Point Arena, Highway 1 and Back Home — Day 5

About to get in line to get some breakfast in Mendocino.

On the last day of our trip we woke up around 7:30am in Mendocino. We had seen signs across town that they were going to have a pancake breakfast from 8am – noon. From past experience (having done this in labor day of 2006), we knew this would be good. When we showed up at 8am, figuring things would just start rolling, elderly men were making pancakes, eggs and sausage, and already serving dozens of people before us.

I ultimately settled for 5 pancakes, an egg, a bunch of melon, pineapple and some orange juice. Yum! It was really good.

Passing by the town of Elk on highway 1 south. We had never driven in this area before.

Following breakfast we fueled one last time and hit the road on 1 South, determined to complete the last leg of our trip seeing this part of road we’d heard was beautiful. Beautiful it was. Instead of cutting Southeast at Highway 128 to Cloverdale, we continued down South to Elk on 1. Elk was followed by Point Arena. At Point Arena we pulled off- as we had originally planned in our trip- to go visit the lighthouse. After 2 miles of driving almost purely West, we reached the incredibly tall lighthouse structure.

Once at the site, we were given a trip up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse. Both our tour guide and the gentleman waiting for us at the top of the lighthouse insisted that Point Arena was the Western most point in California. I had read the entire last month that it was Cape Mendocino and let them know this. Still, they insisted where we were was the Western most point. I figured I would resolve this later at home when I could check actual coordinates of the locations.

We climbed about 10 flights of stairs to the top of Point Arena. Picture of staircase looking down.

View of Point Arena from the top of the lighthouse.

Point Arena Lighthouse the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. But not the Western most point in California

Point Arena Lighthouse is perched on this rock.

Following Point Arena, we continued through Anchor Bay, Gualala, Sea Ranch and Fort Ross. Roughly at Fort Ross (even though advertised as Jenner), we pulled off at the Timber Cove Inn. We had read about this place in Tobia’s Via magazine, and the picture used to describe it is beautiful. Walking in like we owned the joint, Tobia and I trekked into the beautiful Inn and walked around, sneaking glances into rooms as they were being cleaned by the maids. We noticed a hallway door that led outside, and we followed it out to the rocks.

Once on the rocks (almost as if at home), we descended down almost to Ocean level, taking pictures, getting some good air, and appreciating being out of the car for a while. We were able to find out way back to the car without entering the Inn on our way out.

After venturing right through Timber Cove Inn we walked through to the back and scoped out the scenery.

Gleason Beach south of Fort Ross.

From Fort Ross we continued down to Jenner and Bodega Bay. It was around 12:30pm when we reached Bodega Bay, so pulled off to the side of Highway 1 and ate at a marvelous restaurant called Brisas Del Mar (see breezes). For me that meal was the most delicious in our entire trip (and we had some good food throughout) and the service was phenomenal.

The 24 bottle of white and red grape juice we bought.

With our stomachs full and content, we continued through Highway 1 across the Point Reyes National Seashore area. We started cruising more Southeasterly and eventually met up with Highway 101 South at Petaluma. Reality kind of hit us there as many vacationers were returning home too and the honking, passing up of other cars and impatience returned. Most of all, it was really hot again.
We followed 101 through SF, passing the Golden Gate Bridge, driving slowly through the City to get through to speedy 280. At the junction with 380 we crossed over to 101 where we pulled off into Foster City, realizing reality was back and we needed groceries for the week. We picked up food at the Whole Foods salad bar for dinner and drove home. We returned home at 4:30pm to some chores but content with the trip and being back. Our dinner consisted of our salad bars and a bottle of the Gewurtraminer white grape juice we bought in Philo the previous day. We toasted to a most incredible road trip and relaxing vacation.