Hey Bee, whenever you get a tooth Buddy loses one!
So heres the deal. I have had this recurring dream for as long as I can remember.. It's not really a dream maybe just a REM reminder of a long past memory. I have it often and I believe it stems from one of my first childhood memories. I'm walking in a shallow river picking up rocks with older kids skipping rocks. There are little fish in the river. It smells glorious and I like it. So with my mothers help we have figured it was either Hendy Woods State Park or Eddersberg. Both places we would frequent with my 2nd cousins and family friends. Because Hendy Woods was close (2 hours) and my mother remembers the river being shallow we thought we would take a road trip in search of my dreamscape.
Up 101 to Mendocino county.
On arrival no bells went off, but it was a lovely place for a picnic.
Into the woods we go. Mr. Hendy Wood held on to 200 Acres of virgin redwood forest when everything was being clearcut at the turn of the century.
Just stunning. By far Redwoods are all of our favorite. The smell, the silence, the size.
Whenever we enter Mom says, "Forest Primevel."
These are the big guys 200' to 275'
See the resemblance in the diameter of the tree and my thighs?
Frank likes to explore.
We were trying to measure this fallen giant, we got 300'.
"Hey Franky,I smell something." After hiking on a nice trail for a mile or 2 I got a whiff of heaven.
Yep, this is it.
Tears actually came to my eyes. This is my dreamscape. There's my river. Shallow, rocks and little fish.
Franky found a boat
This is why it smells so good. This river rages through the Anderson Valley to the Mendocino Coast in the winter. When the water recedes in the dry months all these wildflowers thrive into the summer. Wild mint, heleanthella, goats beard. Just delicious. I wish I could bottle it and take it home.
This is the shot that is etched in my memory. Not a sound, but the birds and bugs and Franky in da boat.
On the trail back we found more fun stuff. Big ol' root.
Penis Burl. Need I say more?
More pretty
Lovely organic apple farm on highway 128. This road is outstanding. It runs from 101 to the town of Mendocino. It's a running postcard.
At the stand they had 28 different varieties of organic apples. I know it's not quite apple season so we got some peaches that were picked that morning.
The Anderson Valley is known for it's Pinot Noir. Cool climate (fog in the morning) means the grapes ripen slowly.
Our next destination was the well known Boonville Brewery. It was 6pm and it was closing. We were sad, but went and had a nice dinner at Picks in Cloverdale.
Our plan was to spend the night in Cloverdale and spend some time there at the Russian River the next day. Franky came prepared with his earplugs. There is some snoring going on!
While eating our waitress informed us that there was a high bacteria count in the water. She said our skin would fall off. Not being the type to mess around with bacteria that makes your skin fall off, we decided to head out River Road to the Sonoma Coast. If we can't swim in the river we will go to the Beach.
I love my new iphone with google gps. This is a backroad I found that went straight through the heart of Russian River wine country.
Lots of small, charming vineyards and B & B's.
This is Duncan Mills. We had come here a few weeks ago for a day. It is on the river, but it is close enough to the coast that it is effected by tides. Great on a hot day. Oh, and there was lots of folks in the river and their skin was still attached.
More Duncan Mills. It's an adoraable town and only 10 minutes from the BEST Italian food on the West Coast in Occidental...That's another blog.
Jenner, by the Sea. Where the Russian River hits the Pacific.
This will do. Flake and Bake!
Mom got through flaking and put her clothes on. Franks a stud. Buddy hides under the chair.
The Sonoma Coast is beautiful. Every bit of the California coast has it's own signature. The Sonoma Coast is rough and majestic, but not to where it's scary like farther up north.
Goat Rock
We stopped here and enjoyed the view and ate.
Bodega Bay on the way home. After this I got us lost. My 3G network was not working. No GPS. Oh well, we got home eventually. After looking at my photos, I can say thank you God for allowing me to live here. It's beautiful!
Beautiful San Quentin in the background. I hear the governator is thinking about selling this prime real estate. Most in Marin wish they would as the boys use about 1/10 of all our water which is a scarce commodity...and you know what's the use of having 5000 eligible single guys in the county if they're not adding to the dating pool!
