The Northern Californian Coast Part 1

Well, as you know I love in San Francisco. Morag McTavish and I both had some work to do, but we'd also done quite a lot of hanging out together, and doing touristy stuff. I persuaded her to join me on a trip up the Northern Californian Coast. I think that we were both pleased that I did.

So I picked up our hire car and we drove out of San Francisco. I find the satellite navigation systems that we hired together with the car to be a complete god-send It really comes into it's own in an unfamiliar town. So we left the city and headed over the beautiful Golden Gate bridge taking the main freeway north.

I had a lunch meeting with a business associate in Santa Rosa. She suggested that we should check out Healdsburg and then a picturesque road, which would take us back to the coast. We stopped for a coffee in Headelsburg. It was a lovely town. I gather that this town has some of the oldest buildings in this part of california, going back some 150 years.

Time to get back on the road, so we put 'Manchester' into the satellite navigation system, and off we went. The road that my associate had suggested was indeed beautiful. The sun was shining, we were driving through beautiful native Californian woodlands, and for much of the route, the road followed a stream. We stopped several times to take in the wonderful scenery, perhaps take some 'photos and also to dip our toes in the streams. After the hustle and bustle of San Francisco, it seemed strange that we more-or-less had the place to ourselves. We were near to a well maintained road, but cars passed by only occasionally. I felt that life was currently being kind to us.

When we got back into the car, the driving was fun as well. My own hypocrisy had struck again (See previous blog entry 'When is it acceptable to hire a muscle car') , and we'd hired a Chrysler 300, a large touring saloon. Very understandably, Morag had completely failed to understand the need for a large car; she thought we should have gone for the cheapest option. She was right, on many levels; in terms of money saving and in terms of conserving the environment, to name but two.

But boys love toys, so we did a deal where she paid for half of the cost of the cheapest available hire car, and I paid the extra. By now Morag seemed to have developed a certain amount of confidence in my driving and so I could push the load pedal a bit harder. The road was fun with long straights and then winding bends. Then we negotiated loads of hairpin bends, and we descended to the coast. Gorgeous.

I always enjoy being near to the coast. And coastal views are fabulous. But beyond that there is something about this part of the Californian coast that is gorgeous. The sun was shining brightly, the sea was blue and the coastline jagged in and out. Periodically, you see a beautiful, sandy beach. We were heading for the town of Mendocino, north up the coast. We had a final stop to walk along the beach before the sun went down. So the light was failing as we headed north to Mendocino.

We hadn't pre-booked any of our accommodation, we decided to risk spontaneity. So we parked up in Mendocino, and started to look for something to eat and somewhere to stay. We had a really good feed in a pub, but from both internet searches and the advice of our waitress, we decided to travel another few miles up the coast to Fort Bragg. We easily found accommodation in a nice and inexpensive motel on the outskirts of Fort Bragg.