Friday, October 9 - Day 8

What a great day. Left Ft. Bragg on the California coast, headed south for Berzerkeley. The purpose of today is to see the extraordinary coastline and eat some oysters. We accomplished both however not without effort. Driving the windiest and windiest (think about it) road in North America, California Route 1 from Leggett to Stinson Beach made me envy the early pioneers in their Conestoga wagons fighting off Indians and bandits. I would never do it again in spite of the visual rewards. Buy a postcard. There are truly glorious sights; I give you that but even the AAA travel book for Northern CA talks about the “white knuckle driving” north of Bodega Bay. I will tell you that the drive south of BB is not much better and the stretch south of Stinson Beach is bonkers bad too. We had much admiration for the many bicyclists we saw peddling up the very long and steep road. In our martial arts training we learn to “hit the wall” of pain and endurance but I must say we are both in awe of these athletes.

We loved Mendocino, very quaint, old village perched on bluffs overlooking some very craggy gigantic boulders. And Gleason Beach, north of BB, is awesome and some good sized waves were breaking on the rocks. We spent some time at each of those with briefer stops at pull offs. Stinson Beach with its shark warning signs was very hot, high eighties and no shade but we stayed awhile anyway. Good waves there too. Hog Island oysters are nationally renowned and quite expensive but we easily downed a couple dozen raw and half dozen baked with chipotle bourbon butter. They were delicious, briny, large. But we both preferred the oysters of Louisiana and Florida. They seem sweeter, albeit smaller, and are always served with really good cocktail sauce and they are about a dollar each while HI's cost 3 each for raw.

An interesting aside: CA is in a severe drought and so every meal we have had in a restaurant save one was served on paper plates with plastic tableware. Detracts from a nice meal. Water is also not served except by request. We also noted the dessicated state of the forage for the cattle and sheep ranches which line Highway 1. The land is beige brown for many miles. Hard to understand since the winds are usually from the sea.

We hope to be visiting with Lisa's Uncle Larry's sister, Barbara tomorrow and with my daughter, Mara's, family.

Happy Birthday to my aunt Joan!