(Note:  some people who know we’re traveling around California right now have asked if we are in any of the areas with wildfires.  Thankfully we aren’t, and we are watching fire reports pretty closely to try to ensure we don’t cross with any. )

After spending time watching the Pacific Ocean in Washington and Oregon be moody, dramatically violent, and frothy, we were somewhat surprised by the same ocean as it shows up in California.  The coastlines are actually pretty similar — giant boulders that seemed to be tossed into the ocean by some giant and left wherever they happened to fall, and cliffs that have you truly gripping the car door as you drive along.  But the water is so blue.  Whereas in Oregon and Washington it was dark and grey with a few spots of blue, once we hit the Mendocino coastline it was nothing but deep, gorgeous blue.  And in many places, so clear you could see straight to the bottom.

We first stayed at MacKerricher State Park, which is in Fort Bragg, just north of Mendocino (town).  We lucked into another idyllic spot…just behind our camper was a small dune, and once you climbed it you had a clear view of the coast.  As soon as we got set up, we walked out the dunes to the ocean and there was a group of seals and sea lions resting on the rocks only about 40 yards from shore.  The dunes were covered in a carpet of some kind of red-orange-gold-burgundy succulent-type of ground cover (like puffy grass blades, in a way), along with clumps of gorgeous fountain grass.  

After we filled our eyes, we went to town to fill our bellies and found one of the best Mayan-Mexican restaurants we’ve ever been to.  We followed that up with even MORE deliciousness with a local ice cream shop that had some cool flavors, including ginger which Wyatt gobbled up, and mushroom!  The mushroom was made from a specific variety that is supposedly the only sweet mushroom in the world, and only grows in a few places including, of course, right there in Mendocino county.  It tasted like pancakes and syrup.

The state park has an old logging road alongside the shore that has been converted to a hike/bike/horse trail and goes all way into town.   The first full day we took advantage of the trail and rode into town to have lunch at a local brewery and then made our way to their sea glass beach.   Part of the draw to MacKerricher was that it features a glass beach that Maya and I were excited to check out.  We’ve been looking all along the coast but have only found one tiny bit of seaglass to this point.  I’d seen varying reports about how much sea glass is actually still there (apparently some people have come and taken it out by the BUCKET), but we were all amazed by finding a beach with several inches thick of glass laying on the sand.  The story about how it got there is not a lovely one — apparently the city had a dump there about 30 years ago, and once they cleaned it up the sea glass continued to wash up.  That kind of takes away the “mermaid magic” in the story, but it is really pretty and unique.  We also learned from one local that some of them have decided to “seed” the spot with fresh glass so that it doesn’t dry up completely.  That probably explains why we mostly found amber (beer bottles) and green (sprite?) pieces.  We had each of the kids take a few pieces only (a ranger had approved us of a handful) and when we got home had them do an art project incorporating one of the pieces into a drawing.  

We spent the next day exploring Mendocino, which is about the cutest, most picture-perfect little town you could imagine…with some of the most dramatic cliffs along the shore that feature sea caves and brilliant blue water.  We found a good lunch spot on a second deck patio that provided stunning views of the coastline and sun so hot that we questioned our choice to sit in it.  Luckily they lent hats to their customers…and served margaritas.  All that charm and beauty is kinda pricey though…we could definitely see a difference in the lunch and snack prices there.  

California seems to know that their beaches are worth protecting…we’ve been really impressed with how much of the coastline is part of a state, national or local park.  We’ve noticed this all up and down the coast, but we pulled over at several parking lots this day to explore the beach and were rewarded with one idyllic, beautiful cove after another.  We also visited a small park that was inland a bit where there is  “dwarf sequoia” forest.  In our mind we imagined a whole field of bonsai trees.  I’m sure that to a seasoned horticulturist the trees are remarkable.  But to be honest, they just looked like scrubby baby trees to us.  

Our final day at Mackerricher, we took a long hike along the ocean, in one direction walking along a wide, flat beach, and in the other direction along the cliffs down to a tide pool area and another seal haul out.   All in all, I think we’d all recommend the park for enjoying the pacific ocean in a very low key, chill area.

We then headed down the PCH (more white knuckle driving for Dennis, but at least with new brakes this time ** see below) to a tiny, tiny town (town is an exaggeration, to be honest) called Anchor Bay.  Our campground was carved into a canyon/cove that was just at the back of one of the hairpin turns the PCH is famous for.  I wasn’t sure what to expect because the place had mixed reviews.  Some people called it the best kept secret in California, and some thought it was full of rude workers as well as other campers.  Our experience was really good overall…the spots were TINY and we didn’t have electric, but we were two spots from the ocean and most of the time we were there we had a clear view to the beach.  The little cove was protected from wind by the high canyons on both sides, so it was warm and the water was fairly calm.  Best of all, there were a bunch of other kids there and Maya and Wyatt made friends who they played with the whole time we were there.  We only left once in three days, to go to dinner, and the rest of the time we just hung out on the beach and chilled.  Maya built amazing forts out of driftwood, complete with fountain grass decorations, fire pits, and seats.  Wyatt played football on the beach probably six hours a day.  Dennis and I had gin and tonics for the first time on the trip.  While the campground did have some quirks, we left feeling great about the whole experience overall.  

We pulled out after three days to brave more of the PCH so that we could meet our family (more visitors, YAY!) in Bodega Bay.

**p.s. All this happened after we got to Fort Bragg.  The drive in, however, should be recorded for posterity because we came over to the 1 (PCH) on a road that a local firefighter had said we’d “have no problem with, but it does have some good grades and gets kind of narrow at points.”  Well, what that meant in actuality was about 8-10 miles of 10% grade, winding descent on a road that was about 1.5 lanes wide.  Even though Dennis wasn’t riding the brakes and was using low gear, all the curves plus the descent together were enough to wear out our brakes.  We pulled over at one point and all four of them on the truck were smoking.  Time for a lunch break….

They finally cooled off and we had a stressful ride along the 1 into Fort Bragg, but luckily there were long stretches were the air could really cool them.  Dennis immediately went into town and got new ceramic ones from a great shop that couldn’t have been nicer.  Shew.  And this didn’t happen due to lack of diligence, by the way….we had the brakes checked before leaving Louisville.