Under a Blue Moon

We are going on a house tour of Mendocino.  

I am certainly not an expert on Mendocino history but what I gleaned from various travel guides and websites is that it was settled by disillusioned gold seekers who decided to make their fortunes by selling lumber.  In order to transport the lumber it became a shipping port and much of the architecture is owed to homesick sea captains' families building in the New England style they were accustomed to.

Okay – that isn't even the cliff notes version of the cliff notes version of Mendocino history but you get the gist.

There are a lot of pretty houses in the area.

And lots of lovely white picket fences. 

I really just wanted to pick up a house and take it home as a souvenier.  Mendocino has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful coastal towns.  Works for me.

After our leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning we drove into Fort Bragg to hit up glass beach (I'll have to do another post on that – it was just amazing) and do a little window shopping.  

Look! I found my people:

Fort Bragg was okay.  We had fun poking in the shops but honestly - it seemed to be either touristy souveniers or Carharts at the local hardware shop.  We did pick up some baked goods at lovely bakery and toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo (not).

After Fort Bragg we drove into Mendocino (where the house pictures above were taken) and lunched at a local hot spot, Mendo Cafe. 

Across from the Cafe there was an interesting building with a statue on top that I snapped a few pictures of.

I'm not sure what the statue depicts.  It would look rather solomn if it weren't for all the birds perched on their heads.  Nothing ruins a dignified moment more than a bird roosting on your head.

I'm going to jump ahead a bit.  After lunch and picture taking we headed back to Glendeven Inn where we had our wine and earthquake.  Then we headed back into town for dinner at the Mendocino Hotel (old school Mendo).

On Sunday we reluctantly said goodbye to our room at the Inn and headed down the coast to Point Arena to see the lighthouse. 

Now I expected we would just walk up to the top of the lighthouse and have a quick look around and then hop back in our car and be done.  But it was way more interesting than that. 

I truly expected us to be the only ones there but actually there were a number of other people visiting the lighthouse and it was staffed with several docents that gave us a tour of the lighthouse and talked about its history. 

It was built in 1870 and the government hired and housed four civilian families to "keep" the lighthouse.  In 1906 when the big San Francisco earthquake hit it was damaged and had to be torn down (except for the spiral staircase which is still original) and rebuilt. 

We climbed up to the top of lighthouse and saw the view from up there.  Here is looking down onto the original fog horn signal room (okay not the official name for the building but that is what it was used for).  Now it is the museum.  That odd, pointy shaped grey thing to the left of the building (inside the fence) is a whale skull. 

It was kind of dizzifying to look down from up there. 

Even more so looking in this direction:

The California coastline really is gorgeous, isn't it?  Very austere and rugged.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit a light house do so.  It really was fascinating.  Point Arena is run by a non-profit group and they are very knowledgable about the history of this particular light house and about light houses in general.  Did you know every single light house in the United States has a unique signal – both for its light signal and its foghorn?  That is so any sea captain sailing past can tell exactly where they are by the light or by the foghorn.

After the light house tour we just headed on down Highway 1, making our way back home again. I used this shot on my Monday's post but it deserves another posting:

Really magical – the entire weekend.