For the third year in a row, Tobia and I went to the Mendocino Crab and Wine festival. Except this year, we asked some friends to join us. In the end, Wes and Jason booked a room at the B&B we were staying at, and we spent the weekend up there with them.

Friday (1/21), I went to the office for a half work day, then met Tobia for lunch and we hit the road just after noon. We got into Mendocino just before 4pm, and shortly thereafter met up with Jason and Wes. Wes and I took a walk down to the headlands and watched waves crash for a while. Afterwards, we joined the other two for wine, cheese and crackers in the B&B’s main room.

Tobia and Jason at Cioppino Dinner

For dinner, we headed up to Fort Bragg to their cioppino dinner. There were roughly a dozen large tables extending to almost the width of the room, and many people shared the space. The 4 of us ate like a pack of starved wolves! I believe we went through 4 large pots full of crab, shrimp, mussels and other seafood. We also had lots of bread and salad, and eventually some ice cream for dessert. It was pure gluttony and also delicious and fun.

I drove the gang back in Wes’ car, as most of the others had had a fair bit to drink. We were all pretty tired after the feast, so split to our rooms. Tobia and I took a bath in our awesome room, then hit the hay.

Saturday morning we had breakfast together in the main room at the B&B. We opted to eat there Saturday and take the breakfast basket delivered to our front door for Sunday. Steven, the gentleman who manages the inn, made us (the four of us plus two other folks staying there) an excellent breakfast of poached pear, then french bread and stewed apples.

Following breakfast, I thought I’d show Wes and Jason Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, plus the cove I love so much, which is just a quarter mile to the north of the lighthouse. Wes and I got good seats right in front of the waves and both really enjoyed watching the wild waves crash into the cove, and bounce back. Often, brief but bright rainbows were created in the process.

Crashing wave near lighthouse cove	Another crashing wave near lighthouse cove	Strong wave near lighthouse cove
Lighthouse cove area from above	Rainbow at lighthouse cove	Another rainbow at lighthouse cove

The four of us at the 2011 Mendocino Coast Crab Cake Cookoff

Around noon we headed off to the main event- the Crab Cake Cookoff. There were many incredible crab cakes, and there was also lots of wine. I enjoyed tons of the former and none of the latter. I had an awesome time not only stuffing myself but enjoying the whole environment under the big tent, again in Fort Bragg.

Later in the afternoon, back at our B&B in Mendocino, Wes and I decided to walk a large chunk of the headlands, while Tobia and Jason stayed back in the main room chatting over some wonderful snacks. I showed Wes all of the spots I love to visit and watch, and it seemed he was quite thrilled by it all, too. Though he discovered a cove I had never noticed was there, which was great. He took many great pictures and videos. Just about all the photos in this post were taken by Wes, in fact.

Nice arching bridge in Mendocino Headlands Park

I love this broody look here at the headlands

Wes discovered this cove at the headlands by hearing the unique wave crash sounds

Almost an hour and a half later, Wes and I returned to find Jason and Tobia where we left them. We joined them and Steven for snacks and good conversation.

We had dinner at a vegan restaurant, which was wonderful. The following day- Sunday- we all got our breakfast baskets, ate in our rooms, and eventually made our own ways back home. Tobia and I stopped at Boonville to buy some wine she really liked that was sampled at the festival. Around late afternoon/early evening we got back home. It was an awesome trip.

Photo Credit: Wes

After Thankgiving Thursday, we left for Mendocino early Friday morning. We spent two nights at a great bed and breakfast.

We took a different, more impressive path to the lighthouse.

Tobia and I decided to revisit Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, because we enjoy the walk out there and the scenery is beautiful.

As we were approaching the lighthouse on a different path than last time, I heard repeated waves crashing against the rock. I had never heard sounds like that, and I had a hunch that this must be an incredible area. Sure enough, coming up to the edge, I noticed an incredibly rocky area, full of waves and even a cave. The waves were crashing so hard against the various rocks that they simply weren’t dying off and constantly spraying and making loud sounds. I loved it!

I didn’t waste any time running down (and nearly getting soaked) to the rocks.

Sitting on the rocks enjoying the view.

Waves crashing nearby.

More nice view.

The lighthouse just south of us.

I ran down there and got comfortable sitting nearby and observing nature unfold in front of me. Tobia joined me and we relaxed for a while.

Following the lighthouse, we continued on to the Botanical Gardens.

Lettuce growing in a square foot garden.

Grown lettuce.

The gardens were nice, but the square foot gardening section caught my attention. I’ve been extremely interested in starting that myself and was very impressed to see how effective a yield and incredible a variety is possible with little land. Definitely something for me to think about for the near future.

We spent the rest of the day and the following day walking around a lot, taking breaks to watch the ocean and appreciated both an extremely high tide and an extremely low tide. It’s really neat to see the ocean at more than 7 feet early in the day (I’d never seen it that high, nor that low), and later that day at negative 1.5 feet… all due to gravitational forces from the sun and moon.

Negative tide, I was able to see the entire rock in front of us.

I could only get the far down at negative tide.

The view was obviously different at high tide.

Almost got soaked.

The rock is barely visible here.

Evening low tide.

Tobia relaxes by reading some newspaper on the rocks.

Self portrait at our B&B room.

It was a great few day getaway, totally clearing my head.