Surf and Sand Lodge Fort Bragg

Peace out Santa Rosa... Maybe we'll meet again.<br> <br>After two nights at Claire's Rob and I packed up the car for the last time in Sonoma County.<br><br>Started off our day with breakfast with Claire and Flick. Piner Cafe.. Wish I met you earlier. After I stuffed my face with french toast for the second day in a row. Rob opted for the pancakes. Never in my life have I ever seen a pancake so big. Seriiously it had a 14 inch diameter and was about 2 ...

... it well after 3pm thanks to the numerous wave watching stops.<br><br>I carried on up California Highway one and could see why it is called the shoreline highway. The only downside was that I was having to negotiate the tight turns in the fun bus rather than my S3 &#8211; had a few 'oooohhhh she-diddly-it moments! The amazing thing was the road was full of cyclists &#8211; more two wheels than four despite the tight turns and 1 in 4 ...

... all over town, sitting on the beach and poring over maps.<br>Lovely time. Lovely sunny day in the high 60s. There are charming shops and a super, raw foods cafe I ate lunch at Living Light Cuisine. Sadly the library was closed, in fact due to budget constraints it only opens 4 days a week now. <br>I feel ready to take on the mountains again.

... her hands at the junction with 101's feeder road. An accident had just occurred and between a small, very bashed in SUV and another car. A bad one and if it hadn't been for the small crowd from nearby houses, I and the other cars that arrived at the intersection would have all pulled over instead of proceeding as she motioned us on.<br>As I continued south, 5 police cars passed me rushing to ...

... of stop and go for 20 miles. As we got closer to the Golden Gate bridge so did the fog as we crossed the bridge it was barely visible due to the heavy fog just our luck! We then attempted to go in the view point on the north side of the bridge only to find it filled with people just like us and no parking was available so we continued on our journey to Ft Bragg. In our planning we thought it would be great to travel up the ...

... up to Mendocino. We found a jewelry store where I bought a necklace made from Roman glass--a pale bluish green piece in a silver setting. We drove around the town and stopped at the Mendocino Headlands State Park. The cool ocean breeze felt great. Not too many people were out that day. We had a chance to walk by the ocean almost by ourselves. I expected ...

... me the road went up the next hill and it felt as though I was suspended between two hills - so weird. As I said when the sun came out so did the wind and I froze. Good thing I had reserved a room at motel that had a hot tub in it. The coast line is really beautiful but to travel 180 miles it took me a little over 4 hours. Tomorrow I take the train ride into the country side.

... and I found it so difficult to sleep the first night that we were up until almost 4:00 a.m. in the morning. We watched TV for a while, then listened to the ipod, then we viewed photos on the ipod, then back to TV. Nothing seemed to help including the loud street behind us. Although it was quite fun that night hanging out, we were very tired when Syd woke us up at 8:00 a.m. just four hours later.......

... watched from the peaks to select their dinner from the menu spread in the water below. Graceful gulls circled until they spotted an entree, then plunged straight into the surface, most often rising to rock ledges with a fresh treat for their young. I watched one large old gull mentor a fledgling, who clumsily dived in the manner of his teacher, as he learned to catch dinner for himself. I could hear the parent gull squawk encouragement and, when junior was ...