.

But looking up to the canopy is still my favorite thing to do here.

Shortly after leaving the Redwoods we merged with Highway 1 and drove the last short stretch to Mendocino. The moment we hit the coast we experienced the typical Northern California phenomenon - sunshine everywhere, fog at the coast. In the same old fashion Mendocino appeared overcast and gray. No surprise.

What I like most about this little town beside the wonderful gardens people have here, are the many old towers, most of them watertowers. It's just a couple years ago that Mendocino was in a severe water crisis when much of the drinking water needed had to be trucked in daily. Just imagine that, sitting right next to a huge body of water.

Of course we decided to walk the Point Mendocino Trail out to the headlands. It was windy and chilly, but still we enjoyed it. 

Someone left this bouquet at the bench near the start of the trail. 

When we were in Mendocino last year the Headlands were covered with native lupines, but we were hard pressed to find any this year. Instead, the land was covered with these yellow flowers that I haven't succeeded in identifying.

But we did see some native plants like Checker Bloom (Sidalcea malviflora), Silver Lupine (Lupinus albifrons), Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana), and California Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima californica).

Of course we also saw gulls, but I'm not even attempting to identify this one since I have a hard time in correct gull identification. I leave that to David who travels with birds.

I was never able to find out the story behind the Mendocino Headlands Totem Pole.

The views from anywhere on the Headlands are stunning and even more so when the sun makes an appearance. We didn't have such luck this time.

Afterwards we got our treats at the Chocolate Haus (so so good) and visited the bookshop where I found Rosanna Xia's book "California Against the Sea - Visions for our Vanishing Coastline". Ever since I had heard her talk in a webinar, I wanted to get my hands on this book. Then we slowly drove back via Highway 1, stopping in Gualala at the Seafood Shack for fish and chips as we always do, and just enjoyed this stunning drive, that always takes my breath away, no matter how often I drive here. The sun finally came out as well and let the ocean sparkle.

Here is a very short snippet of the drive, already closer to home just north of Jenner:

If you are interested to read more about Mendocino, you can find posts and photos (some even with sun!) here, here, and here. 

The 366 Project: May

 

Here we are in June and I haven't even written about May of my 366 project. But first, I want to thank you for all the good wishes on my last post - you are the best!!!

So, this was May in my corner of the world:

Many photos were taken of my garden because May usually is an exciting month there.  Like in every spring, the showstopper was the poppy meadow. It always reminds me so much of Germany.

When I'm out in the front garden it's always the poppies that serve as a conversation starter with neighbors passing by or people walking their dogs. It's been actually through my garden that I got to know most of my neighbors. I always enjoy a friendly chat over the garden fence.

May also brought a trip up to Mendocino through the Redwoods - more about that in a later post.

There were also some beautiful walks and a lot of PT which is not very exciting to write about. Tomorrow is my last session, I do all my exercises religiously, but I still have a long way until I can sit on my heels again (which is my final goal). My squats are getting better and better (or should I say deeper). I'm definitely on my way!

T is for Trip on Mother's Day

 

Every year on Mother's Day we used to go up the coast to Mendocino. However, due to the pandemic we hadn't been there since 2019, so this year my wish was to go back to Mendocino. This was the first time that we did this trip without Kaefer. I have written about Mendocino several times - here, here,  and here. Sorry, this is a photo-heavy post.

Mendocino is a small town located right on the Pacific Ocean in Mendocino County which borders to the North of Sonoma County. It takes about two to three hours to drive there depending on how many slow moving vehicles are in front of you. All the roads to Mendocino are windy backroads with very limited opportunities for passing other cars. We also usually have breakfast somewhere in between, but this time the place where we usually go to was a big disappointment and I doubt that we will return.

We arrived shortly before noon and first walked around the picturesque town a bit.

Mendocino has a lot of old water towers, but depite them as a result of our heavy drought they had to endure a very severe water crisis. Their own water was running out and they had to truck in drinking water from other places. Imagine sitting right on a huge body of water, but having no water to drink.

I have always loved the beautiful gardens in Mendocino, full with colorful flowers. Flowers that are lining the white fences.

But the water crisis changed how people garden, and what I now saw were manly gardens with drought tolerant plants that don't need much supplemental water - and definitely not here on the often foggy coast.

Mendocino is full of little nooks and decorations on buildings. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this sign, taken outside Dick's place.

One of my favorite places in Mendocino is the Gallery Bookshop - it smells of books, the shelves are crammed with books, everywhere are benches and chairs to sit and read. It's a wonderful old fashioned bookstore. Some of my most useful gardening books for the Northern California climate I found here.

Then we headed out to the Mendocino Headlands, passing more beautiful places within the town.

The Headlands are on a peninsula which gives you beautiful views of the ocean and back to Mendocino. From here you can see how it is located on top of the cliffs. It is indeed very romantic - as well as often cold and almost always windy. I was glad I was wearing my thick winter jacket.

The headlands were covered with wildflowers, especially lupines in white, yellow, pale pink, blue and purple. It was a feast for the eyes.

But there were also other wildflowers, like this mallow which I think is an Oregon Checker Mallow (Sidalcea oregana) and wild iris.

And then there was the ocean with a shoreline so different from the one at Salt Point. 

There is a pretty big blowhole out on the bluff - it didn't blow much, but the noise when the ocean splashes in there is quite impressive.

A narrow trail leads around it - and then there were always those views!

Thrift Seapink (Armeria maritima) and California lilacs (ceanothus) rounded out the wildflowers.

As you know, I love trees, and somehow I really liked this one and couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

After having walked the big loop we returned to the town and now it was time to pay a visit to the Chocolate Haus. Oh my! Mother's Day was a great excuse to get some wonderful chocolates.

We opted to drive back along California Highway 1. At this time of year, the road was lined with wildflowers.

Looking out over the ocean,you can see the marine layer (aka fog) hovering over the sea at the horizon. It didn't take long to reach the land.

The view from the highway to the West and to the East.

We stopped in Gualala at the Seafood Shack for some delicious rock fish and chips and a bottle of local Scrimshaw. This beer is brewed in Fort Bragg which is about 10 miles north of Mendocino. The Seafood Shack is a small local business that we try to support whenever we can. Like so many places, the pandemic hit them hard, but since their seafood is one of the best along this part of the coast, we always stop here for a late lunch or early dinner. The staff is hard working and always very friendly. And of course you guessed it - the beer is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Cheers to you, Elizabeth, and all of the T visitors (i.e. YOU who is reading this right now).